I have heard that the current politically correct theory about race is that there really is no such a thing, but I'm not sure what is meant by that. Of course people refer to the "human race", but that's just a figure of speech. Technically, there is no human race, there is a human species. Traditionally, what defines a species is that all its members can interbreed and produce offspring. Also traditionally, a race of humans is like a breed of dogs. A collie and a beagle can interbreed and produce offspring, so they are of the same species. The pups may or may not resemble either the father or the mother, but they will be dogs nevertheless.
Why they call collies and beagles two different breeds is because they are different both in appearance and behavioral characteristics. These differences are the result of selective breeding which, in the case of dogs, was done deliberately with the intention of isolating certain characteristics so that they may be predictably reproduced. With wild animals and humans, the selective breeding generally occurs naturally, which is why it's called "natural selection". Natural selection is more or less random, but geographic isolation of a population limits the number of random genetic combinations available, and so tends to produce populations of the same species that have different characteristics. If these distinct populations are then brought together and allowed to intermingle, they will, after multiple generations, tend resemble each other to the point that they become indistinguishable. That is, unless they hate each other, in which case they will avoid interbreeding and may even attempt to exterminate each other. It seems to me that, to deny the reality of different races in the human species would be the same as denying the reality of different breeds of pets and livestock. Am I missing something here?
I think it has been established that some people seem to have a genetic predisposition for alcoholism. Of course environmental influences also factor into it, but some people metabolize alcohol differently that others, which makes them more vulnerable to becoming alcoholics. I don't know if that qualifies alcoholism as a disease or not, I suppose it depends on how you define "disease". Now being predisposed to something doesn't necessarily mean you have to do it, but it means you would be well advised to watch out so that it doesn't sneak up and bite you in the ass when you're not paying attention.
I'm not sure how all this applies to homosexuality, but I suspect it's the same only different. If it's not something that a person deliberately chooses to do, if they are indeed "born that way", then it seems likely that there is a genetic component to it. Like with alcoholism, it may only be a predisposition, and may also be influenced by environmental factors. Like, say a seemingly straight guy goes to prison for 20 years, and there he becomes accustomed to homosexual activity. When he gets out of prison, he may continue being gay, or he may go back to being straight, or he may swing both ways. Does this mean that his prison experience made him gay, does it mean that he always was gay and didn't know it, or does it mean that he never really was gay and just went along with it in prison because it was the only sexual option available to him?
Remember that gay friend of my parents that I told you about? Well, the way he got exposed was that one of his apprentices was drafted into the army. When he was filling out the paperwork, there was a question asking him if he ever had a homosexual experience, and he said "yes". This must have triggered an alarm of some sorts because the guy was called into an office and interviewed by somebody, I'm assuming a doctor but I don't know that for a fact. After some questioning, it was determined that the guy was not really a homosexual, and he was admitted into the army. In the process, the doctor, or whoever, explained to the guy that homosexuality was not "the purest form of love", as he had been previously led to believe. When the guy went home on leave, he angrily blew the whistle on the whole operation. Since everybody involved except the leader was a teenager, it would seem that he should have been prosecuted for child abuse or something, but nobody pressed charges. I suppose they all wanted to sweep it under the rug and forget about it because that's what people did about things like that in those days. I'm not sure how the army doctor determined that this guy was not really a homosexual. I mean he also had a girl friend, but so did most of the others involved, and the leader was married with children. The quote about "the purest form of love" reminds me of what you said about those Greeks, and this leader was a schoolteacher so he would have known about that.
"Greek love is a pain in the ass!" - Woody Ellis
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