Questions that Rattle -Part Two Class participation

Subject: Questions that have continued to rattle in my mind.
Author: Rochelle Foulk Date: August 22, 2011 10:49 PM
How do you explain the existence of homosexuality?

How do you explain the existence of heterosexuality?

How do you explain the existence of Transgender?

I am currently taking an LGBT Psychology of Culture class at MCC. Here is a question I posted in our class discussion board, one that I have also posted on my blogs. The purpose is to question and open doors to uniting the LGBT community. The prejudices that exist among our group, between and within our groups create the continued fear the society at large holds. Can we break down the lines of fear from within? And what potentiality does that create for others to break down their fear?

A student responds ( for security purposes I am not releasing the author’s name.)

If I reading this correctly, it seems as if you are asking "WHY are people one of the following". I personally cannot say for sure if it is purely genetic or environmental. For me it is something I have struggled to understand and have seen people straddle all three of these labels/identities at different times. I know I was raised to be a heterosexual male, but had experiences in my very early childhood (from age 2 onward) that have directly defined who I have become in my adolescent and adult life. I think primarily we attach ourselves to what is familiar and comfortable, whether privately or publicly, and over time that determines our identity. My experiences with the opposite sex were unappealing because when I tried to explore them I had already become familiar with the sensations associated with the same sex. Those familiar sensations have directly influenced my interactions, or rather desired types of interactions, with other men as well.

I know from discussions with other homosexual men that are from the area I grew up, Long Island, NY, that there are many parallels and hence why I have a hard time accepting genetic over environment, or vice versa, as a reason for explaining WHY a person is Gay, Straight.

I do know that perhaps my disposition as a child was such that gay men recognized something in that eluded them to the possibility of being gay because society is so very good at labeling the individual based on external factors displayed especially if they are different. Being somewhat hypersensitive I feel that I picked up on these cues as well and organized my thinking to fit that expected labeling and therefore was drawn to the lifestyle in the end.

I do believe that my early childhood experiences were a result of being taken advantage of, a misuse of the trust my parents had in the individuals doing the things they did, my own confusion about who I was and what I was doing that was so "queer" to the people around me to begin with because I was just a happy child that had a vivid imagination with no real "gender boundaries" for the most part, AND a general ignorance of what people did with each other and the appropriateness of those activities in social and private settings.

When it comes to the Transgender issue (people whom have a sex change procedure; commonly confused with Transvestism which is the act of dressing and/or living as the opposite sex with no actual sex change being done), that is something I personally have very little experience with and while I can understand the desire of some men and women to dress and live as the opposite sex, i do not fully comprehend the full mindset or need that drives them to have the full sex change procedure. I have seen what I feel is strong evidence to support that this is more of a genetic situation wherein the individual identifies as the opposite sex in nearly every way and thus they are incapable of finding fulfillment as the gender they are born with. They tend to feel incomplete as they are and from what I understand there may also typically be genetic birth defects of various types that affect their identification processes (such as low testosterone for men, small or undeveloped genitalia, etc).

Unfortunately, most people do not understand that all three of these sexual orientations have their own unique struggles (Gay/Lesbian/bisexual, Straight, Transgenderism/Transvestism) and the only person that truly knows what is right for them is the person themselves, which takes much self exploration, education and support from various sources.

Why do these things exist is unknown, they just do and maybe by first accepting they do exist and then opening the dialogues of what they are can we truly understand the WHY.

I know that is a long winded rough attempt to answer a very huge question and it is based solely on my own point of view and experiences, so please do not accept it as a standard for everyone! These are simply my own personal views and opinions and are not meant to insult, harm or otherwise damage in any way. Everyone has a unique set of life experiences and points of view and we should always keep an open mind to that and do our best to at least respect each other if we can't agree.

Another student responds ( Again the students name is omitted for security reasons)
How do you explain the existence of homosexuality?
The existence of homosexuality is where a male has intimate feelings for another male or a girl has intimate feelings for another woman.

How do you explain the existence of heterosexuality?
The existence of heterosexuality comes from a woman having intimate feeling for a man and only a man and vice versa for the male to the woman.

How do you explain the existence of Transgender?
The existence of Transgender is where a man is born, but does not feel like a man, so he proceeds into having surgery to change his sex and it goes the same from a woman. She doesn't feel comfortable as being a woman so she proceeds into having reconstructive surgery.

Subject: Re:Questions that have continued to rattle in my mind. Topic: Default Topic
Author: Rochelle Foulk Date: August 24, 2011 7:56 PM
Thank you!!! Wow I am equally impressed with your answer and I agree on several points. Especially with Transgender, I have no experience with this either. The few people I have met I have not liked. It is more of a feeling than anything. Ironically it is based on their energy not the fact they are currently transitioning to the opposite sex of their birth.

I must point out, however, that the interpretation of the question is off. Just a little though and you even pointed that out in your first sentence.

No, I am not asking "Why", I am asking How. The question is important, I believe, in the solving of a much larger issue of equality.

In my experience people respond to new things, changes, and discoveries with one of two emotions; Love or Fear. If the first emotion is encountered then there is an openness to see the new thing or change as beautiful, enlightening and potentially a help to others.
Even though we (the LGBTQ community) acknowledge the need for equality, I find we often do not approach the "How" or the "Why".

For example, upon learning his daughter was a lesbian the father chastises her, lists the various reasons why this lifestyle is "evil", an "abomination", or in some cases will lead to sexually transmitted diseases, death, and or rape.
This father is reacting to information, based on biological responses of the brain. Over time children experience conditioning about the world through media, people, reading. The most influencial are people, especially ones viewed as authority figures ie parents. Even more so what the authority figure does as opposed to what they say carries more weight. An observational study on children illustrated this point. (I watched it in MyPsych lab.. but darn it I can't remember the study's name.)

More to the reaction of the brain, anxiety and trauma however our father in the above example is reacting to prior information either given to him by an authority figure, witnessed by his own account or anothers or another possibility is his knowing of whaat he has said and done to this group, (lesbians). http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/vanderkolk/

My question is more to why does it exist at all?

Please don't misunderstand I am not against any of these groups, and I have my own prejudice and bias concerning some if not all of them. The question came to me when I began to question why someone would harm or kill something they didn't understand.

Referring to the example of the father above, his reaction is out of fear thus he creates negative connotations to the world lesbian, to the lifestyle and traumatizes his own daughter simply because he is afraid. In my personal experience he is afraid of exactly what he lists are the cons to his daughter.

So if it exists in this world then there is a reason for its existence.
There is little study in this area and Transpersonal Psychology is up and coming with relating to the human brain, mystic experiences and spiritual experiences.

Therefore the question remains, How do you explain the existence of anyone of these groups?

Through my own personal exploration, meditation and writing I have discovered one plausible answer.

I believe it can be tested scientifically as well.

Homosexuality, (lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer) exist as a means of naturally controlling the human species.
In other words our breeding has reached dangerous levels in regards to natural resources available to sustain life.

Taken from a strictly survival of the species viewpoint, Humans are overpopulating. Thus nature has created ways to keep balance and harmony in the environment. Homosexuality.

I have yet to discern the reason for Transgender to exist but I am confident that there is a beautiful reason if I seek with the emotion of 'love' rather than hate or fear.

Although I can admit to you now, I have my own biases and fears and sometimes can not see past my own hatred of a group, thing or (lol) change.

The humanistic movement in psychology spawned the thought of self-actualization, Maslow. Prior to these, Carl Jung talked of the "collective unconscious", is there not a feeling of we are all here to do something?

If not to love one another as we are then what?

Cool