Is homosexuality a form of mental illness? A small but evangelical group of psychotherapists say it is?

Here is an interesting article that discusses it from a very benign viewpoint. "This extreme reaction to maternal stress even has a very logical and natural purpose. Sensing that a population is under the stress of crowding or poor living conditions, nature provides this hormonal mechanism as a means to limit population growth and thereby reduce the cause of the stress.

This is merely wistful thinking on the part of social elites that wish to play at social engineering. Studies indicate that all sorts of stress factors (lack of food, over crowding, loud noises, bright lights, etc.) may cause this response. Of course, if the stessors are actually over crowding or hunger, a reduced population growth might be desirable.

But if the stress were heavy predation then reducing population growth would not really be helpful. Also, for humans the stressful event is 15 to 20 years removed from the time at which reproductive activity might begin; therefore it is unlikely that nature would respond to a brief event during pregnancy with such a delayed reaction of 20 or more years after the fact. This effect of prenatal stress can not therefore be seen as a positive adaptation, but rather as merely a birth defect.

In mammals, a slightly reduced reproductive urge in a small cohort of the male population would not necessarily result in a lower pop. Growth, as unaffected males might just copulate more with less competition. Also, it is not possible for homosexual behavior to be a natural reaction to "crowding or poor living conditions" because it is present even in societies and families that have not experienced such negative conditions.

Finally, homosexual men are quite capable of fathering children. Since women have only a few children, a male’s homosexuality may not actually result in any significant reduction in fertility. It certainly may be that environmental (or perhaps genetic) factors may contribute to this behavior.

However, there is also ample evidence that this behavior may be learned, or adopted as a result of influences that have no genetic or biological cause. For instance, homosexual activity among pirates is believed to have been very common and probably the result of the prolonged absence of females. Also some studies show that men with no prior homosexual behavior, when incarcerated can adopt such behavior and frequently view it as temporary behavior necessitated by their imprisonment, and which is abandoned once freedom is regained.

We also know that the ancient Spartans actively encouraged homosexual relations among men to promote unit cohesion during battle. This was successful in the short term, but as competing Greek city-states copied their battle gear and tactics the Spartan advantage was lost. In the long term the low birth rates of Spartans (due to high rates of lesbian and homosexual orientations) meant that Spartans could not replace battle casualties as could their adversaries.

I have never heard it suggested that the Spartans had a genetic predisposition to be homosexual. It was clearly a learned and conditioned behavior. FOXNews got scooped on this.

I heard an interview on NPR about this a month or two before seeing the story on FOXNews. In this case, homosexual behavior is not something that men are born with, but it is clearly a response to the cultural/social environment. I suspect that the truth is that human sexuality and behavior is more flexible and variable than many realize.

Since it is clear that at least in some cases homosexual behavior is not mandated by genetic or biological factors and is a result of conditioning or learned behavior, it is entirely possible that it could be unlearned or deconditioned. Many human physiological responses can be learned or conditioned. Therefore, the argument that sexual response can not be learned or conditioned is not really very credible.