Gays, lesbians, bisexuals

[The Wizard from Milan]

Originally Posted by inked

JS: A nationwide University of Chicago study of sexuality in America in 1994

I believe he is talking about the National Health and Social Life Survey because no other study of this type has been done at the University of Chicago in that period. If so, he is slightly wrong because it is of 1992

Originally Posted by inked

concluded, ". . . it is patently false that homosexuality is a uniform attribute across individuals, that it is stable over time, and that it can be easily measured."

I actually agree with this sentence assuming it means what I think it means. Homosexuality is neither a cookie cutter as far as people self-conception (I wonder what dimesion the author was talking about), nor everybody displays same-sex sexual behavior over time (sometimes people exibiting same-sex sexual behavior, exibited different-sex sexual behavior in their youth), and it is a bedevilly difficult character to measur because there as so many possible definition (behavior, attraction, self-identificantion) and different propensities to disclose

Originally Posted by inked

We now know that in the majority of both men and women, "homosexuality," as defined by any scientifically rigorous criteria, spontaneously tends to "mutate" into heterosexuality over the course of a lifetime.

This statement has no scientific support in the way in which it is written. Also the author does not say what he is using as ""homosexuality," as defined by any scientifically rigorous criteria"

Originally Posted by inked

The proportion of people who adopt a homosexual identity and the length of time they persist in holding on to it are affected primarily by environmental factors clearly identifiable in these epidemiologic studies.

Well this author is also stating the obvious to confuse people. Identity is socially constructed, Foucault already explained that long ago.
Also note the use of the word "epidemiologic" made to lend credence that homosexuality is an illness. Actually these studies are not epidemiologic in this sense of the word.

The interpretation that this author gives of the elimination of homosexuality from the list of pathologies is highly tendentious. For instance it is extremely well known that Kinsey's report did not use the best statistical methodology; that does not mean that it is completely wrong or unscientific. It was the best scientific evidence available at the time, now we have better evidence; some of the statistical shortcomings have been fixed in subsequent studies (e.g. the aformentioned National Health and Social Life Survey)