* G * O * A * N * E * T C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S *
Enjoy your holiday in Goa. Stay at THE GARCA BRANCA from November to May
There is no better, value for money, guest house.
Confirm your bookings early or miss-out
Visit http://www.garcabranca.com for details/booking/confirmation.
Now that we've stopped with the "Stuffing" of Atheism in front of
certain faces, its now time for "Stuffing" homosexualty! Of course,
Cecil will soon remind us that this is GoaNet and not GayNet.
Anyways, I just wanted to add some perspective from the cause of
homosexuality - Nature or Nurture? Whether they are indeed "freaks" as
Selma puts it. Wikipedia sums it up best:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality
"Nature versus nurture
Considerable debate exists over whether predominantly biological or
psychological factors produce sexual orientation in humans. Candidate
factors include genes and the exposure of fetuses to certain hormones
(or lack thereof). Historically, Freud and many others psychologists,
particularly in psychoanalytic or developmental traditions, speculated
that formative childhood experiences helped produce sexual
orientation; as an example Freud believed that all human teenagers are
predominantly homosexual and transition to heterosexuality in
adulthood; those who remain homosexual as adults he believed had
experienced some traumatic event that arrested their sexual
development; however, he did believe all adults, even those who had
healthy sexual development still retained latent homosexuality to
varying degrees. Although there is currently no general medical
consensus, one theory is that biological factors — whether genetic or
acquired in utero — produce characteristically homosexual childhood
experiences (such as atypical gender behaviour experiences), or at the
least significantly contribute to them."
Evidence for both Nature as well as Nurture theories exist: In nature,
we see the (very limited) instances of Homsexuality in the animal
kingdom in Dolphins, Penguins, Sheep and Bulls. Higher instances of
homosexuality in (one of the) twins or younger brothers support the
genetic/hormonal theory. From Nurture point of view, we see higher
instances of homosexuality which manifests due to situational
conditions like prisons, military and priesthood. In conclusion,
biological, psychological OR social factors (or a combination) shape
sexual identity, the mix being different in each case.
Also, does the figure of 4% of the population being homosexual qualify
homosexuals to be considered as "freaks"? Are the 2.5% of Indian
Christians "freaks"? (just trying to give some perspective of what 4%
means)
This debate reminds me of a short film made by an amateur Goan
filmmaker Rishad D'Cruz, (who happens to be a very close friend) which
was shone during the IFFI 2004 called "The Filmmaker". It had to do
with Nature & Nurture with regards to Homosexuality and Violence. The
movie was made for a competition with the theme of "Nature and
Violence" where it won a Special Jury award. Anyone seen it?
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/955610.cms
And finally, a small note to Sunil Monteiro, although the above is
just a discussion with no promise of any action from my end, its
intention is to change the MINDSET of a small percentage of the open
minded goans among the 7000 goanetters. The media is a very useful
tool to alter perceptions and mindsets. For example, I believe that
Hollywood had an affirmative action obligation to feature at least one
African American in every production, and in many cases it potrayed a
Black (I'm not a stickler for political correctness) saving a White,
and somewhere in Central America, a bigoted couch potato was
sub-consciously affected. Of course, there's the negative side to
this, like the demagoguery exhibited by CNN and a couple of goanetters
;-). Something of this kind should be done here too, to encourage Gay
rights. "My Brother Nikhil" was one such attempt, as was my friends
"The Filmmaker". Only when mindsets change does change set in.
Cheers,
Aristo.
On 9/24/06, sunil monteiro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Ms Selma,
>
> Consistency means, apart taking an issue/topic for discussions which is a
> good source of information to all the we have to continously follow it up
> until we feel are satisfied that finally we have solved the problem .
>
> I do not want the hetrosexual community to do anything on its own , it has
> to be a combined effort by all those who feel why section 377 be
> abolished/amended and giving equal rights to same sex in Goa. I was just
> sharing the idea that discussions/forums, opinions ,arguments, debates are
> healthy but there has to be an end solution. Take for example GOA DAY
>
