At 09:35 24/10/2003 -0400, you wrote:
Keith, you said:I've known quite a few gays, and I've never had a problem around having them near my children. They did not try to influence them to become gay, nor did any of my children become gay. They simply knew the gay singles or couples as friends of ours.
- People like me don't fear homosexuality, except that we would rather keep them from being too influential on our children or our grandchildren at their critical puberty and adolescent stage of life which could restrict their future experience of the wonderful joys of the other sex and the procreation and raising of children.
Notice that I wrote "too" influential! Well, in the case of one of mine there was an entirely different experience and it caused problems for years. I was very liberal in those days (in fact, I was on the National Executive of the Liberal Party as it happens) and if I'd not been so busy at politics I'd have had more wits about me and have got rid of one 'very nice friend' who hung about. As I think I've implied before, I've known many gays and many of them are perfectly delightful people. I am mainly talking about rampant homosexuality as a very recent historical phenomenon and it bespeaks a stressed society in my book.
I knew gays when I was a child as "just a couple of batchelors living down the road". Knowing them had no influence on me because, having had four kids, it would seem I was straight.
Incidentally, some of the gays I know were well adjusted and very competent. They would have been even better adjusted had they not had to face criticism and discrimination from the poorly adjusted straights that worked alongside them or as their superiors.
Well, that's not my experience, I'm afraid. When I first came to Bath, the musical scene was dominated by a group of gays and it became completely messed up, destroying two choirs and one orchestra in the process and the withdrawal of substantial funding for the music of Bath. It didn't concern me personally because I wasn't involved in publishing music in those days, but it was unnecessary state of affairs that disturbed many people. It took some years to recover.
Ed
P.S. Not all of the experiences I've had with the other sex and with raising children have been wonderfully joyful.
Sorry about that. I perhaps don't deserve it, but the (small number of) girl friends I've had when young and the (small number of) women I've married or lived with have for fairly long periods have all been lovely people (personality-wise mainly) and I count myself a very lucky man.
Keith
- ----- Original Message -----
- From: Keith Hudson
- To: Ray Evans Harrell
- Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 2:32 AM
- Subject: Re: [Futurework] More hardwiring.
- Ray,
- A useful (and encouraging) news item you posted.
- Yes, the tide is turning and we're beginning to get some objective research (and sense) into this business of homosexuality. In recent decades, homosexuals have been very clever in branding those of us who don't like to see rampant homosexuality around us as being "homophobic". People like me don't fear homosexuality, except that we would rather keep them from being too influential on our children or our grandchildren at their critical puberty and adolescent stage of life which could restrict their future experience of the wonderful joys of the other sex and the procreation and raising of children. It would be more accurate to call homosexuals "gynophobic" (sexually, that is). I am no more anti-homosexual than I am anti-married couples who decide to have no children (as is the case of one of my children) or only one child. Both (as wide-spread phenomena these days in all so-called "developed" countries) occur in many social mammals when they are overpopulated, and are indicative of a highly-stressed society -- which, at present, doesn't want to replenish itself.
- There have always been homosexuals -- but only in small numbers, not in the large minority found today (even glorified) in developed countries (10% or thereabouts?). Homosexuals are often delightful people and creative, too. I know several such in the world of music, but I also know other much older homosexuals who have lost their sexual vigour and their looks and are now very lonely people -- some, quite bitter in temperament (which, to my mind, is rather convincing evidence that they made a bad mistake in their youth which deprived them of continuing happiness in life).
- Let's call a spade a spade and call homosexuals unfortunates.
- Keith Hudson
- At 22:21 23/10/2003 -0400, you wrote:
- <<<<<
- SEXUAL IDENTITY HARD-WIRED BY GENETICS, STUDY SAYS
- LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Sexual identity is wired into the genes, which discounts the concept that homosexuality and transgender sexuality are a choice, California researchers reported on Monday.
- "Our findings may help answer an important question why do we feel male or female?" Dr. Eric Vilain, a genetics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, said in a statement. "Sexual identity is rooted in every person's biology before birth and springs from a variation in our individual genome." His team has identified 54 genes in mice that may explain why male and female brains look and function differently.
- Since the 1970s, scientists have believed that estrogen and testosterone were wholly responsible for sexually organizing the brain. Recent evidence, however, indicates that hormones cannot explain everything about the sexual differences between male and female brains. Published in the latest edition of the journal Molecular Brain Research, the UCLA discovery may also offer physicians an improved tool for gender assignment of babies born with ambiguous genitalia. Mild cases of malformed genitalia occur in 1 percent of all births -- about 3 million cases. More severe cases -- where doctors can't inform parents whether they had a boy or girl -- occur in one in 3,000 births.
- "If physicians could predict the gender of newborns with ambiguous genitalia at birth, we would make less mistakes in gender assignment," Vilain said. Using two genetic testing methods, the researchers compared the production of genes in male and female brains in embryonic mice -- long before the animals developed sex organs. They found 54 genes produced in different amounts in male and female mouse brains, prior to hormonal influence. Eighteen of the genes were produced at higher levels in the male brains; 36 were produced at higher levels in the female brains.
- "We discovered that the male and female brains differed in many measurable ways, including anatomy and function," Vilain said.For example, the two hemispheres of the brain appeared more symmetrical in females than in males. According to Vilain, the symmetry may improve communication between both sides of the brain, leading to enhanced verbal expressiveness in females. "This anatomical difference may explain why women can sometimes articulate their feelings more easily than men," he said.
- The scientists plan to conduct further studies to determine the specific role for each of the 54 genes they identified. "Our findings may explain why we feel male or female, regardless of our actual anatomy," said Vilain. "These discoveries lend credence to the idea that being transgender feeling that one has been born into the body of the wrong sex is a state of mind.
- Reuters, October 20, 2003
- >>>>
- Keith Hudson, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org>, <www.handlo.com>, <www.property-portraits.co.uk>
Keith Hudson, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org>, <www.handlo.com>, <www.property-portraits.co.uk>
