[July 1998 journal entry]
I was asked recently how I would respond/react if one of our children told me she is homosexual in sexual orientation. My initial thoughts were the following.
I was asked recently how I would respond/react if one of our children told me she is homosexual in sexual orientation. My initial thoughts were the following.
- I hope I would listen with respect, seeking to understand what she is telling me and how she is interpreting her sense of self.
- Her age would make a difference.
- Since most individuals are heterosexual, I would give particular attention to indications that environmental factors might at least partially account for her self-understanding. I see no evidence of such environmental factors to date in our children’s experience. Therefore, I would anticipate a genetics explanation to be most compelling.
- Neither a ‘nature’ paradigm nor a ‘nurture’ paradigm was considered in the times when Jewish scripture and Christian scripture were being written.
- I find references to homosexuality in Jewish scripture and Christian scripture to be restricted in meaning to selfish, exploiting, and reckless behavior (not uniquely found among individuals with a homosexual orientation).
My first serious experience face to face with questions about sexual orientation occurred a number of years ago when a very capable and sensitive female graduate student for whom I was an academic advisor and who had taken several of my courses disclosed to me her confusion since adolescence about her sexuality. Many hours of conversation with her followed. Several years later, I learned firsthand about babies born with ambiguous genitalia when I worked as an ethics consultant for a lawyer who represented a medical school in lawsuits filed by parents of such babies against faculty physicians involved in the disputed decisions made and actions taken at birth. At one of the medical schools where I have collaborated with various academic physicians, I worked closely with a very compassionate and highly respected female physician who eventually trusted our friendship enough to disclose her homosexual orientation.
These examples illustrate experiences over the past twenty-five years that have discredited the condemnations, the jokes, the stereotypes, the prejudices, the violence tolerated/sanctioned in the culture and the ‘religious’ milieu of my youth.
These examples illustrate experiences over the past twenty-five years that have discredited the condemnations, the jokes, the stereotypes, the prejudices, the violence tolerated/sanctioned in the culture and the ‘religious’ milieu of my youth.
