Janyce's SOAP BOX

HOMOSEXUALITY-R-US ©

A couple years ago I came home after a trip and as I was unloading the car, my neighbor come over to the fence and said, "You shoulda been here last night."

"Oh yeah?" I said, "How come?"

"I found two gay snails over there by the corner of my house."

"Gay Snails? ... What made you think they were gay?" I asked suspiciously.

"Well," he said matter-of-factly, "they were built the same, and both were gettin-it-on with the other!"

"Well, snails are hermaphrodites, you know ... they are both male and female in the same body."

He squinted one eye under his frown and said, "You mean those throw-dykes really exist? I thought that was all Greek story-tellin'. ... Besides, they were still makin' love to one of their own kind, and THAT makes 'em queer!"

"Well," I replied, "If the female half of one, was making love to the male half of the other, and visa-versa .. then that would make them heterosexual, wouldn't it?"

"Well, I suppose so." he said scratching his head while heading back to his lawn mower. He was doing some recalculating.

YOU ARE EITHER MALE OR FEMALE, RIGHT?

Not quite. In fact, medical scientists say it gets to be pretty confusing, the more you get into it. For example:

Males have been born normal except for a penis the size of a clitoris. Others have been born possessing a hidden uterus and fallopian tubes in addition to normal male organs (and remained unaware of it into adulthood). Many otherwise-normal males have developed breasts at puberty.

Females have been born with a closed and hidden vagina. Babies have been born with a penoclitoris and a blind vaginal pouch.

---

Some early Johns Hopkins Hospital researchers, Drs. John Money and Joan and John Hampson, concluded back in the late 1960's that there are at least seven components of sex in humans, and that we all may vary in the amount of each component:

1) CHROMOSOMAL SEX: XX (female) or XY (male). But other variations also exist; XO, XXY, XXXY, XXX, and XYY, in addition to mosaic "checker-board" combinations such as XO/XYY.

2) GONADAL SEX: the existance of ovaries or testicles. Here too, other variations exist such as one of each.

True hermaphrodites can be genetically female but be born with both a pair of ovarys AND a pair of testicles. Others have been born with one ovary and one testicle. These unfortunate, but human and feeling people, may show elements of both sexes at birth and after puberty. They may appear at various times, predominantly male, predominantly female or ambiguous.

3) HORMONAL SEX: this includes not only the sex hormones produced, but the secondary sex-characteristics they create, as well. It is further confused by the fact that both sexes produce both male and female sex hormones, and additionally, by the fact that glands other than the gonads produce sex hormones.

4) INTERNAL SEX ORGANS: the uterus in women and the prostate in men.

5) EXTERNAL GENITALS: the what-you-see differences in men and women.

6) SEX OF ASSIGNMENT AND REARING: being designated male or female at birth and raised accordingly. Although less common in this modern day, abnormal external genitals or conflict between genitals and chromosomal sex have caused some to be "raised in error."

It's interesting that assignment and rearing have such a strong hold on humans - VERY FEW are willing to change their sexual identity, EVEN WHEN CONTRARY EXTERNAL ORGANS START DEVELOPING years later. Researchers have discovered that, with few exceptions, at 18 to 24 months of age, a person's gender identity appears to be set for life.

7) GENDER IDENTITY: an individual's own sense of being male or female.

During the 1960s, the Oregon Primate Research Center was able to "create" a confused gender identity in male monkeys, by negating the effect of normal male hormones, during only the time of fetal brain development. Mature males, so treated, acted feminine; even positioning themselves to be mounted by males, and attempting to nurse the young.

Ref: "SEXUALITY AND HOMOSEXUALITY .. The definitive explanation of human sexuality, normal and abnormal" by Arno Karlen, 1971.

In most people, these seven components are basically consistant. However, it is commonly accepted that none of us is more than 98% of a given sex, under the best possible conditions. There are a few people who come close to impersonating the snail. However, the vast majority of us fall somewhere between the two extreems and in the 80% to low 90% bracket.

IT DEPENDS UPON HOW YOU LOOK AT IT

If a 98% female is making love with a man, then the 2% male in her is loving another male, and therefore she is 2% homosexual.

Or if the 98% female is making love with exactly a 98% male, then you could say that the 2% male of the woman is making love with the 2% female of the man, and it balances out.

But the problem is, unless both the male and female are exactly the same percentage of opposite sex (which is highly unlikely), then the imbalance is not heterosexual. So, not only are homosexuals not totally homosexual, heterosexuals are not totally heterosexual ether.

Both "HOMOSEXUALITY" and "HETEROSEXUALITY," by definition, are based upon (an impossible) defination of sexuality.

As terrible as it sounds, the fact is, everyone is a little bit homosexual at best.

Some quote their religious books as saying "homosexuality is an abomination to god." I agree ... the gods should abhor anything not perfect; including two-headed babies and all other physical or mental defects. Is homosexuality a "defect?" ... I don't know. - and you don't either. I think the gods would say the whole issue is none of our business as the answer is devine property.

Not one of us is so pure as to be in a position to judge another with regard to their sexuality. It is a question belonging to ONLY the individual, the individual's doctor and the individual's god.

Due to time constraints, I can't answer all mail, but do answer those who offer something special - Email: osexual@janyce.com

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