The Morality of Homosexuality | Teen Ink

The Morality of Homosexuality

March 19, 2009
By Anonymous

I figure that it would be good for me to discuss my opinions on homosexuality. This is something that I think about a whole lot because it is something I feel strongly about. I think that I have well developed opinions on the matter, but I generally have trouble putting my arguments and feeling into words. Hopefully, writing this and trying to organize what I think will be helpful for my own thoughts.
The whole issue about the morality of homosexuality makes me very, very angry. I feel this way because as far as I'm concerned, there is no issue. There is absolutely nothing wrong with two consenting people of the same gender having sex, end of story. My morals are far from black and white'I don't dismiss lying and cheating as inherently wrong, and I still can't find a view on abortion that makes me feel entirely comfortable. However, my opinions on homosexuality are very strongly one-sided. There is simply no way homosexual relations can be justified as being wrong. This position cannot be supported by anything rational. Arguments against homosexuality can come only from a source that is entirely irrational.
Religion is what makes people think homosexuality is wrong. In America, the great majority of people are Christian, and I myself know a lot about Christianity from my past experiences, so I'll just talk about the Christian view. I realize that there are people that believe that just the passive trait of being gay is a horrible sin, but these people are simply crazy, and any argument against that position is pretty unnecessary. Therefore, I will talk about the more common stance: It's okay to be gay because God makes people that way sometimes, but it's not okay for gay people to have sex, because that's a sin. It says it right there in the Bible, Leviticus 20:13: 'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.' There are some logical problems with this idea. For example: why would God purposefully make people gay and then say they should be chaste? But the real problem lies in the way this quote is used to rationalize positions against homosexuality. To Christians, the Bible is the word of God, so, if it says that gay sex is bad in the Bible, then that's how it is. However, the Bible also says that children should be put to death for being disobedient (Deuteronomy 21:18-21), that working on the Sabbath is an offense punishable by death (Exodus 35:2), and of course that wearing clothes made of two types of material (Leviticus 19:19) or trimming your beard (Leviticus 19:27) is detestable. Nobody believes those other examples are the word of God, so why the one about homosexuality? There is nothing special about the passage on homosexuality. It is simply just another entry in a big list of 'no-nos', but it is regarded as truth while the others are dismissed as exaggerations or outdated laws. You can't pick and choose. How can someone decide what parts of the Bible are the words of God and which ones aren't? The bottom line is that you can't pick and choose you're your god thinks is right and wrong based on what you think. Those passages discredit the entire book, including the parts about homosexuality. The whole situation is a mess, and it makes me glad that I no longer believe in a god or are forced to reconcile religious beliefs with logic and sensible morality.

The only argument against homosexuality is the Bible. Once the Bible is made a void argument, there is nothing. I can't think of any way conventional morals can show gay sex to be wrong. The way I see it, what is right and wrong has little to do with the action itself and everything to do with the consequences. When two people have gay sex, nobody is hurt in any way. Even the Biblical passages give no reason as to why what they condemn is wrong, but people agree simply by default.
I know from personal experience that it is easy to use the Bible as a substitute for a brain. I used to think homosexuality was wrong because of what my parents told me about my religious views. Then I started thinking and I realized how wrong I was. This is why I don't hold anything against people that have a moral problem with homosexuality and oppose gay rights. I have nothing but contempt for their opinions, but the opinions aren't really their own; they are those of old homophobes that lived thousands of years ago and wrote things that somehow managed to have an affect on the world in the present time. Religion catches people and sweeps them away into believing in identical values. When people are told what is irrefutably right and wrong at a young age, they have no reason to question what they see as the right answers. I have a feeling that if there was no religion and people had to come up with their own morals, very few would be against homosexuality, because I honestly cannot think of any situation in which critical thinking and logic could point to the immorality of the practice of homosexuality. Hopefully, people will come to realize this someday.


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This article has 79 comments.


Sythan BRONZE said...
on Jul. 7 2011 at 12:24 am
Sythan BRONZE, Livermore, California
1 article 0 photos 21 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Do not fear to blister if you live a life in flame"

You beliefs are proved wrong by science. Homosexuality is all around us, especially in nature. Ergo try again.

DillN GOLD said...
on May. 17 2011 at 2:59 pm
DillN GOLD, Centerville, Iowa
10 articles 2 photos 18 comments
There is only one verse in the Bi. ble. that says anything about it and even that verse can be interpreded in a other way.. point being. it NEVER clearly says it wrong in the BI.BlE. 

on Apr. 15 2011 at 5:55 pm
teacat749 BRONZE, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin
4 articles 0 photos 151 comments

Favorite Quote:
We do not quit playing because we grow old. We grow old because we quit playing.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

Yes, I agree, too!

on Apr. 15 2011 at 5:51 pm
teacat749 BRONZE, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin
4 articles 0 photos 151 comments

Favorite Quote:
We do not quit playing because we grow old. We grow old because we quit playing.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

Stop trying to shove your religion down out throats. We have a right to our own opinion. Also, homosexuality is NOT wrong. Please try to get that into you thick head.

Godisreal24 said...
on Apr. 14 2011 at 2:01 pm
You say you dont believe in God but how do you think everything came about...you think it just happened. Come on now, you cant possible believe that!!!! and homosexuality is WRONG!!! just as murdering, lying, cheating, fornication, adultery, and everything else is wrong and everyone that commits these sins will be held accountable for their deeds done in their body in judgement before God. If you don't believe it now, you will when you die !

MetallixRose said...
on Dec. 29 2010 at 12:41 am
I do not believe in God. I never have. One of my best freinds is a homosexual and my parents are determined to keep me away from her. I see nothing wrong with the issue, and I support your side fully. This was very well written and expresses good views.

Uhavenoidea said...
on Nov. 21 2010 at 12:12 pm
Civil Unions are not the same as marriage. Look it up.

Bbbbbbbbb said...
on Oct. 16 2010 at 8:49 pm
Do your research. People ARE born gay.

on Aug. 16 2010 at 6:30 pm
JeremyHerbert PLATINUM, Fairview Park, Ohio
21 articles 0 photos 54 comments

I'm a Christian. Let me get that out.  And even some of my classmates of the same faith are devoutly against homosexuality.  "The Bible states it black-and-white." 

What ever happened to forgiveness?  Do we ignore half the Biblical message when it's convenient?  Even if you do consider it a sin, sins are forgiven. 

Nobody has any reason to tell anyone else who to love.  Easy as that.


Tatiana BRONZE said...
on Jul. 6 2010 at 11:45 am
Tatiana BRONZE, New Market, Maryland
1 article 0 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We must never, never, never give up" -Winston Churchill

I know many people who are openly gay in my christian church. Yes, christian. The one thing they tell us that hurts the most is when people who have not encountered what they have say that being gay is a lifestyle choice. One in particular told me, "If those who say such things have gone through the things gay people have, they would never choose being gay. I am gay and that's the way I am. God loves me for who I am."

Tatiana BRONZE said...
on Jul. 6 2010 at 11:41 am
Tatiana BRONZE, New Market, Maryland
1 article 0 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We must never, never, never give up" -Winston Churchill

I'm a christian, and I believe that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality. While its not fair to judge harshly those who are homosexual, neither is it fair to say that all christians follow the word of the bible in its literal meaning. God loves each and everyone of us! It shouldn't matter what we look like or our orientation! WE are all people. I am a christian of an open and affirming faith, and I know that Religion and lifestyle can go along hand in hand. Prejudice leads to hate wich leads to discrimination. Sometimes, we need to stop and think and remember that we are all people and we are all created equal.

on Jun. 14 2010 at 1:42 am
pandabearrrr SILVER, San Pedro, California
6 articles 0 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
My only regret in life is that I wasn't somebody else.
- Woody Allen

yeah that's true. people who only choose to believe and follow certain parts of a religion are not actually religious and are just using it as an excuse to be prejudiced. i don't have a problem with religion. until they use it to be unjust and immoral.

on Jun. 9 2010 at 8:20 am
VanishingEntity, Keller, Texas
0 articles 0 photos 27 comments

Favorite Quote:
Reality continues to ruin my life.

-Bill Watterson

I don't think she's calling the RELIGION crazy, she's calling the people who choose to ignore SOME "words of God" and avidly promote OTHER "words of God. It's completely hypocritical!

on May. 27 2010 at 11:22 am
TGabrielle BRONZE, Metairie, Louisiana
1 article 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness, which scares us. We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous? But honestly, who are you to not be so?

I truly believe that people have the right to oppose anything that they want to. Honestly, I am against it, but I don't discriminate, against it. I do consider myself a devout Christian. We all make decisions-wrong or right, but there is no sense in dissing the Bible because you believe that it is untrue. So, if you are a Christian, I don't understand why there would be any kind of objection to what it says. God did not make anyone gay. No one was born gay. I am not gay, I don't like the same sex. Being that way is a decision. And there's a difference: people can discriminate the idea of being gay or discriminate the people who choose to be that way. So, I don't see any reason for discriminating against anyone else's belief just because it is not what you think is right.

on Apr. 9 2010 at 6:26 pm
peace.frog.271 BRONZE, Pinehurst, North Carolina
3 articles 2 photos 18 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Let us remember as we chase our dreams into the stars that our first responsibility is to our Earth, to our children, to ourselves." -George W. Bush

This means to me that before we let ourselves fade, we must take care of ourselves and others.

I'm sorry, I am all for all sorts of gay love, open or discreet. I don't neccesarily support gay marriage, but civil union or another simile of marriage is perfectly okay, if not welcomed, by me.

Saying this, I am a strong Christian and an open advocate for the Christian society to accept homosexuality. However, it really makes people like me stop and think when non-christian advocates call an entire religion crazy. Very frustrating indeed. Have you ever heard of "meeting half-way"? Because a lot of Christians do just that. Please don't characterize all of us by a select few religeous zealots.

Anyway, apart from what I mentioned above, it was a very good article, one that is well thought even though I don't agree with some of the key points.


Emiline SILVER said...
on Feb. 2 2010 at 3:12 pm
Emiline SILVER, Nashville, Tennessee
9 articles 0 photos 33 comments

Favorite Quote:
"When deep injury is done to us, we will never recover until we forgive. Forgiveness cannot change the past. But it does enlarge the future."- Mary Karen Read

I agree. I'm in the GSA at my school, ad the running joke is that "Hey, it was Adam and Steve, not Adam and Eve." A lot of people get mad at us about that too, but if people are going to follow one part of the bible explicitly, what about the other parts? No divorce, an adulturer shall be stoned to death? When did that become okay but two consenting adults having sex is suddenly WRONG?

on Feb. 2 2010 at 2:58 pm
SaraRoxsHerSox SILVER, McVeytown, Pennsylvania
7 articles 0 photos 85 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Brochacho!"

Yep, I agree with MattS

on Feb. 2 2010 at 2:53 pm
SaraRoxsHerSox SILVER, McVeytown, Pennsylvania
7 articles 0 photos 85 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Brochacho!"

I agree with almost everyone. There is nothing wrong with being homosexual. People shouldn't discriminate for ANY reason. This article is wonderful. Rated 5 stars.~Sara

on Jan. 11 2010 at 5:10 pm
Riotwriter SILVER, Greensboro, North Carolina
6 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
Don't let love see you, see love as you.

I lovee you for writing this passage. I am gay myself and still deal with the issues of it being right and wrong. I'm Christain myself and my parents scold homosexuality behavior .
:)
Gay marriage needs to be legallized soon

on Jan. 11 2010 at 1:57 pm
dirinity SILVER, Clayton, North Carolina
9 articles 0 photos 59 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Certain things catch your eye,
But pursue only those
that capture your heart.
"

he did:D I believe hes working on passing equality laws but recent events of national security have overshadowed it.