Cause of homophobia may not simply be "religion"

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/LGBT_rights_in_Mongolia

This is an interesting cultural theory. It looks like the route cause of homophobia may not be "religion" or "Christianity" - but actually how war-like the culture is (or was).

For example homosexuality was punishable by death under Ghengis Khan in Medieval Mongola. And the Aztec Indians in central America also had severe punishments for homosexuals (while more peaceful Indian tribes had a more tolerant attitude toward it). None of these cultures had any relation to Christianity (or Islam).

So likely homophobia isn't actually just a "Christian/Muslim thing" - most likely something which exist strongest in cultures with a warrior heritage like the Mongols, Aztecs, and ancient Israelites. Most likely since these cultures had low life expectancy and high mortality rates, they strongly emphasized sex as being strictly for procreation and therefore developed negative cultural attitudes and punishments towards gays:

In medieval times, engaging in homosexual activity was punishable by death.[3]

As of present, LGBT-peoples lack visibility in Mongolia. While the country does not have much homophobia, as stated by westerners traveling to the country, there is also not much of a public acknowledgment of homosexuality.[4][5]

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Aztecs placed a high premium on "manly", "assertive" behavior, and a corresponding stigma on "submissive" behavior. When conquered people were not sacrificed on temple altars, the males of conquered nations were often demoted to the status of women.[14][15] The penalties for male homosexual intercourse were severe. Mexica law punished sodomy with the gallows, impalement for the active homosexual, extraction of the entrails through the anal orifice for the passive homosexual, and death by garrote for the lesbians.[16] In Tenochtitlan, they hanged homosexuals. In nearby Texcoco, the active partner was "bound to a stake, completely covered with ashes and so left to die; the entrails of the passive agent were drawn out through his anus, he was then covered with ashes, and wood being added, the pile was ignited."[14]

 

Yet in ancient Greece where the military culture breed the most militaristic city state Sparta, homosexual activity was part of their military life. It is also said Alexander the Great had his boy friend. Although these may have been the exceptions.

 

More examples of "war" or "military cultures" which are anti-gay:

North Korea (Communist)

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/LGBT_rights_in_North_Korea

Soviet Union (Communist)

In 1933, Article 121 was added to the criminal code, for the entire Soviet Union, that expressly prohibited only male homosexuality, with up to five years of hard labor in prison. There were no criminal statutes regarding lesbianism. During the Soviet regime, Western observers believed that between 800 to 1,000 men were imprisoned each year under Article 121.[13] The precise reason for the new law is still in some dispute.[citation needed]

 

It was probably discouraged among the general population because they wanted people churning out slaves.

 

Maybe a warlike culture and homophobia have the same root cause - a tendency to an authoritarian, rigidly inflexible mindset. One that dichotomizes as much as possible, making everyone else either an enemy or a friend, making one entirely right or dead wrong, turning eccentricity or nonconformity into threats and evils.

Consider the contrast between Hinduism, which teaches that there are many paths to Nirvana, and Christianity is no less valid a path than any other -- and Christianity, which teaches that "the ONLY way to the Father is through ME, all else are WRONG."

I think the tendency to be authoritarian (and construct a religion built on that approach) is cultural, because people are clearly capable of being tolerant and flexible, when such attitudes are rewarded. For some, being in a position of authority is a dream (look at all the Presidential candidates!) while for others, it's a hell to be avoided at all costs.

 

I heard the same with Japanese Samurai.

Most likely though it had to due with men being isolated from women for long periods of time while out at war - similar to "prison sexuality" - so whether the Spartans were actually "gay" or just "desperate" I don't know. I don't know if homosexuality was allowed among the civilian population in Sparta

 

No,it wasn't outof desperation. Soldiers were encouraged to have relationships with other soldiers for tactical reasons. If soldiers love each other they fight for each other more fiercely.

 

I don't think religion is the cause of homophobia but it's a pretty common excuse for it.

 

True, but I doubt that all of the Samurai were gay when they returned home from war, a lot of them probably had wives waiting for them; they decided to have male lovers since they were isolated from everyone else while out at war

 

If they had sex with others of the same sex and enjoyed it they certainly weren't straight.

 

If they were just imagining their partner as a woman than yes.

If a guy sees a picture of a tranny who looks convincingly like a woman, he will be aroused until he realizes it as a man, because he's imagining it as a woman.

 

And like all cultures that devolve into liberal ideology, failure is certain.

 

Any culture anywhere, anytime will at sometime fail and be replaced. Nothing lasts forever, everything is impermanent.

 

Of course, studying why they fail is not important.

 

No.

If he has continuing sex with men and enjoys it he isn't straight. Idon't care if he pretends it's woman'a penis he is sucking or not.
Being fooled by a transvestite isn't the same thing as blowing a soldier.

 

People who were straight before being sentenced have gay sex in prison.

It's possible the one doing the penetration is the only one getting aroused, and they just take turns, who knows.

 

It isn't possible to be a straight man that enjoys sex with men. If he finds he does he may have discovered he is bisexual or homosexual. But heterosexuals don't typically enjoy being homosexual for any period of time. If they did they would be bisexual.

 

If you look at the dead cultures...most often they warred themselves to death, or were wiped out by another invading culture, or the plague, or most commonly a combination of all three.

 

There is a school of thought that few people are absolutely all one way or the other. Nearly all of us have a bit of bisexual in us. I don't have a lot of trouble imagining someone whose frustrated sex drive combines with a bit of bisexual, to produce an entertainment that is better than nothing. Likewise, plenty of homosexual men have had lasting marriages with women, complete with several children. And of course, gay men go to prison just like anyone else.

 

I am not talking about a guy thinking another guy is good looking or maybe even sexy. I am also not talking about somebody that experiments. If you regularly have sex with people of the same sex, you aren't straight.

 

I understand. However, by observation, the reverse isn't true, and plenty of gay men have regularly had sex with their wives, often bearing and raising children.

 

Iwould say that makes them bisexual.

 

We seem to be going around in circles. Again, the suggestion has been put forth that we are all at least somewhat bisexual. Some much more than others, but it's a matter of degree. You carefully disallowed consideration of those who find people of the same sex sexy, and those who are willing to experiment, but these are part of a spectrum of degree of bisexuality. I think if we had an appropriate measurement, we'd find a bimodal distribution, but not one with two sharp peaks and little between them. I think we'd find two vague peaks with quite a bit between them.

 

I don't think that most people are somewhat bisexual. I think most people can be slightly attracted to the sex they aren't generally attracted to. I like the Kinsey scale to better understand this. I am a 5 most people are a one. Three is a bisexual.

http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/ak-hhscale.html

Where did I do that?

I don't think you have too be a zero on the Kinsey scale to be heterosexuals.

 

No, I think that would be more out of a sense of duty and survival rather than any real attraction and pleasure.

But your mileage may vary.