Comments on: Homophobia Among Future Doctors? I Thought They Were Educated! (you know…at least a little…)

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 03:57:16 +0000

Obviously I cannot make a universal claim about any given individual’s intelligence. I suspect, and this is simply speculation based upon the people I know, that if you were to take the IQs of people who disapprove of homosexuality and the IQs of those who approve of it, you would find the latter to be far higher than the former. Of course, this does not speak to the validity of their opinions, so it is more or less irrelevant to any genuine discussion of the issue.

I am not certain, however, that working and raising a family gives someone any particularly deep insight into human psychology, biology and genetics. I am also quite certain that it has nothing to do with their epistemology. I would suspect that those who hold anti-homosexual sentiments also have serious epistemological issues.

You are correct; there are some cases where homosexual people change their behaviors and live as heterosexuals. There are also cases where heterosexual individuals change their behavior and live as homosexuals. So what? That has nothing to do with anything. One can always find exceptions to the rule, and we all know that people’s behavior is determined by a whole lot more than their own desires.

I would be very interested in seeing these studies. My suspicion is that their methods are flawed, their conclusions are baseless or something else. When it comes down to it, though: who cares? If it makes someone happy, good for them! It doesn’t matter whether they can learn to live in a different way to please others; let them live as they please!!!!

By: JIm

JIm — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:41:20 +0000

Personally I object to the title of homophobia. A phobia is a fear, and I doubt that a lot of people who dislike gays also fear them. Unfortunately the Greek word for dislike is much harder to pronounce, so I guess we are stuck with your nomenclature. I doubt that you can rate intelligence for either side of the debate, even though I suspect that most doctors do consider themselves more intelligent than the general population. that may be so, but it does not stop them from having some significant blind spots. The reason is that while they spent ten plus years learning how to be good physicians others were just busy living and providing for a family. So, they may have learned a few things along the way that do not occur to doctors. As far as existing research, I think we can find just as much extant research which demonstrates that homosexuality is learned bahavior, albiet often learned at an early age. But the fact that it is learned behavior is one of the biggest reasons for laws agains child abuse (or did you ever think about that?). Maybe right and left handed is a close analogy, however. People who have lost their dominant hand have learned to use the other. People who have lived in a homosexual relationship have voluntarily changed, married and raised a family. So these things are possible.

By: Jesda

Jesda — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:03:53 +0000

I don’t like gays, but I love musicals!

Seriously, I’m surprised to hear of homophobia among aspiring medical professionals.