tofery · HackerTrans

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Not sure, but perhaps statements like "Comments like these are so hilariously idiotic. Props for making me guffaw out loud." are why people downvote. Personally I think that OP contributed to the conversation so I wouldn't have downvoted (if I could), but maybe some people did because of that.

tofery

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Why do you think it would be a parasite, as opposed to any other environmental factor? I don't know of any parasite that affects behavior in that way, but if you have some further information, I'd be interested in hearing it.

tofery

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

I'd be interested in hearing the voices of those downvoting this. Is one of the claims in the comment false, or do you disagree with the conclusion "I think this overestimation may influence some behavior at the margin." [note1] (or both)?

Additionally, what if the conclusion is right (hypothetically)? Is it really that improbable? And if the greater acceptance of homosexuality as of recently (compared to, say, the 19th century) does cause some otherwise-straight people to be gay, what exactly is the problem with that? Would that be something we should address?

And more generally, if we did find an environmental factor that was linked to homosexuality, would we want to address that factor?

Note 1: User Bostonian uses the term "at the margin" in their comment, and I don't know what they meant by that. I'm taking it to be the subset of people who are unsure of their sexuality, though perhaps the author was referring to something else.

tofery

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

>This [gay males being effeminate] is a dangerous stereotype that is equally harmful to people of any sexuality

Why do you assume that gay men being effeminate is unfounded (if you do think that, which I'm basing off of you calling it a stereotype), and why do you think it's harmful? Gay men, in common with straight women, want to have sex with men. That seems effeminate to me (another comment I made with a similar argument: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26073496).

As for the stereotype being harmful, is it? If society assumes gay men tend to be effeminate, what harm does that cause?

tofery

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

>Why would gay men become more effeminate?

Well, if we take "effeminate" to mean "Exhibiting behaviour or mannerisms considered typical of a female" [1], then wanting to have sex with men, something straight females (the majority of females) and gay males have in common, is effeminate. So I'd say it's not so ridiculous to think that gay men are typically more effeminate.

1: From https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/effeminate#Adjective, definition 1, which is also what I interpreted the word to mean

tofery

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

> Last time I checked gay wasn't a gender.

"Gender" is quite ill-defined, I've found. In fact, some cultures do believe that male homosexuality is a gender, like the Samoan concept of "fa'afafine".

tofery

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

>That, although always possible, seems pretty far-fetched.

Sure, perhaps it is farfetched. But the point is trying to eliminate as many variations as possible to focus on a smaller set of people. Then once we have that, we can expand outward. Consider that instead of there being a "gay gene", there is a gene (or set of genes) that controls not homosexuality, but androphilia (sexual attraction to men/males/masculinity) and perhaps another that controls gynephilia (sexual attraction to women/females/femininity). [note 1] In that case, by looking at only one sex we could find such a gene. This is just an example of which there are many, but my intent is to show why looking at a smaller sample first could prove useful later.

Note 1: There is some precedent for this particular theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androphilia_and_gynephilia

tofery

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

It's a meme I see every now and then. It is based on two beliefs. One is that boys molested in their youth are more likely to be gay later on in life. Another is that gay men (or some subset of gay men) are pedophiles. Combining these two beliefs, the meme asserts that gay pedophiles sexually assault young boys and "turn" them gay, and calls this a form of reproduction (in the sense of one gay man creating more gay men).

The meme itself is intended mostly to get a rise out of people. It would be wise to pay it no mind. But if anyone wants to earnestly defend this position, I'm all ears.

tofery

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

>terrible enough to want to "cure" homosexuality or detect it before birth

Curious, why do you think that this is a terrible thing? I see that there are two parts to this. As for wanting to "cure" homosexuality, if a gay person consents, is this such a bad thing? I believe that forcing such a conversion on anyone (straight to gay or gay to straight) is not right, but if a person wants to change their sexuality, and we have the technical means to do it, should we not allow them to?

And as for detecting homosexuality before birth (and presumably either "correcting" it or aborting the baby), I'm curious as to your views on "designer babies", as this seems similar to me. Would you compare changing the sexuality of one's child to changing that child's eye color, or do you think it's a different matter? And say a mother would only want her child to be heterosexual, and could do this before birth without any harm or changes otherwise to the offspring. What would you think about that scenario? Is the mother within her rights (morally, or otherwise), and what might you say to her?

Interesting topic, curious as to your (or anyone else's, for that matter) thoughts.

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