The Psychology of Homosexuality

As of this writing, Filipino world boxing champion, Manny Pacquaio, continues to draw indignation from the gay community, especially in the media. He delivered a knockout punch with his statement about same-sex marriage. Essentially, he quoted Scripture about God's judgment on homosexuality and somewhat comparing gays to animals.

Expectedly, the members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community vehemently ranted and attacked him. Even those not being alluded to became unnecessarily hurt by Manny's misunderstood media-statement. Amid these, Pacquiao seemed to have acquired more supporters and admirers as he clarified his statement and stood his ground about his beliefs.

Witnessing all these, I see no point at all for the LGBTs to relentlessly attack Pacquiao. The more they put him down, the more he becomes hugely popular and profits from it! Besides and most importantly, LGBTs do not have significant objective support bases, such as psychology/psychiatry, Scripture, and the law on their side.

In psychology and psychiatry, homosexuality was once officially listed for a long time in DSM doctors’ manual as a “mental illness.” Prior to political lobbying of the gay community in the 1970s to have it deleted from DSM, homosexuality was being handled by psychiatrists and psychologists as a psychological disorder subject to treatment and recovery.

If you quote Scripture as Manny would often do, the very essence and nature of created humanity is described in Genesis 5: 1,2: “When God created man, He made him in his own image and likeness. He created them male and female.” Homosexuality, on the other hand, is clearly spoken of as sin, evil, and immoral by the Bible.

In Romans 1, it says, “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper…”

Even the law only talks of male and female in connection to sex. The Phil Family Code (article 1) defines marriage as a “special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman.” In over 95% of the nations of the world, marriage is legally recognized only between male and female. No such thing as gay legal marriage in the world at large.

The Phil Supreme Court on one occasion (Silverio vs Republic, GR 174689, 2007) ruled where sex is defined as “sum of peculiarities of structure and function that distinguish a male from a female. Female is the sex that produces ova or bears the young child, and male is the sex that has organs to produce spermatozoa for fertilizing ova. Thus the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ in everyday understanding do not include persons who have undergone sex reassignment.”

As a psychotherapist, I am with and for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders. I accept them unconditionally as persons or fellow humans (not animals!). Along with all males and females, they deserve dignity, healing or wholeness, to know the truth, and happiness.