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Alternative Lifestyle in Society

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Alternative Lifestyle in Society
For the centuries of mankind's existence, there have always been people in the population that are attracted to the same sex. That does not mean, however, that anybody with these types of feelings in times before ever told other people about it or felt like being open about it. It was looked upon as a burden and a fault, even a curse among society. It wasn't even until the 1900s that any kind of movements for the homosexual community even started. When you sit back and think about the kind of embarrassment and torment that being gay brings you from society, you start to see why nobody spoke about it in the earlier days. For the record, I am personally not gay, but have gay friends and understand what that might be like to go through. Discrimination has existed for every kind of reason in history from race to gender and that means that not even sexual orientation will go undiscriminated. Society is always a changing thing, which means that views start to change about homosexuals. The discrimination has been fought against by blacks, women, religions, and etc. which means that the gay community will follow in the fight. Society can be a hard thing to deal with, and for the gay community that can be the case most of the time. How should society react to homosexuals? Many experts agree that homosexuality has existed as long as human beings themselves, although the attitude towards them has undergone dramatic changes in some countries. Accepted by many societies during Greek and Roman era, most of the time homosexuals were considered to be sinners against nature and even criminals. In Medieval and modern periods homosexuals were prosecuted. Enlightenment brought some liberation, substituting death penalty by imprisonment. In Nazi Germany so-called doctors tried to cure gays by the ways of castration and extreme intimidation. Until 1973 attempts to find a cure against homosexuality, what by majority was viewed as a disease, were continued. Today, when research on twins


Cited: Francoeur, Robert T. Should Society Recognize Gay Marriages? Taking sides: Clashing Views on controversial Issues. 2. Issues in Human Sexuality. 4th Ed. Stephen Satris: The Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc, Guilford,1994:246-247. 3. Geraci, Joseph and Donald H. Mader. Pedophillia. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality Ed. 4. Wayne R Dynes. Garland Publishing, Inc , New York, 1990: v2, 964-970. 5. Hamill, Pete. Confessions of a Heterosexual. The Aims of Argument. A Rhetoric and Reader. 2nd Ed. Timothy W. Crusius and Carolyn E. Chanell: Mayfield Publishing, Mountain View, California,1998: 531-536. 6. Mohr, Richard D. Gay Basics: Some Questions, Facts, and Values. Taking sides: Clashing Views on controversial Issues. Moral Issues. 4th Ed. Stephen Satris: The Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc, Guilford,1994:186-194. 7. Nickel, Jeffrey. Everybody’s Threatened by Homophobia. The Aims of Argument. A Rhetoric and Reader.2nd Ed. Timothy W. Crusius and Carolyn E. Chanell: Mayfield Publishing, Mountain View, California, 1998:527-530. 8. Schuklenk,Udo and Tony Riley. Homosexuality, Social Attitudes Toward. Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics. Editor-in -Chief Ruth Chadwick. Academic Press: San Diego, 1998: v2, 597-603. 9. Ulanowsky, Carole. The Family. Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics. Editor-in-Chief Ruth Chadwick. Academic Press: San Diego, 1998: v2

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