April 8, 2003
I had an interesting discussion today with my class about whether or not homosexuality is a mental disorder. It began with me and Even, peacefully and quietly walking down the road, chatting about the subject in a calm and relaxed fashion (I might add that I enjoyed the conversation with Even. He didn't get all fired up about it, compared to other immature people who engage in mindless flame wars). Now, when we couldn't agree on it, we brought the question up with the rest of the class, and about 3/4s of them claimed that homosexuality is a mental disorder, while I (and of course most of the girls) claimed that it is not. I will now try to explain why it is not. (And for the record, I am not a homosexual.)
First of all, it isn't a disorder, hence it is not a mental disorder. For something to be a disorder, it has to harm the person "infected" by it, or disable that person from functioning normally in society. Now, homosexuals aren't harming themselves, neither are they a disfunction to society. They are perfectly able to do their jobs, to go shopping, to interact with other people, etc. And they're not harming themselves, in fact, I'd say that they are enjoying themselves!
"But they can't reproduce, and hence, they're harming humanity as a whole!" There is a fine balance. If everyone is heterosexual, the Earth will soon be overpopulated, but if everyone is a homosexual, there will be no more reproduction, but that still doesn't make it any more of a mental disorder. Homosexuals aren't confused in any way, they are perfectly aware of this biological fact.