Problems of sexual orientation: Don’t judge, but empathise
View(s):As long as sex is dealt with in the current confusion of ignorance and sophistication, denial and indulgence, suppression and stimulation, punishment and exploitation, secrecy and display, it will be associated with a duplicity and indecency that lead neither to intellectual honesty nor human dignity.
Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing in a scene from the film Imitation Game
Alfred Kinsey– American Biologist and Sexologist
I am sure many of you readers have watched the film The Imitation Game. If you haven’t please do,it is a great film. During the Second World War Britain was an isolated island, dependent on material transported across the Atlantic. She needed more than a million tons of goods per week to survive and fight. The Battle of the Atlantic as it was called was a war of tonnage. As the Allies struggled to supply Britain, Germany was bent on sinking as many ships as possible. Around 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were sunk for the loss of 783 U-boats. As the battle raged it became imperative for the British Navy to break the code used by the German U-boats.
Alan Turing, the main character in the film, a brilliant mathematician, was recruited by British Intelligence to help break the code. Turing succeeded and it is said that his work shortened the war in Europe by more than two years and saved over fourteen million lives. King George the VI awarded the OBE to Turing for his wartime services. In 1952 he was arrested and prosecuted for homosexual acts. Charged with gross indecency he was given the choice between imprisonment and chemical castration. He accepted the latter and was given stilboestrol, a hormone to remove his libido. In 1954 he was found dead in his house of cyanide poisoning. He was 42 years old.
Human sexual behaviour is varied. It is determined by a combination of biological and social factors. Compared to our other primate cousins human sexual behaviour is less dependent on biological factors. For example, it is not limited to periods of oestrus. Our biological sexual signals are augmented by make-up, perfumes and clothing. In some cultures, these are suppressed by covering arms, legs and women’s faces.
The rules of society determine the range of sexual behaviours. Most cultures disapprove of sexual relations between close family members. Sexual relations with minors are widely proscribed though the age of consent may vary among different societies. Sexual behaviours such as masturbation considered taboo in the past are now accepted as normal. Some behaviours considered normal in the past such as homosexuality in Greece was later condemned, especially by some religious groups.
Alfred Kinsey, an American biologist was the first to do a large-scale study of human sexuality. He interviewed several thousand American men and women and published his findings in two monumental books, Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male in 1948, and Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female in 1953. Both were bestsellers and Kinsey became a celebrity. The Kinsey Reports as they are called were precursors to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States.
An important finding of Kinsey was that people couldn’t be divided sharply as heterosexual or homosexual. There was a continuum between exclusive heterosexuality and homosexuality. He introduced the Kinsey scale to describe the range of variation in heterosexual and homosexual behaviour. On a scale of zero to six, zero is exclusive heterosexuality, six, exclusive homosexuality and three, bisexuality. Kinsey stated, “The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. Not all things are black nor all things white. It is a fundamental of taxonomy that nature rarely deals with discrete categories. Only the human mind invents categories and tries to force facts into separated pigeonholes. The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects. The sooner we learn this concerning human sexual behaviour, the sooner we shall reach a sound understanding of the realities of sex”.
Homosexuality is not a psychiatric illness but persons with problems regarding sexual orientation may consult a psychiatrist for several reasons. Most of these problems are related to public attitudes, religious and personal beliefs that conflict with their sexual orientation. Adolescents who are shy and sexually inexperienced may seek help because of uncertainty about their sexual orientation. Sympathetic discussion, education and opportunity for reflection often help.
Young people who have realised that they are predominantly homosexual, uncertain of the implications for their lives, and fearing parental and social disapproval, also consult the doctor. One of their requests may be for treatment to change their orientation to heterosexuality. Is there such a treatment? The answer is no. The current evidence is that a person who has reached adult life without experiencing heterosexual attractions or fantasies is unlikely to develop these later. We have no proven therapies for such behaviour change.
Some homosexual people may ask for help with problems related to the negative attitudes of society. Others marry, often due to social pressure, and seek help about their inevitable dysfunction in heterosexual intercourse. Homosexuals who were unable to form stable relationships may become lonely and depressed especially if their families and friends do not support them.
In all these situations even though we have no therapies for changing sexual orientation, we listen sympathetically and advise accordingly. However, most of these problems would not exist if society were to look at persons with homosexual orientation with understanding and empathy. Recently in Sri Lanka, there has been renewed interest in the topic in the light of the government’s attempt to decriminalise homosexuality, a law arising out of our colonial past. In making our judgement it would be useful to read carefully what Kinsey wrote on the subject more than 50 years ago.
“It is ordinarily said that criminal law is designed to protect property and to protect persons, and if society’s only interest in controlling sex behaviour were to protect persons, then the criminal codes concerned with assault and battery should provide adequate protection. The fact that there is a body of sex laws which is apart from the laws protecting persons is evidence of their distinct function, namely that of protecting custom”.
The question is whose customs are we protecting, that of Victorian England or our ancient customs that looked with understanding and sympathy on mental illness, and broadmindedly on different sexual behaviours?
There is a postscript to the Alan Turing story. In 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown publicly apologised on behalf of the British government for “the appalling way he was treated.” Queen Elizabeth II, who is also the Supreme Governor of the Anglican Church, granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013, only one of four royal pardons granted since the Second World War. In an unprecedented move, this year, the United Kingdom passed what is informally known as the Alan Turing law that retroactively pardons men cautioned or convicted under historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts. Britain has truly moved on leaving their not so salutary past behind. Are we ready to do the same?