HOMOSEXUALITY

What is homosexuality?
Homosexuality originated from the Ancient Greek word homos, meaning same, and the Latin
word sexus, meaning sex. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is an enduring pattern of
emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions primarily or exclusively to people of the same sex.
The four most common types of homosexuals are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

Male homosexuals and their behavior

There are various theories explaining the factors causing homosexuality. In one certain mice
experiment, scientists discovered that those which received deficient male hormones tend to
become more submissive and were willing to receive the sexual act of the other male rat.
Although, this is only one side of the coin because other theories also attribute homosexuality to
the kind of environment a person is exposed to.

Female homosexuals and their behavior

On the other hand, female homosexuals are usually termed as lesbian. The first known written
usage of the word "lesbian" in the sense meant here dates only from the 19th century. Earlier uses
of the word from as far back as the 17th century, can be found but used in an entirely different
sense. Lesbianism is also called sapphism or female homosexuality.

Transgenderism
Another type of homosexuals is the transgender. This term is usually used to refer to the state
of ones gender identity not matching ones assigned sex. Unfortunately, the transgender
community suffers from severe victimization. Society often reacts to gender transgression by
trying to discourage the behavior, punishing the individual.

Health issues related to homosexuality

One of the most common issues fought against by the homosexual community are the various
health issues highly related to their sexual orientation. Diseases like syphilis, herpes simplex, HIV
or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and AIDS or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome are the
usual cases associated to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders.

Increasing HIV/AIDS cases

In the past few years, alarming increase in the number of cases of HIV and AIDS has been
noted by the Department of Health. As you can see in the graph, the incidence rate of these
diseases is consistently rising over the years. Sadly, most of the victims are not just homosexuals,
but also young adults, usually between the age of 22-25 years old.

Teenage behavior towards sex

And, because the teenage years is the height of a humans curiosity and libido, it is only
therefore significant to promote health education among the youth to make them aware of the
possible consequences of premarital and unprotected sex such as teenage pregnancy and
transmission of different diseases.

Protecting yourself from sexually transmitted infections

As they say, prevention is better than cure; hence, aside from health education, it is also
important to teach people as to the different ways to protect themselves from acquiring diseases
such as those mentioned earlier. Without these measures, everyone will be at risk, even the
innocent children of these patients.

Government's role in issues concerning homosexuality

Now, for this to effectively happen, the leaders of the government must be called upon to act
towards promoting the peoples awareness, not only about the health issues, but also all other
political issues surrounding homosexuality.

Peers & families acceptance

But, more than anything or anyone, it is the peers and families acceptance of the individuality
of a person which matters most. It is their support and understanding that is of great value to
these people. With love and care, the world will surely be a better place to live in for them.