The relationship between gander and biological sex is not always clear. The presumed masculinity of homosexual women and femininity of homosexual men is often used as a source of ridicule. Moreover, it can be a justification of physical violence. It is important to note that gender roles do not describe how the persons behave. They mainly dictate how the person should behave. Either homosexuals or heterosexuals do not always fit neatly into the gender categories based on their biological sex. The essay answers the question, why people often are homosexuals. The work proves that the homosexuality is not a choice. It is based on the strong same-sex attraction, when people just cannot escape it. If the homosexuality could be a choice, it would be very odd choice. It is possible for a person deliberately to choose the life full of aggression, violence and misunderstanding. If you find this topic interesting and controversial you can buy essays now.

Introduction

General, Historical, and Chronological Overview of Homosexuality

It is commonly to think that gays, lesbians, and bisexuals deal with the range of health problems, which directly relate to their sexuality. It is proved that homophobia and any kind of discrimination can affect a person's health. Researches show that lesbians and gay men are treated unfairly and have reduced access to medical care; they have less screened for health conditions than people with heterosexuality.

The lesbians and gay men are determined by sexual orientation. So, sexual orientation is an enduring romantic, emotional and sexual attraction to another person. Sexual orientation can be distinguished by other aspects, such as gender identity, biological sex, and the social gender role. The gender identity means the psychological sense of being female or male. The social gender role identifies the adherence to some cultural norms for masculine or feminine behavior. As the matter of fact, the sexual orientation can ranges from common heterosexuality to particular homosexuality. The sexual orientation can include different forms of bisexuality. Bisexual orientation means that person can experience emotional, affectional, and sexual attraction to both, their own and opposite sex as well. Person with homosexual orientation is referred to as lesbians and gay men. Lesbians are women, who prefer women. Gay men are male, who prefer men.

Admittedly, sexual orientation is different form of sexual behavior. It mainly refers to self-concept and feelings. Basically, the sexual orientation may or may not be expressed by person's behavior. Nowadays, the term homosexual is generally avoided. It depends on its negative connotations, relating to the way this word was used in the past.

It is worth noting that sexual orientation is relatively new notion in the politics, human right law and practice. Unfortunately, negative stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination are a great part of social value system and behavioral patterns.

Equality and non-discrimination are the main principles guiding the rights approaches related to sexual orientation. Lawyers, human rights advocates, and other activists seek for the ways to ensure dignity and guarantee social justice for gay men and lesbians.

Description of the Chronological Advancement of the Topic.

History of lesbians, gay men and other sexual minorities is very long. Most historians agree that the same-sex love and homosexuality have existed long time ago in different cultures.

Ancient history

In fact, history is full of lesbians, gays and bisexual or transgender people. Anyway, they have contributed significantly to the world's history, in spite that the world cultures rarely contribute homosexuality.

Ancient Greece has been long portrayed as a homosexual paradise for lesbians and gays. Ancient Greece was the first society, which has normalized same-sex love among its male and female members. Basically, homosexual relations were considered to be above the law of classes. They were reserved for aristocrats and the middle class. Ancient Greek culture has honored homosexual relationships as they flourished the Empire. Even Greek gods have had homosexual relations, for instance, gods Ganymede and Zeus, and Apollo with his many male lovers. Lesbians of that era included goddesses Camilla and Diana, and a talented poet Sappho, who lived on the island Lesbos in Greece. The legend says that Sappho and her native origin (island Lesbos) gave the start for lesbians culture.

An ancient Egypt has occupied the unique place in history. The duties that people worshiped were largely androgynous (Bonnie, 2010). Circa 1500 B.C., the queen Hatsepsut, has proclaimed herself as ‘a son of the son'. It was quite odd because women has gained a good social position and did not need to go to such extreme measures as to gain the power. Some time later, Bible stories started telling about hostility for homosexual relations. It has placed a negative sigma on homosexuality of all sorts. Between 390 and 393 A.C., all previous traces of homosexuality were denounced with the Middle Ages and the fall of Roman Empire and Ancient Greece.

European history improves that there was a little formal study of homosexuality till 19th century. The early efforts to understand human's sexual behavior were made by European scientists. Magnus Hirschfield and Sigmund Freud belong to the first investigator of personal sexual behavior. Their works supported the concepts of bisexual or homosexual orientation. They considered homosexuality to occur naturally in an identifiable segment of humankind. Freud did not consider homosexuality to be a crime or disease. Hirschfield has founded Berlin's institute for sexual science. Moreover, he has made a great input in Europe's best library on gay cultural history. English poets and writer did not support homosexuality in contradistinction to German scientists.

After World War II, in the USA a few attempts to create the advocacy for gay and lesbian groups were made. In the 1920s, the homosexual life has flourished in big urban centers such as Harlem and Greenwich Village (Cory, 1951). After those changes, the isolated gay and lesbians were met as soldiers, volunteers, and war workers. During the early 1950s, the government of Senator Joseph McCarthy has led to the first American political demands for fair treatment in employment, mental health, and public policy in spite of person's sexual orientation.

1950s-1960s Advances

The Mattachine society founded in 1950s by Chuck Rowland and Harry Hay was the first organization, acknowledging gay men as an opposite sexual minority. The other important homophile organization was One, Inc., which was founded in 1952. The first organization supported rights of lesbians was Daughters of Bilities founded in 1955 by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. This organizations started professional support from sociologist and psychologists. In 1965 the first gay rights demonstration took place in Philadelphia and Washington, DC. They were led by activists Barbara Gittings and Frank Kameny.

Basic Statistics and Demographics

There are different reasons why it is hard to establish basic demographics. The main hardship related to statistical findings regarding bisexuality and homosexuality is the doubtful nature of the research question. It goes without saying that Western perception of homosexuality differs from the rest of the world. The population referred to as ‘gay', in the West is not a term to describe and can be recognized by all men, who had sex with men, as it is known in the entire world. Men sexual relations with men are determined by term MSM. Generally, MSM means behavior of the person, while gay determines sexual orientation (Cochran, Mosteller, Tukey, 1954). The reliable data as for size of lesbian and gay population make it possible to starttle the public policy. The demographics helps to calculate the benefits and costs. It effects directly on legalizing gay adoption. The investigation of demographics helps scientists to discover dominant questions about general nature of labor market choices, specialization within households, accumulation of human capital, discrimination, and geographic location choice. The Kinsey report determines demographics of human orientation. It is the most popular research of human sexual orientation. Doctor Alfred Kinsey has investigated the seven-point scale to determine sexual behavior from 0 to 6 points, where 0 means completely heterosexual and 6 means completely homosexual. Kinsey determined that a small percentage of people were bisexual. Such people were falling into scale from 1 to 5. However, in 1954 Kisney's works were proclaimed to be bias.

To sum up, most of the modern surveys are based on the telephone or door to door based statistics (Black, Gates, Sanders, Tailor, 2000). As the matter of fact, the numbers mentioned above are likely to be under reported. It basically depends on the fact that most of people with homosexual orientation still live in fear. These people are afraid of being out by their family members and their local authorities. That is why majority of people with homosexual orientation prefer to hide their sexual identity.

Harmful Impact after Listing the Affected Population

In some environments homosexuality can be a source of freedom, passion, friendship, etc. This often happens in the societies, where gay men and lesbians meet each other. Therefore, they experience such positive outcomes. Majorly, as homosexuals belong to minorities, their status is associated with stress mainly. However, they are considered to be groups aimed to prevent minority members from adverse mental health effects.

The modern challenges are to educate and provide with information about sexuality in all its diversity. Mainly, heterosexual youth can be young people with the same-sex desires. It is important to know that they should not be treated differently. There are a lot of opportunities to help them to develop in responsible and sexually healthy adults.

In 1933, the World Health Organization stopped considering homosexuality as a ‘disease' as it is not harmful. Anyway, it is critical to improve the well-being of homosexuals and consideration of their needs and problems. From the health perspectives there are following issues such as the violence against homosexuality. No longer can be ignored the transmission of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) through homosexual contacts. The investigation of homosexuality takes part either in developed or in developing countries. In developed countries, the information on same-sex practices and homosexuality is scarce. It is evident that homosexuals on the West are treated far from perfect. That is why it should not be considered as a sample for homosexual emancipation.

The homosexuality is not a choice. It is dominant to underline that people with homosexual orientation feel strong same - sex attraction. They cannot resist or escape it. As the matter of fact, there exist the myth that homosexuality is the personal choice. However, it sounds odd. How can person choose the life full of discrimination, violence, aggression, and even persecution (Human right campaign, 2013). Therefore, sexual orientation is out of the reach of personal control. Admittedly, it is impossible to change somebody's sexual orientation. The therapies have limited effects for this aim. Mainly, the professional intervention often causes a lot of stresses. Moreover, homosexuality is not a disease. It is not harmful for neither person with homosexual orientation nor surrounding people. Homosexuality is not a disease neither of the body nor of the mind. Anyway, homosexuality is still accepted unfavorably (Sexual orientation and human rights, 2012). Bisexual and homosexual people are often treated with aggression and violence. Anyway, the treatment of homosexuality differs in the world. There are more that eighty countries, which identify homosexuality as illegal issue.

Governmental Protection of Homosexuals

People with homosexual orientation live very hard life. It depends mainly on the acceptance of surrounding society, friends, and family members. As the matter of the fact, homosexuals face aggression, violence, and discrimination every day. Therefore, there exist some rules, which help people with untraditional orientation to protect themselves. However, sexual orientation discrimination deals with different treatment or harassment because of sexual orientation - whether heterosexual, bisexual, gay or lesbian. Depending on where person work, this type of discrimination may be illegal (Sexual orientation and human rights, 2012). There are few types of law, which protect rights of homosexual person.

Federal law protects people from workplace discrimination on the basis of religion, race, age, sex, and disability. It is significant that there is no federal law that protects rights on the basis of homosexual orientation in the private sector. It depends on the event that federal government workers are protected from such discrimination (Gay & lesbians rights lobby, n.d.). The attempts to pass federal legislation to orient on basis of homosexual orientation in private sector were unsuccessful.

There is more hope that state government will create the order for such kind of discrimination. More than half of the states have the rules that currently prohibit the discrimination of the sexual orientation, in both public and private sectors. However, some states currently have laws, which prohibit sexual orientation discrimination only in public workplaces.

Basically, if the gay or lesbian cannot be protected by federal or state law in his\ her state, it is possible to be protected from workplace discrimination by country and city ordinances. As it is seen, in ancient time homosexuality was considered as something greatly different. There was less attention to sexual orientation and how people deal with it. Anyway, there were some particular statuses for homosexual people. In Greece they were famous writers and poets. They were flourishing their love by their talent. Many years after, homosexuality turned out to be a moral crime (Gay & lesbians issues, n.d.). Accordingly, there appeared many organizations aimed to protect gay men and lesbians, their rights and freedoms. After some years, the protection of sexual minority groups is based on governmental level. There are many state, federal, country, and local laws, protecting homosexual people and avoiding discrimination.

Conclusion

Homosexuality and sexual minorities exist as long as mankind. Nowadays, homosexuality is proclaimed not to be an illness. It is the type of people to be born. This is not challenge for society or a way to be different. Actually, it is a way for people live and feel. It is the way of life. However, gay and lesbians never disappear, in spite of homophobes' wishes. It is not hereditary. It is impossible to determine what affects people to feel the same-sex attraction. However, no matter whom they love, they are the same as we are.

Homosexuality does not harm others. Moreover, homosexual men and women more often harm themselves. Mainly, this happen because prejudice and ignorance. In 1933, the World Health Organization stopped considering homosexuality as a ‘disease' because it is not harmful. In the past, in Ancient Greece homosexuality was not considered to be a sin and took part in common life of citizens. Nowadays, the rights of homosexuals are prevented by the United Nations' Convention on the rights of the child. It records the rights of young people, including homosexual minority groups. The main right proclaimed is the acceptance and acknowledgement of their sexuality (Sexual orientation and young people, 2004). This right is the same as the right to express their free will. Basically, all people regardless gander, religion, race, sexual orientation should be able to be who they want to be and to love whom they want to love. The homosexuality is not a choice. It is dominant to underline that people with homosexual orientation feel strong same - sex attraction. They cannot resist or escape it.

This topic was chosen because of its actuality. Nevertheless, people all over the world feel the same-sex attraction. They are homosexuals. What should one do if such thoughts appeared in his head? Heterosexual people never think about such cases. However, heterosexuals are the same people as we are. They should have an opportunity to love, whom they want to love, and be happy. Not be afraid to realize who they really are. Most people with homosexual orientation still live in fear. These people are afraid of being out by their family members and their local authorities. As a result, majority of people with homosexual orientation prefer to hide their sexual identity. In the time of democracy, there are people that are afraid to realize, who they are. Majorly, it depends on society and its current rules. I really hope that in few years homosexuality will be common thing for all societies. Few decades ago, people were discriminated and hated only because of their skin color. Fortunately, nowadays it is in the past. There is a hope that one day, homosexual discrimination will disappear forever.

The mankind makes steps forward for future developing. There are many social organizations, which help young people to make decision about their sexual orientation. They are able to determine with no fear and pressure what they like and whom they want to be. The existence of such social centers is really dominant. Professionals help teenagers, educate, and inform them. There should be school programs, developing self-cautiousness and sense of their sexuality. As the matter of fact, there are different pro and cons homosexuality. However, majority of them are created by society. The science has proved that homosexuality is not a disease any more. It is the way people live and love. They should not be hated because of that. Homosexuality exists as long as humankind. It is important to understand that this is not abnormality; it turns out to be a normal type of sexual behavior.

References

Bonnie, J. (2010). History of lesbian, gay & bisexual social movement. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/history.aspx.

Black, D., Gates, G., Sanders, S., Tailor, L. (2000). Demographics of the gay and lesbian in the United States: evidence from the available systematic data sources. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10836173

Cory, D. W. (1951). The homosexual in America: A subjective approach. New York: Greenberg.

Cochran, W. G., Mosteller, F. and Tukey, J. W. (1954). Statistical Problems of the Kinsey Report on Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Amer. Statist. Assoc., Washington.

Human right campaign. (2013). Employment non-discriminative act. Retrieved from http://www.hrc.org/laws-and-legislation/federal-legislation/employment-non-discrimination-act.

Gay and lesbian issues - discrimination. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Gay_and_lesbian_issues_discrimination.

Gay & lesbians rights lobby. (n.d.). Harassment and discrimination. Retrieved from http://glrl.org.au/index.php/Rights/Workplace/Harassment-and-Discrimination

Sexual orientation and human rights. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.hrea.org/index.php?doc_id=432.

Sexual orientation and young people. (2004). Retrieved from http://www.rutgerswpf.org/sites/default/files/Sexual%20Orientation.pdf.

Urban Institute. (n.d.) Gay and Lesbian Demographics a research focus on the urban institute. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/toolkit/issues/gayresearchfocus.cfm