LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jehovahsfitness)

The other night I watched the movie Kinsey about Dr. Alfred Kinsey whose ground-breaking studies on human sexuality rubbed many of his era the wrong way. Qucikly, I found it easy to relate to.

Kinsey's father who was a conservative Methodist was strongly against any sort of sexual devience. One of the most moving parts of the film is when the elder Kinsey gives his son his sexual history and relates how he was prevented from masturbating as a child. I don't know if psychology has identified it, but I'm sure there exists a condition in which the individual internalizes oppression, and replicates it. Many have noted that some of the most homophobic individuals, in terms of rhetoric, were or may be closest homosexuals.

Another moving episode was when an interviewee relates her history of lesbianism, how it caused her family to abandon her. Kinsey remarks how his work did not lead to any improvement in society. But the woman replies that they have. Reading it sparked the woman to admit to herself and others her true sexuality and deep love for another woman. When she told this woman her true feelings, she was delighted to learn that she felt the same. I don't know whether the makers of the film intended this to be inspirational, but I certainly took it as such. However...

We have a challange that did not face Kinsey in his time. Just as with the "intelligent" design issue, certain individuals are trying to use pseudo-science to promote a religious agenda. Repeated experiments have shown time and again that homosexuality, masturbation and other sex-related phenomena considered immoral by some occur in nature. Kinsey notes how homosexuality is anything but unnatural, as many believed and continue to believe.

Rather than own up to the fact that they have been fallen prey to a bigoted mindset, many continue to assert that homosexuality is, dispite the consensus of maintream scientists, unnatural and unhealthy. The likes of Dr. James Dobson ignore scientific evidence that would refute their claims, essentiallty rejecting science. As with "intelligent desgin" we have another religious philosophy which has put on the disguise of science. The challenge these days is that those on the religious right have realized that blatant religion cannot win out against science in our modern society, so they have taken to underhanded tactics.

We cannot allow our society to revert to the days when natural sexuality was denigrated to the point that it has caused psychological harm. My question for you, is how can we do it? By what means will love really win out?