Homosexuals Are Not Criminals or Sick

The suicide of the young leader of Azerbaijani homosexuals causing scandalous events in the Bina settlement, where the deceased lived, as well as the statement by the representative of the Caucasian Muslims Office of the inadmissibility of beating people for their sexual orientation caused a flurry of interest in the phenomenon of homosexuality.

What is it and how should we characterize homosexuality, referring to medical books?

Psychologically homosexuals, as a rule, are perfectly normal people without any pathological manifestations. They are characterized by only one difference from the rest of society - the orientation of sexual desire. All other communications in a homosexual couple (interpersonal, emotional, sexual) are similar to those in a heterosexual one. Therefore, in recent international classifications homosexuality has been removed from the list of diseases. Study of the psychological status of homosexuals conducted by various scientists has also confirmed this position. In addition, at the end of last year, U.S. scientists discovered the gene of homosexuality. It exists in every man, but is active in different ways.

So homosexuals, by the medical definition, are normal people. Their "abnormality" is caused by the attitude to them by others. Fear of exposure and stigmatization, and the specter of loneliness in old age impose a certain print on their character, behavior and emotions, according to specialists.

People with a different sexual orientation often have neuroses, depression and behavioral disorders. Many authors have noted that homosexuals are more impressionable, excitable, subject to frequent changes of mood, more suggestible, unbalanced and vulnerable. They more easily develop neurotic, hypochondriacal, and hysterical reactions compared with other people.

Among the gays many people are professionally engaged in the arts. There are those in Azerbaijan, who are well known to the public. In the classic Russian literature, Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852), the oustanding lyric poet Sergey Yesenin (1895-1925) and the brilliant composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) were from this rare sexual group.

Homosexual Leonardo da Vinci suffered for this reason from loneliness and depression. In homosexual desires and transformations of Leonardo some clue to the phenomenon of Mona Lisa's smile can be found. William Shakespeare was a homosexual. The English poet and philosopher Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for homosexuality. On May 25, 1895 he was sentenced to two years of hard labor. In jail, he wrote one of his most famous works - Ballad of Reading Prison.

Public attitudes toward homosexuality were different in different eras. American sociologists studying 195 world cultures found that only 14 % of the men and 11 % of the women rejected homosexuality.

Muslim East was always tolerant to such people. Moreover, the love of men to boys in certain centuries in the Islamic world, and even earlier in Greece and Byzantium was considered a sign of selected and refined character.

In Europe, repressive attitude towards homosexuality began to develop with the transition to Christianity. Partially this attitude was justified by the need to increase fertility. In medieval states laws were made to punish homosexuality and homosexuals were persecuted by the church and the Inquisition.

Public condemnation of homosexuality is largely contributed by various "myths", ingrained in people's minds: homosexuality is disgusting, homosexuality is debauchery and sin, homosexuals molest children and youth, and homosexuality leads to reduced fertility.

In recent years, the fact that homosexuals are a source of AIDS has been added to this list.

Scientific and socio-psychological studies and observations indicate that the tolerance or intolerance to homosexuals does not affect their number in society. Intolerant attitude towards them only complicates the existence of these people in society, increasing the number of mental and interpersonal conflicts, neurotic and depressive states. Therefore, from the end of XIX individual psychologists and sexologists argued for equality of homosexuals.

After World War II the formation of public opinion and legal legislation was significantly influenced by the work of American researchers, in particular, for the first time there was scientifically proven that homosexuality is not a disease or a perversion, but different sexual orientation.

In several countries of America and Europe the process of legalization of homosexuality started. These processes of liberalization and tolerance towards homosexuality indicate a noticeable change in the consciousness of society.

The Azerbaijani legislation does not divide people, according to their gender or preferences. According to the laws of the Republic of Azerbaijan, same-sex relationships are not a crime if they are not caused by coercion and are just a voluntary union of adults.

Kamal Ali

ANN.Az