http://home.earthlink.net/~ekerilaz/weerdingemen.htmlhttp://pages.zoom.co.uk/lgs/facts2.html#5'Gay mythology has a strong hold on the imagination of many people in society. The truth about lesbians and gay men is, in most cases, much more mundane.
Homosexuality is rare The incidence of homosexuality in any given human society has consistently been reckoned as being between one and ten per cent. Gay people exist in cultures all over the world, and have done throughout recorded history.
Homosexuality is something that is learned/taught It is commonly believed that young people in particular are vulnerable to any encouragement to become homosexual. This is despite the fact that over 99% of gay people originate from an upbringing that is strictly heterosexual, and if sexual orientation was purely dependent upon outside influences there would be no gay people at all in homophobic societies like the United Kingdom. As Michael B King and Pat Pattison state:
Most children who develop a homosexual orientation have heterosexual parents. Indeed, if social learning hypotheses are credible it is a wonder that a homosexual orientation develops at all in the face of strong family and societal models of heterosexuality." (British Medical Journal, 3 August 1991)
One particularly common and nasty myth is that men become homosexual after being sexually interfered with or 'corrupted' by gay adults when they are young. But if every boy who is sexually abused became homosexual, the number of gay men in the world would be well in excess of 10%.
Homosexuals want to have sex with ANYONE of the same sex This is a result of the tendency to think of gay people purely in sexual terms, rather than as being human beings that do all the other normal things that people do. Gay people are defined as such by their sexuality, but so are heterosexuals. Being gay doesn't mean having sex 24 hours a day, gay people also cook, go shopping, watch telly, etc. It doesn't occur to many heterosexuals that a gay person might actually find them unattractive and respond with "Don't flatter yourself!"
This myth is also fuelled by the previous two; if gay people are thin on the ground it logically follows that they must be in a constant state of sexual frustration, and are seeking to increase their numbers by trying to persuade heterosexuals to become homosexual. The infamous American homophobe Anita Bryant summed it up when she said "They cannot reproduce, therefore they must recruit." In the main it is true that most gay people who are part of a gay community know plenty of gay people they can choose from (or may, in fact, be in a monogamous relationship), and it would be ludicrous to risk offending or alienating a poor unsuspecting heterosexual who is bound to say no!
Another form of this myth is that all gay men are 'promiscuous'; that they are always having sex with each other, and as many different men as possible. Some people claim that this is based on observation, but it is observation of a very limited sample of gay men. The vast majority of gay people are isolated and have considerably less sex than the average heterosexual.
Homosexuals abuse children The majority of child sex abuse is committed by heterosexual men, usually within the family. Again, the lumping together of all forms of sexual 'perversion' creates this myth and it is reinforced by the tendency of the media to report child abuse as 'homosexual' child abuse or 'homosexual' paedophilia if a boy is molested by a man, whereas if a girl is molested by a man it is simply referred to as child abuse, never as 'heterosexual child abuse'.
The important point here is to distinguish between consensual sex and non-consensual sexual abuse. Rape is NOT sex. Rape is a form of violence that uses sex to hurt people, and the type of personality that is capable of sexually abusing another human being has no relation to which gender a person wants to make love with. King and Pattison point out that the evidence indicates that children of both sexes and adult women are often assaulted by the same man (Multiple paraphilic diagnoses among sex offenders, G. Abel, J. Becker, J. Cunningham-Rather. M.Mittleman, JL. Rouleau; Bull Ann Academy of Psychiatric Law 1988; 16:153-68) '
Gay men dress up in women's clothes Transvestism is a totally separate phenomenon from homosexuality. The majority of transvestites are heterosexual men, very often married with children. Some gay men do dress up on occasion, but usually it is as female impersonators ("drag") on stage, or else just for a laugh as fancy dress when going out. Transvestism is a heterosexual fetish; a man's desire for a woman's body expressed by wearing the clothes that simultaneously hide and mystify it. Most gay people look - and dress - just like anyone else.
All gay men practice anal intercourse every time they have sex This myth reflects the preoccupation of heterosexual society with penetration, and tells us more about heterosexuals than it does about gay people! In fact, anal intercourse is a sexual activity that is practised by people - heterosexual, gay, lesbian, etc. - alike, and is no more or less popular among gay people than it is among heterosexuals (about 25% in both cases).
Just to keep things on keel
