I think that it is human nature to feel the need to classify and categorize. This just doesn't apply to people, but everything!!! But I thought it was an interesting point that in order to have the term "homosexuality" we needed to have another term to compare it to. The term heterosexuality was to represent the "normal" sexual desires and expressions, whereas homosexuality represented the abnormal. There are still many who are very uncomfortable with homosexual people, but those people can only see as far as sexual orientation, which is very sad. There is so much more to a person than that.
I remember in another class, the professor put up a list of questions that are usually asked of people who are homosexual, but replaced all instances of "homosexual" with "heterosexual". Some of the questions were: What age were you when you first realized you were heterosexual? Do you plan to reproduce as a heterosexual? If you could change your heterosexuality, would you? There were many more questions, though these ones came to mind first. We never ask "normal" people why they chose to be heterosexual, so why should we look accusingly at any other sexual orientation?
I do think that sometimes it is important to have categories, though I am not sure if it is right to place humans in them. If we absolutely must, I would agree with what was said in class- we should not rank the categories. By ranking, we are implying that one is better or more normal above the others. And who is to truly be the judge of that?
Erin Pattridge
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