Post by V on Sept 7, 2010 20:03:18 GMT -5
Apparently, there is a medical treatment that carries the "side-effect" of limiting homosexuality. If you ask me, it's ridiculous that people are still touting possible "cures" for homosexuality. I don't understand why people are so scared that their little angels will grow up to possibly be gay. I don't even buy that Christians think it's so sinful it must be decried loudly and obnoxiously. If that were the case, a lot of other things from Leviticus (the Biblical Book that is the most touted for decrying homosexuality) that they should be screaming about. Many things, not just homosexuality, are considered an "abomination" or just as bad in Leviticus that nobody cares about. So, I think it's just a deep-seated, irrational fright of homosexuals like some people are afraid of mice.
But, I digress. Now, on to the actual subject at hand. The actual disorder that the pill is supposed to work against is congenital adrena hyperlasia.
www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-adrenal-20100815,0,5576220.story
I can understand why something like this might cause problems for the girl later. I mean, it might be a little embarrassing to find this out, especially if she happens to find this out in front of other girls. But, it's hardly the end of the world. I'm not entirely sure I understand the dread for this, really. This condition apparently doesn't cause any long-term health defects, mental instability or Autistic tendencies, nor does it cause any life-threatening problems. Unless you count the possibility of being beaten to death because of ignorant jackasses who don't understand a damn thing about the person their beating on. But, you don't have to suffer from congenital adrenal hyperplasia for that to occur.
However, I suppose for people who want a pill or something to stop this, there's no harm in it. Except, perhaps, with the motivations behind wanting this. I think the implications of it being touted as a possible cure for some homosexuality in girls is more than a little dangerous.
(emphasis mine)
Yikes, really? The disease doesn't in any way harm your child, but you are willing to put something into your body while you're pregnant with that child that does CREATE health risks just for the sake of your child MAYBE not turning out to be homosexual and to end up with behavioral traits that are societally accepted as feminine? Seriously? That's sick. It really is sick. You're willing to risk your health and that of the baby's just for this ridiculous reasoning? How moronic.
Also, it feeds into the belief that women who are gay are obviously butch, flannel-shirt-wearing truck drivers. Which might be true for SOME lesbians, but not ALL lesbians. There are women who, as children, played with Barbies, loved pink, loved playing House, have always been fashion-conscious, are the epitome of the Western ideal of femininity and STILL turn out to be lesbians or bisexuals while keeping all those same feminine traits into adulthood.
So, acting more feminine does not mean that you are going to be straight. And if you're willing to risk the welfare of your child just to make sure that she isn't gay later on in life, then I really don't think you need to be a parent. I really don't. People are supposed to protect the welfare of their children if they choose to have them.
I would never take away the woman's right to use this treatment, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's sick if she chooses to do so simply on the basis that it might make her daughter end up straight with feminine behavioral traits.
People need to get over their own prejudices. This is the same kind of logic, if you ask me, that leads to people throwing out their kids for being gay, disowning them, or forcing them to repress their true inner identity just for the comfort of their parents, who obviously don't give a damn about the welfare and comfort of their own children if they would do such things.
This pill may not have been invented and manufactured with the idea that it would limit homosexuality (although, I'm not sure I believe that), but it is obviously being touted as such to parents who have to make the choice of whether or not to take that pill. Otherwise, people wouldn't be risking their baby's health and their own just on the off chance that that pill might cause their babies not to be gay.
This needs to stop. Society needs to stop looking for a Gay Cure. It feeds into the idea that homosexuality is abnormal, wrong, and scary. That it is to be avoided at all costs, and in turn that feeds people's prejudices, which are also reinforced by the government with policies like DADT and DOMA, and even on the state level where gays are banned from adopting children, or getting married or recognizing the same-sex marriages of other states and countries, etc. In turn, this raises the violence level against gays and even just simply people whom those who would do violence against them THINK are gay. This behavior is reinforced by society and by the state and federal governments. And, apparently, even by some of the medical community and science community who think it's okay to push drugs that are to cure other things as having side-effects that cure or limit homosexuality.
Until these things stop, there will be no real equality. Every step counts, but sometimes it seems like one step forward is followed by two very large steps backward and it is quite frustrating.
I wonder how many babies would be aborted that weren't if we were able to identify which ones WOULD end up as being gay. And I wonder how many anti-choicers would be decrying that. Probably not many, seeing as many of the anti-choicers oppose abortion on a supposed religious level, which they have in common with the anti-equality crowd. Both crowds hide behind their Bibles and insult their God and their Jesus by using Their names to further their prejudices and hate.
But, I digress. Now, on to the actual subject at hand. The actual disorder that the pill is supposed to work against is congenital adrena hyperlasia.
Each year in the United States, perhaps a few dozen pregnant women learn they are carrying a fetus at risk for a rare disorder known as congenital adrenal hyperplasia. The condition causes an accumulation of male hormones and can, in females, lead to genitals so masculinized that it can be difficult at birth to determine the baby's gender.
www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-adrenal-20100815,0,5576220.story
I can understand why something like this might cause problems for the girl later. I mean, it might be a little embarrassing to find this out, especially if she happens to find this out in front of other girls. But, it's hardly the end of the world. I'm not entirely sure I understand the dread for this, really. This condition apparently doesn't cause any long-term health defects, mental instability or Autistic tendencies, nor does it cause any life-threatening problems. Unless you count the possibility of being beaten to death because of ignorant jackasses who don't understand a damn thing about the person their beating on. But, you don't have to suffer from congenital adrenal hyperplasia for that to occur.
However, I suppose for people who want a pill or something to stop this, there's no harm in it. Except, perhaps, with the motivations behind wanting this. I think the implications of it being touted as a possible cure for some homosexuality in girls is more than a little dangerous.
A hormonal treatment to prevent ambiguous genitalia can now be offered to women who may be carrying such infants. It's not without health risks, but to its critics those are of small consequence compared with this notable side effect: The treatment might reduce the likelihood that a female with the condition will be homosexual. Further, it seems to increase the chances that she will have what are considered more feminine behavioral traits.
(emphasis mine)
Yikes, really? The disease doesn't in any way harm your child, but you are willing to put something into your body while you're pregnant with that child that does CREATE health risks just for the sake of your child MAYBE not turning out to be homosexual and to end up with behavioral traits that are societally accepted as feminine? Seriously? That's sick. It really is sick. You're willing to risk your health and that of the baby's just for this ridiculous reasoning? How moronic.
Also, it feeds into the belief that women who are gay are obviously butch, flannel-shirt-wearing truck drivers. Which might be true for SOME lesbians, but not ALL lesbians. There are women who, as children, played with Barbies, loved pink, loved playing House, have always been fashion-conscious, are the epitome of the Western ideal of femininity and STILL turn out to be lesbians or bisexuals while keeping all those same feminine traits into adulthood.
So, acting more feminine does not mean that you are going to be straight. And if you're willing to risk the welfare of your child just to make sure that she isn't gay later on in life, then I really don't think you need to be a parent. I really don't. People are supposed to protect the welfare of their children if they choose to have them.
I would never take away the woman's right to use this treatment, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's sick if she chooses to do so simply on the basis that it might make her daughter end up straight with feminine behavioral traits.
People need to get over their own prejudices. This is the same kind of logic, if you ask me, that leads to people throwing out their kids for being gay, disowning them, or forcing them to repress their true inner identity just for the comfort of their parents, who obviously don't give a damn about the welfare and comfort of their own children if they would do such things.
This pill may not have been invented and manufactured with the idea that it would limit homosexuality (although, I'm not sure I believe that), but it is obviously being touted as such to parents who have to make the choice of whether or not to take that pill. Otherwise, people wouldn't be risking their baby's health and their own just on the off chance that that pill might cause their babies not to be gay.
This needs to stop. Society needs to stop looking for a Gay Cure. It feeds into the idea that homosexuality is abnormal, wrong, and scary. That it is to be avoided at all costs, and in turn that feeds people's prejudices, which are also reinforced by the government with policies like DADT and DOMA, and even on the state level where gays are banned from adopting children, or getting married or recognizing the same-sex marriages of other states and countries, etc. In turn, this raises the violence level against gays and even just simply people whom those who would do violence against them THINK are gay. This behavior is reinforced by society and by the state and federal governments. And, apparently, even by some of the medical community and science community who think it's okay to push drugs that are to cure other things as having side-effects that cure or limit homosexuality.
Until these things stop, there will be no real equality. Every step counts, but sometimes it seems like one step forward is followed by two very large steps backward and it is quite frustrating.
I wonder how many babies would be aborted that weren't if we were able to identify which ones WOULD end up as being gay. And I wonder how many anti-choicers would be decrying that. Probably not many, seeing as many of the anti-choicers oppose abortion on a supposed religious level, which they have in common with the anti-equality crowd. Both crowds hide behind their Bibles and insult their God and their Jesus by using Their names to further their prejudices and hate.