The recent legalization of same sex marriages in the United States of America gave a lot of people a sense of liberation and pride. At the same time, it also made some raise their eyebrows as they claim homosexuality to be unnatural and unhealthy. It also made a whole lot of people more curious about sexual orientation as a concept. Homosexuality or homosexual orientation is a type of preference that you choose for yourself. Identity is referred to as the way you define yourself with respect to different aspects of your life; these include education, religion, politics, relationships, body image, sexuality, etc. there have been very strong opinions against homosexuality in the past. However, these have been constantly changing since four decades and are being addressed in a rigorous manner.
Sexual orientation refers to how a person defines himself/herself on the basis of the relative stable patterns of interaction, involvement, comfort and attraction to other individuals. These experiences may involve individuals belonging to the same sex, or to opposite sex, or both. These interactions/ attractions need not necessarily be sexual in nature. These intensely satisfactory experiences could be emotional as well as romantic. It is about how much comfort and belonged a person feels around others. Homosexuality refers to sexual orientation where an individual identifies oneself as being more related to emotional, romantic and/or sexual experiences and interactions with individuals of the same sex. It is thus more than just an intra-personal trait or characteristic. It defines one in relationship to others around.
The evergreen debate of the role of genes and other developmental factors like socio-cultural background and all, applies to homosexuality also. There has been no conclusive evidence on the genetic involvement. Rigorous research is being done after initiatives taken by the American Psychological Association four decades ago, to invite psychologists all over the globe to work for removal of stigma associated with homosexuality. When most of the people are asked about their sexual orientations, they cannot remember what made them get attracted to someone from opposite sex, same sex, or both of them. They see it as something that was present as long as they could remember. It is not necessary that a person might/should label himself/herself as being a homosexual or act in a certain stereotypical way. However, this is fine when done by choice; a lot of in-congruence occurs when a person is not able to express this choice mainly due to the lack of awareness and stigma attached to different sexual orientations.
Homosexuality has also been correlated with mental disorders, sexual abuse, as well as HIV/AIDS. However, none of these correlations have been found to be significant to population having homosexual orientation. These are found to be present even in those claiming heterosexual identities. For instance, HIV/AIDS is a virus based infection that is caused due to multiple and unprotected sexual relationships and through the exchange of body fluids; this can be transmitted to anyone who engages in such practices, irrespective of sexual orientation and preferences. It can also get transmitted through other means like infected needles/injections, etc.
As opposed to the age old myths, homosexuality is not something ‘bad’. It is just another orientation or preference one chooses to identify with. The stigma, as well as the prejudiced behaviour and thinking, attached to this sexual orientation makes it difficult for people to come out and express this aspect of their identity freely. This leads to a high amount of dissonance in their personality which is not very healthy for one’s well-being. It is just like anyone suppressing any kind of desires, thoughts, experiences. For instance, one might not express one’s identity orientation because one feels he/she would lose his/her friends because of the same. This is based on the stereotypical thoughts attached to certain sexual orientations (like, if my friend is a homosexual and am from the same sex, he/she might make a move towards me) these thoughts need not necessarily be true just like a heterosexual individual does not engage in sexual interactions with everyone from the opposite sex.
Thus, homosexuality by itself is not ‘bad’, or ‘unnatural’. The behaviour of people with such an orientation becomes more vulnerable to turn deviant majorly because of the lack of freedom of expression they receive from others around. The aim of therapy should not be to make someone change their sexual orientation, but to rather impart proper sex education and other information to individuals across all sexual orientations.
So, next time we feel like judging someone, giggling at someone or making random assumptions, let us try to take a step back and think for a while before we make an opinion about them and give everyone the freedom to choose their preferences and comfort.