The Utah Statesman: COLUMN: Gay rights affect all people

By: Jon Adams

Well, here it is: the obligatory gay rights article. You knew it was coming sooner or later. This is, after all, a liberal opinion column.

But in all seriousness, this is an important topic and one that merits discussion. LGBT issues are personal for me, but that's not why I'm writing this article. The fact is that LGBT issues affect us all.

Chances are you know and love someone who is gay, bisexual or transgender. Roughly five percent of the world's population is homosexual and millions of people are transgender. These people are our friends, family, classmates and coworkers.

It is incumbent on us, then, that we all understand homosexuality and care about the issues that confront the LGBT community.

Homosexuality has been documented and tolerated in many societies throughout history. In ancient Greece, it was believed that a male-male relationship was conducive to the fulfillment of the soul and maturation of the intellect. Many of these relationships were pederastic, but certainly not all. Alexander the Great, for example, had adult male partners.

Same-sex love was celebrated in Chinese arts, and some scholars claim that almost every emperor in the Han Dynasty had male lovers. Homosexual relationships were also commonplace, respected even, among the warrior class in Japan.

And various cultures have long recognized a third gender. In South Asia, The Hijra are a caste of transgender people who live a feminine role. They may be born male or hermaphrodite, but they are regarded as being neither male nor female.In nature, too, homosexuality exists. Homosexual behavior has been observed in hundreds of species, including: antelopes, boars, bulls, chimpanzees, cows, ducks, cats, dogs, fruit flies, geese, gorillas, monkeys, horses, rams and sheep. In fact, nearly 1 in 10 sheep exhibit an exclusive attraction to the same-sex.

So it can fairly be said that homosexuality is not some perverse aberration of modern society. It has existed both in nature and throughout our history. But is homosexuality a choice? The scientific evidence is clear and compelling: the answer is no.
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