12 MYTHS AND FACTS ON BEING GAY....

MYTH #1: "I don't know any persons who are gay."

FACT: You may not know any
persons who are out to you as being gay. In a classroom of 30
persons, for instance, there are probably 2-3 persons who are gay.
Estimates are that 1 person out of 10 is gay. Using one widely
accepted estimate, there may be over 20 million gay or lesbian
persons in the United States alone.

MYTH #2:"Being gay is a form of illness."

FACT: The American Psychological
Association says, "It is no more abnormal or sick to be gay than to
be left-handed. There is, in fact, a growing body of evidence to
indicate that sexual orientation is determined before birth by some
combination of genetic and biological events. Since it is not an
illness, it needs, nor has, no cure.

MYTH #3:"Gay persons are child molesters and recruit children to their
lifestyle."

FACT: By far, the majority of child molesters are
heterosexual men. The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in
the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, found that over 90%
of all child abuse is committed by straight men on minor females.
Furthermore, one does not choose to be gay just as one does not
choose to be straight. One only decides whether to act on his/her
orientation.

MYTH #4:"Men who are gay and women who are lesbians want to be the opposite
sex or have simply not found the right person."

FACT: Almost all of the males enjoy being men and almost all of the women enjoy being
women. They simply are attracted to, and fall in love with, persons
of their same sex.

MYTH #5:"Persons who are gay cannot maintain long-term relationships. "

FACT: Just like heterosexual people, persons who are gay form a variety of
relationships that last a short time or many years. Heterosexuals
even have a divorce rate of 50% while nobody knows about the length
of relationships of gay persons since they are not allowed to marry.

MYTH #6:"People who are gay could change if they wanted to do so."

FACT: Almost all studies show that no one, gay or straight, can change
their sexual orientation. Our orientation is almost certainly
determined sometime between conception and the first years of life.
Gay and straight people might be able to change their behavior but
not their underlying orientation. We do not, however, choose our
sexual orientation. Dr. George Weinberg writes in Society and the
Healthy Homosexual, "From what I have seen, the harm to the
homosexual man or woman done by the person's trying to convert is
mutifold...First of all, the venture is almost certain to fail...In
trying to convert, you will deepen your belief that you are one of
nature's misfortunes. "

MYTH #7:"Persons who are gay do not understand how to make a good family."

FACT: One in every four families has a gay or lesbian person within
that family several studies suggest. Studies also show that there is
no difference between gay and straight persons in their quality or
ability to care, love or raise children.

MYTH #8:"Persons who are gay are protected and granted equal rights."

FACT: Only a few states and a few cities and organizations include gay
persons in their policies of nondiscrimination. Gay persons are not
allowed to get married, are not given the same financial rights as
straight couples, do not have to be allowed in to see their partner
who is ill in a hospital and so forth

MYTH #9:"You can identify someone as being gay or lesbian by their mannerisms
or physical characteristics. "

FACT: Gay people are as diverse as are
straight persons. Only a small percentage of gay persons fit the
stereotypes.


MYTH #10:"In a gay relationship, one person plays the husband (butch) and the
other plays the wife (femme) role."

FACT: Since laws, churches andsociety have typically condemned, or at least ignored, the relationships of gay persons, most gay persons do not feel an
obligation to follow "the rules" of what a relationship is to look
like. Most gays and lesbians, therefore, create very different
relationships based on equality and who each person is, rather than
upon societal roles. In fact, since most gay and lesbian persons run
their relationships without a model, the look of each relationship
varies greatly from that of other relationships.

MYTH #11:"Gay and lesbian persons are promiscuous. "

FACT: Some are and some aren't, just as the same can be said for straight persons.

MYTH #12:"Being gay or lesbian is something new."

FACT: Homosexuality appears
across time and place, and even across animal species. In a 1951
study by Ford and Beach, they found even then that many cultures
consider homosexuality a normal variation of sexual behavior.