Homosexuality: One of the Issues of Sex and Gender in Society Today

Homosexuality
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Institution
Homosexuality
The attraction between people who are of the same sex is what is termed as homosexuality. Many other terms are used to refer to homosexual people such as gay, lesbian, and bisexual. In essence, the term homosexual has been widely used to refer to both males and females whose sexual orientation is towards members of the same sex. It was an Austrian-born Hungarian psychologist Karoly Maria Benkert who is believed to have come up with the term homosexuality (Pickett & Zalta, 2021). This paper delves deeper and examines the historical context events that provided a conducive environment for the practice to thrive. The paper covers opinions objectively from those that support the practice and those that are against the practice. This will in turn provide sufficient information and insight into the issue in question and help all the people involved make informed decisions when interacting with each other. Eventually, the discussion will also look to propose possible resolutions for both the divides. Homosexuality, just like other sex and/or gender issues, has proponents and opponents in equal measure.
Homosexuality has been around since time immemorial and several factors from then till now have ensured its growth in popularity. The earliest form of the practice that has been recorded was recorded around the end of the 5th century (Pickett & Zalta, 2021). Though there were traces of the practice across the globe, such as in ancient Greece and Rome, its approval to different cultures and in different times was varied. It was either approved, punished, or completely banned. In other places such as Africa and Latin America, the practice was considered taboo and was never even considered as a topic of discussion. In some parts of Europe, activities of same-sex attracted heavy punishments including death. Generally, there was a lot of backlash and stigma associated with homosexuality in the early times. These greatly hindered individuals from coming out in the open and declaring their sexual orientation. However, this trend of intolerance towards homosexuals has changed over time. The widespread tolerance of homosexuality has been slow but steady and it has seen the emergence of more categories of sexual orientations such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer, otherwise abbreviated as LGBTQ. In America, the most critical moment was when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality as a mental illness from the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Britannica, 2018). It had published homosexuality as a mental disorder in the first edition. Hardliner laws such as the law in Georgia State that banned sodomy were repealed in the long run. The ruling in the legal case of Bowers vs. Hardwick on June 30, 1986 that banned sodomy was overturned by a court in Texas State in 2003 in a case of Lawrence vs. Texas, where the decision struck down a law that criminalized homosexual sex between consenting adults (Morris, n.d.). Another landmark ruling was the decision made by the Supreme Court of the United States in 2015 that legalized same-sex marriages nationwide (Liptak, 2015). Amendment of such laws greatly provi...