Homosexuality can be defined as a disorder

Editor,

If you have been following the news, you know that the U.S. Supreme Court may choose to hear one of the many cases regarding homosexual marriage. I would like to offer some thoughts on the issue.

This summer, the CDC published the demographics on the prevalence of people who identify as heterosexual and homosexual. In the National Health and Statistics Report the CDC reported the following: “Based on the 2013 NHIS data, 96.6 percent of adults identified as straight, 1.6 percent identified as gay or lesbian and .7 percent identified as bisexual. The remaining 1.1 percent of adults identified as something else, stating ‘I don’t know the answer’ or refused to provide an answer,” (NHSR; July 15, 2014). This is very similar to the demographics reported by the Williams Institute at UCLA, which reported in 2011 that 1.7 percent of people identify as gay or lesbian.

From studying biology and psychology in undergrad, I can’t help but think that homosexuality results from failure of the sexual orientation to develop correctly. I know this goes against what professional organizations currently think and that it’s not politically correct, but I have valid reasons. Also, it’s not as if professional medical and psychological organizations are infallible in their judgments. Organizations frequently update their understanding of things.

I have several reasons for thinking an attraction to someone of the same sex is a disorder. First, anyone who works in the medical field knows that not everything a person is born with is automatically acknowledged as a manifestation of health. From conception until birth and after birth, there is the potential for anything to fail to develop correctly and sexual orientation is no exception.

One can be born with a wide variety of physical or psychological abnormalities. The important question is this: How do we recognize, determine and decide if something within a person is normal or abnormal, a manifestation of health or unhealthy? The answer is the intellect.

The intellect is capable of learning the natural order in the world. This ability to recognize order is the foundation for understanding the world we live in and for determining what is right or wrong, normal or abnormal, healthy or unhealthy.

It’s not difficult to understand why humans exist in two differentiated yet complementary sexes: male and female. It is not difficult to understand the purpose of the heterosexual orientation. Take a basic human anatomy and physiology class and one will learn the purposes of the human body. Easier than that, look around and realize that every human being exists from the union of a man and woman. As Francis de Sales once said, “The union of a man and a woman is the orchard of the country.”

Recognizing the purpose of the heterosexual orientation, which 96.6 percent of all adults identify as having, it is easy to recognize that this is the natural order of life. It is full of wisdom and purpose. The homosexual orientation, like other abnormalities, goes against natural order of life. Only 1.6 percent of people have this orientation, which is similar to the prevalence of other disorders.

Benjamin Sanchez

UNM alumnus