Christian words to a homosexual Page: 3 of 11
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sexually stimulated by a person of the other sex.
"Boy meets girl; boy falls in love with girl."
That is the way it usually happens. But there
are a considerable number of men and women
-experts tell us ten to twelve per cent of the
population-whose interest is the other way. A
man feels drawn to, interested in, and sexually
stimulated by another man; a woman is in the
same position in respect to another woman.
Not all of those who feel this attraction or
have this tendency act upon them. Probably a
very great many never do. The thought of
physical contact of that kind may be repugnant
to them. Yet they prefer to be with persons of
their own sex and very often they develop deep
affection, much more intense than ordinary
friendship, for another man or woman. On the
other hand, a not inconsiderable number want
very much to have some kind of physical con-
tact with the person of their own sex with
whom (as we must phrase it) "they have fallen
in love." Sometimes they do have such con-
tact. It is not necessary to describe here what
such people may "do" with one another, ex-
cept to say that in general their relationship
may include all the usual ways of sexual con-
tact save that one which is possible only be-
tween a man and a woman.
How many people fall into the general
category of homosexual? How many people
are "in" the homosexual condition, whether
they act upon it or not? The answer depends
on many factors and in any event is not suscep-
tible of precise statement. As we have noted,
4sociologists in the United States and Great
Britain have estimated that something like ten
to twelve per cent of the total population in
those lands might be included. Some have sug-
gested a larger percentage; and one expert has
said that while about ten per cent have homo-
sexual tendencies, only four or five per cent-
half of the ten per cent figure-have ever acted
in an explicitly homosexual fashion.
On any reckoning, however, the suggested
figures are not inconsiderable. It would mean
that in the United States, with a population
nearing two hundred million, there must be
something like twenty million homosexuals; in
Britain, five million. If these seem unexpectedly
large numbers, the answer is that very few of us
can easily identify a homosexual when we see
one. After all, he or she is not very different
from anyone else in most ways which appear on
the surface to the ordinary observer. It is only
in specific sexual drive that he or she is different.
Despite a popular idea, very few male homo-
sexuals are of the effeminate type-the "pansy"
or "fairy," as the phrases go. Very few female
homosexuals are "butch" or highly masculine
in manner and appearance. Nor is it true that
homosexuals are found only in the "arty"
professions. As one expert has remarked, your
banker or your doctor, your secretary or your
teacher, even your pastor (for clergymen are
not miraculously exempt from homosexual
drives), may feel this deep attraction to his or
her own sex. So may a truck-driver or a brick-
layer.
5
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Pittenger, Rev. Dr. W. Norman. Christian words to a homosexual, book, Date Unknown; Cincinnati, Ohio. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1787730/m1/3/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.