Homosexuality is a term used to refer to emotional and physical relationships between people of the same sex. For convenience and idiom, the word homosexuality is the one used to refer to those who practice this "Homosexual" way of life, pointing to men who share a relationship with men, however, according to the etymology of the word, it applies to both genders, masculine and feminine, despite the fact that the latter has been awarded by society, the term "Lesbianism".
What is homosexuality
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It is a sexual orientation in which an individual is attracted in a physical, sentimental, affective and emotional way, by people of the same sex. This type of orientation involves both men and women, in the case of homosexual men they are called gay, while women are called lesbians.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), homosexuality is not a choice. Many scientists agree that this is due to a complicated interaction of cognitive, biological and environmental elements. It is in adolescence when the first signs of sexual and emotional attraction begin to appear, either towards people of the same or different sex (or both, in which case it would be bisexuality). This association, like other groups, considered homosexuality as a mental illness or emotional disorder, and it was not until 1937 that it decided to eliminate it from this group.
Homosexuality as an energetic and latent variable in today's society, bases its bases on a history marked by repression and taboos, generated by an ethics and morality governed by the Holy Word and the standards of sexual reproduction, which pray that couples destined for mutual and sentimental life, must be made up of a man and a woman, that is, by the practice of heterosexuality.
History of homosexuality
Homosexuality has existed throughout the different cultures of history. Same-sex relationships date back to Ancient Greece. At this time, it was not strange that people of the same sex had relationships, these were not frowned upon because for the Greeks what was really important was the social status of their partner, not their sex.
In principle, in Ancient Rome there was a vision similar to that of the Greeks regarding homosexuality, although it progressively acquired a more critical and rejecting vision.
With the emergence of Christianity in the first centuries after Christ, having sexual relations outside of marriage began to be condemned, this caused a greater rejection in society towards homosexual practices. Anger for homosexuals increased in the 12th and 14th centuries, due to the reforms of the church, for whom natural law is the highest standard of morality.
After these centuries, homosexual acts were punished and punished, however, eventually groups and subcultures emerged that accepted it despite the persecutions. Around the 18th and 19th centuries, the attention to these groups diminished and some technicians began to try to find a relationship between medicine, psychology and homosexuality. The penalties for homosexuals are reduced, since the idea arose that the person does not choose to be homosexual voluntarily, therefore it could not be considered a crime. Therefore, treatments were created seeking to eradicate homosexuality in people.
In the 20th century, homosexuality began to separate from the notion of mental disorders, to begin to be seen as a sexual orientation. The prohibitions to have sexual relations outside of marriage were eliminated, this makes it difficult to find reasons to incriminate homosexual relations.
In addition to this, in the 1960s liberation movements led by different homosexual groups emerged, whose objective was to seek greater acceptance by society, from that moment, the acceptance and vision of these groups increases every day.
Current debate on homosexuality
Homosexuality in the modern world
Homosexuality has been in society for centuries and has produced great controversies, including whether it is discriminatory or unfair. Opinions are divided, on the one hand, there are those who defend it and on the other the detractors of this defense.
It is important to note that sexual orientation cannot be changed with therapy, as indicated above. In ancient times homosexuality was considered a disease and for this reason many gay men have been discriminated against.
Psychiatrists, psychologists and other health professionals agree that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, nor is it an emotional problem, much less a disease.
There is a process known as "coming out of the closet" which is difficult to be assumed by some gay, bisexual and lesbian people, but not for others. It is normal for these people to feel fear, feel differently and alone when realizing that their sexual orientation is different from that of the rest of society, especially during childhood and adolescence.
Currently the issue of homosexuality has evolved, but there are still people who are against it, this is shown in the fact that only 26 countries allow homosexual marriage, among them are Germany, Australia, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Spain, United States, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom, Sweden, South Africa and Uruguay.
The sexual repression is still present in society, as we still have the belief that heterosexuality is sexuality "normal", and that best suits humans, while presenting a denial Total toward bisexuality.
Human sexuality is diverse and broad, not all people who are attracted to others of the same sex live their sexuality in the same way. For these reasons there are different types of homosexuality, these are:
- Egosyntonic homosexuality: The majority of the homosexual population live their sexuality in an ego-syntonic sense, in other words, something with which they are in tune and it is part of them.
- Ego-dystonic homosexuality: Gays, bisexuals and lesbians currently manifest their relatively normal tastes.
- Latent homosexuality: Most gays and lesbians take a while to discover and come to terms with their sexuality.
- Exclusive homosexuality: In this group is the gay community that only feels attraction to people of the same sex.
- Heterosexuality with frequent homosexual relationships: These types of people are more attracted to people of the opposite sex, but they are also attracted to many people of the same sex, they can be considered bisexual with tendencies towards heterosexual relationships.
- Heterosexual with sporadic homosexual relationships: They are heterosexual people but feel sexual attraction to certain people of the same sex, maintaining homosexual relationships with them.
- Affective sexual attraction: In this case, people feel a sexual interest in people of the same sex, but accompanied by a sentimental interest.
- Only sexual attraction: It manifests when a person is attracted only in a sexual way, to another of the same sex, but feels emotional attraction to people of the opposite sex.
- Only affective attraction: In this case, individuals may feel affective inclination for people of the same sex, but this does not include any sexual desire. It can occur in a heterosexual who falls in love with a person of the same sex, and for this it does not stop being so.
Homosexual movements and organizations
Regarding homosexuality in Mexico, it can be noted that at the end of the 1970s a group of homosexuals in Mexico created the Homosexual Liberation Movement (MLH), in the midst of a very particular situation, with a government party denied to the dialogue on moral and rights issues, and to the growth of left-wing groups and independent social movements. The emergence of the MLH was due to the political moment and also to small hidden groups that wanted to resignify homosexuality in their future activists.
Faced with the disbelief of society towards this movement, homosexual activists carried out the task of raising awareness about the repression and exclusion suffered by homosexuals. After three years this movement managed to move from the streets to the electoral ballots, however, it had difficulties to face some successes, as exaggerated leadership, ideological conflicts and superimposition of male homosexuality over other sexual orientations prevailed.
Defense of human rights
In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council approved a resolution in defense of homosexual rights. In this document " equality for all, regardless of sexual orientation" was reflected and violence, homophobia and discrimination against gays, transsexuals and lesbians are condemned.
This resolution, sponsored by South Africa, had the approval of 23 votes in favor, but with 19 votes against. This text is supported by the United States, as well as other countries such as Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, France, Spain and Japan.
Despite this symbolic victory, the UN reminds its members that homosexuality is still illegal in 76 countries and where in many of them, homosexuals are punished and can even be executed.
In 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that gay couples will have the same residence rights as hererosexuals, regardless of whether this type of union is not legalized in that country. "Although the Member States are free to authorize or not homosexual marriages, they cannot obstruct the residence of an EU citizen, denying his or her same-sex spouse the right of residence."
Diversity and acceptance in a Pluripolar world
The idea of a pluripolar world that has been raised from different parts of the world is not entirely preposterous. It is necessary to orchestrate a balance that maintains an adequate balance in the international community, due to the complexity in its relations between states and individuals, and in this way efficiently process the great difficulties that currently arise, in the framework of globalization.
The different international organizations, including the UN, must represent all nations, in this way their credibility and confidence will increase progressively; becoming a valid interlocutor in the world arena. The fact that the US and the great powers are the ones that lead international politics produces dissonances that in turn generate armed conflicts that bring human and financial losses that affect the development of nations and their peoples.
Scientific causes of homosexuality
Research has reflected various hypotheses by which scientists explain the homosexuality of people. A variety of genomic studies have suggested that there is a specific stretch of the human genome that contains a gene, or several genes, that influence a man's sexuality.
Since the mid-1980s, studies of families and twins have been carried out, which indicate that there is a hereditary component in homosexuality. One of the pioneering and statistical studies conducted by psychiatrist Richard Pillard (he is homosexual) indicates that there is a 22% probability that the brother of a homosexual man will also turn out to be homosexual. The brother of a heterosexual man can turn out to be gay in only 4% of the cases. This indicates that the fact that there are siblings with this type of preference will not necessarily be inherited.
After studies carried out by Richard Pillard together with other researchers, it was found that it is more common for homosexuals to have relatives of the same sexual orientation through the maternal line. From this they conclude that the "gene for homosexuality" is on the X chromosome. The first molecular genetic experiments, through the analysis of the adhesion of X markers, indicated the Xq28 region as a possible search element. However, subsequent studies do not confirm this relationship, nor the inheritance of homosexuality through the maternal line.
Recently a new and extensive study carried out by a team of researchers from American universities (Cambridge, Chicago, Evanston, Miami, among others) have concluded that there is no doubt that there is a link between homosexuality and genes.
The scientists carried out an analysis with more than 800 homosexual siblings, where when examining the genetic material obtained in the saliva and blood samples of the participants, they reached the controversial conclusion that several genes on the X chromosome and chromosome 8, can being involved in a person's sexual orientation.
