Homosexuality: Legally Permissible or Spiritually Misguided?1

Lockard, Homosexualitybehaviour (free agency) of homosexuals. The standard Roman Catholicposition on homosexuality does not condemn homosexual orientation; it doescondemn homosexual behaviour.While the homosexual community denies that sexual orientation is chosen(most homosexuals believe they have no choice, since they were “born thatway”), it fails to recognise that, indeed, homosexual behaviour in its humandimension is a chosen act of life (O’Brien 2004).Scientific literature has often concluded that the sexual orientation of a personcannot be changed any more than one can change his/her eye colour. Thus, itpostulates a biological (illness) model for homosexuality. However,Throckmorton (2003:4) compellingly contends:My literature review contradicts the policies of major mentalhealth organizations because it suggests that sexual orientation,once thought to be an unchanging sexual trait, is actually quiteflexible for many people, changing as a result of therapy forsome, ministry for others, and spontaneously (as a matter ofchoice) for still others.Even psychiatrist Robert Spitzer, a member of the American PsychiatricAssociation who was instrumental in helping to remove homosexuality fromthe Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973, now concurs that some people canchange. He reached this conclusion following his interviews in 2000 with 200men and women who claimed to have completely turned from homosexuality(Abbott 1995).In a further discussion of sexual identity development, Strauss (2006)postulates that it is a safe observation to conclude that humans are personallyaware beings able to make choices regarding their own sense of identity andcourse of behaviour.3.4. Empirical research on the causes of homosexualityIn evaluating a multifactorial causation for homosexuality, scientific researchon sexual orientation has taken many forms. One early approach was todiscover evidence of a person’s sexual orientation in his/her endocrine system.148