Women From Venus and Mars, Men From Venus or Mars

In a revolutionary verdict, Delhi High Court on Thursday legalized gay sex among consenting adults. The Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code as far as it criminalizes gay sex among consenting adults is violation of fundamental rights, the high court said. With this historic verdict, India become the 127th country in the world to decriminalize consensual homosexual sex. This order has generated a lot of debate and aroused strong reactions across the country from religious, political and social groups. Carrying on this debate let us have a look on some aspect of homosexuality.

Homosexuality is a strong preferential sexual attraction towards, and/or indulgence in sexual activity with partners of the same biological sex as oneself, the term homosexuality is used for males. This may be termed as an alternative orientation. Any sexual orientation apart from the popular heterosexual orientation may be termed as an alternative orientation. It is not necessarily an aberrant or deviant expression of one’s sexuality.

Mutual sexual attraction, and/or indulgence in sexual activity between two women is termed as Lesbiasm.

It is true that homosexuality is not a disease but a matter of preference. The question before us is: does the human mind have the empathy to include gender and sexual ambiguity in civil human society? It does.

Ancient Indian authors and poets without doubt imagine the state where the line separating masculinity and femininity often blurred and even collapsed. Such tales are consistent and recurring, narrated matter of factly, without guilt or shame. Like in Valmiky Ramayna, there are description of Rakshasa woman who kiss women on Ravana’s bed. Even in the Kamasutra, the oldest world scripture on sex Vatsayana has devoted an entire chapter on this subject.

The ghazals of 16th century i.e. of the Iranian times largely elaborate on love amongst homosexuals. These men were often attracted to young and delicate adolescent boys who used to sell perfumes. Buyers would come in a trance and establish relationships with the perfumer boys. These feelings are well illustrated in the following sher of Mir taki ‘Mir’

Aaya na tha khat, to koi puchhta na tha;

Aaya jo khat to khat pe khat aane lage

In this sher the term ‘Khat’ has two meanings; firstly means an adolescents initial beard and secondly a letter. This couplet means that ‘Till the boy was not mature, nobody noticed him, but on entering puberty and growing the first tuft of beard he started receiving love letter after love letters. Another similar sher by the same shayar,

Mir bimaar huen jis ke sabab;

usi attar ke londe se dave lete hain…

This lines mean that, ‘The perfumer boy who was responsible for Mir’s illness, eventually became his cure’

Even history says the Roman king `Niro` had married males. Great men like Plato, Leonardo-de- Vinci, Michael Angelo were also gay.

Many Americans feel that homosexuality is now as prevalent in this culture as it was in ancient Athens-especially right after they watch news-casts of AIDS activists shouting at politicians and chanting, “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” It’s safe to say many are not too darn pleased. For their part, gay rights activists find it fits their agendas to have us believe as many as one in five of us have homosexual tendencies.

What makes people gay? There are several theories regarding origin/cause of homosexuality but none of them are concrete or fool proof. They are based on behavioural, psychological, genetic reasons, etc. No one knows definitely why some people develop such alternate preferences. Interestingly, Varahmihir, the noted astronomer and ayurvedic physician of 5th century A.D. put forth this view that – If in an individuals horoscope, venus and saturn are in each other’s navmaans and are aspected by each other, then he or she will be afflicted by a person of the same sex, acting as opposite sex. This is in concurrence with the recent genetic theory.

Sir Alfred Kinsey, USA in his study reported that 28% of the females & 50% of males have had homosexual experience one time or another in their life span. He also noted that world was not divided into sheep & goats. Consistent with this view of sexual orientation, Kinsey & his associates developed a 7 point scale to describe the continuum of sexual orientation, Individuals are placed on this continuum based on their sexual behaviours and erotic attractions. Zero on the scale represented exclusive heterosexuality and six represented exclusive homosexuality. Three on the scale indicated equal same-sex and opposite sex responsiveness.

A New Direction

Is biology at the heart of sexual preference? Everyone agrees that the evidence to date is slender. We don’t know whether there is a gay gene or set of genes. If there are, we don’t know whether they might strictly determine our sexual nature or only nudge it a little. We don’t know how to explain bisexuality, or even heterosexuality. We don’t have a clue as to what’s up with transsexuals, those people who feel they are men trapped in women’s bodies or vice versa. Their sex does not match their gender.

And if homosexuality turns out to be genetic, i.e., inherited, why hasn’t it died out? Could it be that sex is not just about reproduction and that same-sex behavior has been a survival strategy in the past- much as it is today in many prisons in world? Oh, there’s a lot to be learned.

What’s important is that the latest research reflects a new direction and a refreshing change it is. Finally, the medical and scientific communities have abandoned their shame-and-blame approach to sexual preference. Youngsters have to realize: Just a generation or two ago homo-sexuality was thought to be a mental illness. Only in 1973 did the American Psychiatric Association remove homosexuality from the therapist’s bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

We have lived through an entire century where we have left unchallenged laws of old imperial masters that dehumanized sexual minorities. This has to change –and it would surely now.

Is my opinion, if a homosexual if satisfying his relationship in a positive way, he is better off than not satisfying at all or being a destructive heterosexual !

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by
Dr Paras Shah
Chief Consultant Sexologist & Infertility Specialist
SAL Hospital
Rajasthan Hospital
www.s4sq.com