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From: rcf@pnet01.cts.com (Bob Forsythe)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,alt.romance,soc.men,soc.singles
Subject: Re: Are Humans Naturally Monogamous?
Message-ID: <6128@crash.cts.com>
Date: 6 Dec 90 15:04:18 GMT
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gazit@duke.cs.duke.edu (Hillel Gazit) writes:
>In article <6091@crash.cts.com> rcf@pnet01.cts.com (Bob Forsythe) writes:
>>Personally I'd find suggestions that my left-handedness was learned to be on
>>par with suggestions that gays are made, not born.  
>
>What difference does it make if gay are born this way, 
>or they are made this way, or they choose to be this way?
>
>Why does it have any importance?


     The difference, Hillel, is that once someone decides they are made and
not born, it's a much shorter step to deciding that they can change if they
"really want to", and the person deciding begins coming up with tactics to
*make* them want to.  In the case of handedness, this belief led teachers to
beat my grandmother and mother's hands, tie their left-hands behind them, and
generally make them ashamed of what they were.  In my case it was more subtle.
Just a teacher proudly announcing she'd never give an "A" in handwriting to a
left-handed person because we slanted our letters the "wrong" way, and
determinedly holding my wrist down so I couldn't hook my hand when writing,
then belittling me when I smeared ink across the page.  And all because of a
belief that we could be right-handed "if we really wanted to".

Bob c/o The OTH Gang
rcf@pnet01.cts.com