Status Updates From Straight Parents, Gay Child...

His simple statement was something of a revelation: at its core, I realized, homosexuality wasn't about behavior, it was about a state of being that spoke to one's deepest inner feelings and personal identity.

...once programmed, as with other cultural prejudices, these images are reinforced by daily input from ordinary conversation, jokes, and the media. The drumbeat of negativity, moreover, creates the perception that sex is the defining aspect of homosexuality. They are not people who work, worship, tend their gardens, love their families, shop for groceries. They are sex-obsessed 'sodomites.'

why are we so disturbed by homosexuality? The reasons are complex. Part of the answer is simply the ageless human distrust of those who are 'different', the same reaction that seems to underlie so much prejudice against those of different race, gender, and so on. But this difference has to do with sex, and that's an aspect of human nature that has generated more taboos, confusion, fears and repression than any other.