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By Brooks A. Mick, M.D.
Dec. 31, 2006 Nature or Nurture? Gay or Straight? That is the question. Gay sheep cause problems for sheep ranchers. Approximately 10% of rams are gay, preferring sex with other males. This reduces their value to the sheep ranchers, as the ranchers are interested in breeding more sheep and are not in the gay bathhouse business. Thus some researchers have been studying the gay rams and, through placement of brain electrodes and the manipulation of hormone levels, have succeeded in getting these rams to enjoy female company. This has, predictably, angered Martina Navratilova. In the spirit of the deaf people who don't want deafness cured or prevented, she opposes the cure or prevention of homosexuality. Why? Because facing facts, that homosexuality and deafness are disorders, would mean admitting that one is less than perfect and healthy. The cataloguing of deafness and homosexuality as disorders is not a value judgment. It doesn't mean one is a bad person that one is deaf or homosexual, any more than it means that one is a bad person if one has high blood pressure or diabetes mellitus or athlete's foot. But in the minds of some people, specific disorders take on the attributes of civil rights. I once, 20 years ago, pointed out that HIV was the first disease to be awarded the status of a civil right. But as such, it has established a standard for political correctness. Now it appears that any disease, if taken through the courts, can be awarded such a status also. Deaf parents who deliberately have a deaf child can count on permanent government support for that child. The question is, why would a deaf parent DELIBERATELY use genetic manipulation to produce a deaf child when they could as easily have a baby who can hear? The answer is that they would then be forced to face the reality that they are--eek!--HANDICAPPED. Not a politically correct word, to be sure, but why not use the correct word whenever possible? If we face the reality that deafness is a disorder and thus not desirable, we (and deaf patients contemplating childbearing) would be forced to confront their own selfishness and warped thinking. Deaf parents should not handicap their children by deliberately making them deaf. Just so, the research which shows that homosexual sheep can be treated forces homosexuals to face the reality that they have a disorder. Now the American Psychiatric Association, in its political correctness, removed homosexuality from its list of disorders several years ago. But a group of left-wing types' (and psychiatrists are, along with pediatricians, much more left wing than other branches of medicine) crossing a line off a list doesn't mean that it is, in reality, removed from a factual, statistical, cataloguing of abnormalities. Saddam Hussein refused to acknowledge that he was no longer the president of Iraq, but that does not make him less dead. Homosexuals might say, quite correctly, that they don't consider themselves abnormal and that they enjoy their sexuality as much as heterosexuals, but that is irrelevant to the decision regarding its abnormality. Some people with mid-brain tumors have very pleasant visual hallucinations of colored lights. That they enjoy the hallucinations doesn't make them normal. Many victims of manic-depressive psychosis enjoy their manic phases greatly, feeling full of energy and accomplishing much during those periods. Some famous artists and writers have produced their greatest works during manic phases. Some housewives get all their housecleaning done during manic phases. But this still doesn't make it normal. The gay rams may enjoy sex as much as other rams, but that does not make them valuable to the sheep ranchers, who rightly consider such behavior abnormal. One should note that this has nothing to do with homophobia. Indeed, those people who consider homosexuality to be a trait with physical, as opposed to psychological, causes are more likely to be tolerant of homosexuality than those who consider it as caused by nurturing. This is a discussion purely about statistical norms and health, not a moral judgment about homosexuality. HIV, having passed through its civil rights stage and become, in the main, just another disease to struggle against, gives hope that homosexuality, too, may some day no longer be a civil rights issue but instead just a preventable disease. That is, if we can keep Martina Navritilova from getting her way. If she succeeds in preventing research on gay rams, she should be forced to pay sheep ranchers for lost productivity. Typical liberal behavior, one should note, forcing others to pay the price for her political correctness. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2524408,00.html http://www.mercatornet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=428 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A5428-2002Apr29¬Found=true ------------ About the author Brooks A. Mick: Physician, still practicing medicine but retired from the US Army. Write just for the fun of it, but working on novel in the vein of Tom Clancy's politico-military genre. Email: brooks15@cox.net Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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