Is homosexuality natural?

Background

Opponents of gay rights assert that homosexuality is a recent sickness of society that has temporarily upset our natural heterosexual state of being. Gay advocates retort that this claim is demonstratively false, since homosexuality occurs frequently in many species. Furthermore, they point out that the question is irrelevant due to the "Appeal to Nature" fallacy, which lures people into concluding that if something is unnatural or outside of the norm then it isn't good.

Implications

Should gay and straight couples have the same legal benefits?

Experts

Suggest Expert Quote (click to expand, no login required)

Agree

Experts In Homosexuality

Petter Boeckman Zoologist

Agree

No species has been found in which homosexual behaviour has not been shown to exist, with the exception of species that never have sex at all, such as sea urchins and aphis. Moreover, a part of the animal kingdom is hermaphroditic, truly bisexual. For them, homosexuality is not an issue.

23 Oct 2006 Source

Encyclopedia

Wikipedia World's Largest Encyclopedia

Mostly Agree

The natural existence of homosexuality in non-human animals is considered controversial by conservative religious groups who oppose LGBT social movements because these findings seem to point to the natural occurrence of homosexuality in humans.

27 Apr 2009 Source

Disagree

Experts In Christianity

Luiz Sérgio Solimeo Christian Writer

Disagree

Anyone engaged in the most elementary animal observation is forced to conclude that animal "homosexuality," "filicide" and "cannibalism" are exceptions to normal animal behavior. Consequently, they cannot be called animal instincts. These observable exceptions to normal animal behavior result from factors beyond their instincts.

17 Feb 2004 Source

The Catholic Church Largest Christian Church

Disagree

[The church] must defend not only the earth, water and air as gifts of creation that belong to all. It must also defend the human person against its own destruction. What's needed is something like a 'human ecology,' understood in the right sense. It's not simply an outdated metaphysics if the church speaks of the nature of the human person as man and woman, and asks that this order of creation be respected.

23 Dec 2008 Source

Comments

Collective

Agree

Edit (wiki edits require login)

Disagree

Edit (wiki edits require login)

Individual

Agree

Add Your TakeOnIt (click to expand, no login required)

Disagree

Add Your TakeOnIt (click to expand, no login required)

milkfloatgunner gave their takeonit on 26 Nov 2009

Mostly Disagree

Homosexuality is not natural. I believe it is affected by circumstance and is more to do with a person's psychology than genetic inheritance; it isn't a present trait at birth, instead developing in the person at a certain point in life.