A New York Times story published July 5, "Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited," refers to a forthcoming study on bisexuality in males conducted by Toronto and Chicago psychologists, who measured how men who described themselves as gay, bisexual, or heterosexual responded to erotic movies. Three-quarters of the bisexuals were aroused in the same pattern as the gay men. The article concludes that the study "casts doubt on whether true bisexuality exists, at least in men."
Note: The research was on sexual arousal, not behavior. No one disputes that many men who are aroused primarily by men can still manage to marry and father children. It just suggests that their primary sexual orientation is still homo. And, in fact, researchers have long recognized that female sexuality is far more fluid with regard to sexual orientation and bisexuality, while men tend overwhelming to be one way or the other (again, in terms of what they think about when they masturbate, to put it bluntly).
But all this flies in the face of the "lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender" mantra proclaimed by leading gay activists. The "LGBT"
fixation came out of academic "queer" activism in the 80s, and woe
be upon anyone today who challenges it. So, even though there is
no organized male bisexual activist movement, our LGBT
(or, chauvinistically, GLBT) activists are up in arms over the
Times story. The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force issued
a
statement declaring:
We remain stunned that the New York Times Science section would carry such a shoddy, sensationalistic and downright insulting story. It - and the profoundly flawed 'study' it purports to cover - are laced with biased premises, misstatements and inaccuracies. It equates sexual orientation with sexual arousal, as supposedly measured by a crude device. . . It defames the truth in the lives and loves of millions of bisexual men. The Times should be ashamed.
The NGLTF also notes that it is working with "bisexual leaders and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) to consider a coordinated response to the Times article." But interestingly, its "media contacts from the bi community" lists three women - and no "bisexual" men.
Update: Openly gay science writer Chandler Burr
states in a letter
to the Times:
Some gay and bisexual advocates are condemning "Straight, Gay or Lying?" regarding a study suggesting that bisexuality may not exist among human males - something those of us familiar with the scientific literature have known since, basically, forever.
Compare this hysterical - and anti-science - reaction to the conservative Christians' anti-science reaction to studies showing that homosexuality is an inborn orientation like left-handedness. They're identical.
The right hates science because the data contradict (in the case of homosexuality) Leviticus; the left because the data contradict the liberal lie that we're environment-created, not hard-wired in any way.
These particular scientific facts are making these advocates scream like members of the extreme right, though it's they who always tells the right to let go of concepts that are contradicted by science.
Dogma to the left, dogma to the right, and the facts be
damned.
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