What is the difference between homosexuality and homosexual behavior

The Commissioner can receive individual complaints and has addressed sexual orientation issues in his reports and visits to member states. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has an important role in monitoring the human rights situation in the member states and the states seeking membership with the Council of Europe.

Various states repealed their criminal laws against lesbians, gays and bisexuals before being admitted as members or continued to be pressed for compliance with promises made at the time of becoming member of the Council. Several European Union laws offer protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and additional requirements refer to the human rights situation in accession countries. The founding treaties on the EU were amended in the Treaty of Amsterdam to enable EU to fight sexual orientation discrimination.

On May 1, the following provision in Article 13 EC Treaty entered into force in the first ever international treaty to explicitly mention and protect sexual orientation: "[…] the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the European Parliament, may take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation".

In December , the Council adopted a binding general Framework Directive on equal treatment in employment prohibiting direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, age, disability or sexual orientation.

The Framework Directive is binding upon the current member states, while the accession states are required to have completed national implementation of the Directive before joining the EU. The Charter currently is a non binding document but is important since it expresses the EU vision on human rights. For lesbians, gay and bisexuals the Charter is important because of the explicit non-discrimination provisions in Article 21 1 : "Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, color, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited".

The European Parliament EP passed several non binding resolutions on human rights and sexual orientation, the first, adopted in , calling for an end to work related discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In , the "Roth" Report detailed the variety of discrimination against lesbians and gays in the EU and the Parliament adopted a recommendation on the abolition of all forms of sexual orientation discrimination.

Although its power is limited, EP can exert a significant political influence on the Council and the Commission as in it requested them "to raise the question of discrimination against homosexuals during membership negotiations, where necessary".

Regarding the enlargement of the European Union, the EP adopted in a resolution stating that it "will not give its consent to the accession of any country that, through its legislation or policies violates the human rights of lesbians and gay men". European Union law regards discrimination against transgender persons as a form of sex discrimination.

This principle was established by the Court of Justice in the case of P v S and Cornwall County Council , where it was held that the dismissal of an individual following gender reassignment was unlawful discrimination on the grounds of her sex. The first case on human rights and sexual orientation in the Inter-American system is that of Marta Alvarez who brought a petition against Columbia before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Velasquez Rodriguez v Honduras , She was denied the right to equal treatment through the refusal of Colombian prison authorities to grant her the conjugal visits with her partner because of her sexual identity as a lesbian.

Colombian law states that conjugal visits are a right for all its citizens, without regard to sexual orientation. OSCE was created by the Helsinki Final Act which contained a provision to "respect … human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and belief", as well as "equal rights and self-determination of peoples".

The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE passed a declaration in Ottawa in calling on member states to provide equal protection against discrimination for all, sexual orientation being among the grounds specifically protected from discrimination.

National protection on the basis of sexual orientation exists in several states, in law, in practice or both, but it is far from being an accepted norm around the world. Several states or provinces have clauses in their constitutions regarding protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation, as it is the case of South Africa, Ecuador, several states in Australia, Canada and Brazil. Other states have sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws or articles in the Penal Code, for example The Netherlands and Romania.

The anti-discrimination provisions are adopted usually by including sexual orientation among the non-discrimination grounds from the beginning in the draft legal initiatives. In practice, the implementation of existing anti-discrimination provisions is dependent on the political will. Some states created public agencies to investigate sexual orientation discrimination, and some of them can initiate legal actions for remedies to the benefit of the victim The Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland.

The European Union's Framework Directive on Equal Treatment in Employment is currently the only international instrument obliging EU member states and, at a later stage, the candidate states to EU membership, to implement anti-discrimination policies at national level, based on, among other grounds, sexual orientation. It highlights the various UN treaties, monitoring committees and special rapporteurs and provides information on the African and Inter-American human rights systems, and the various human rights bodies in Europe.

The document presents the key legal and political considerations that should inform advocates' decisions about what actions to take at the state level. Our study aims to explore differences in the prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders in relation to homosexuality and to overcome some of the limitations of the earlier studies. It does so by using a large, representative sample of the Dutch population selected without reference to sexual orientation and allowing for separate analyses for men and women.

The study categorizes people as homosexual or heterosexual based on recent rather than lifetime behavior, the latter being a more diffuse categorization than the former. By looking at both lifetime and month prevalence, we were able to assess the relationship between homosexuality and mental health more precisely than most other studies. A detailed description of the design of the study and the major outcomes have been previously published. One respondent was randomly selected in each household.

The interviewers made a minimum of 10 calls or visits to an address at different points in time and days of the week to make contact. To optimize response and to compensate for possible seasonal influences, the initial fieldwork was extended over the entire period from February through December A total of persons were interviewed. Respondents provided verbal consent after having been informed about the aims of the study. The interviewer entered data into a computer during the interview.

According to the method of assessment, the response was Persons who declined to take part in the full interview were asked to furnish several key pieces of data. Of these persons, The psychiatric morbidity estimated with the General Health Questionnaire, 26 taking into account sex, age, and urbanicity of these nonresponders did not significantly differ from that of the respondents.

The CIDI has acceptable interrater reliability, 29 acceptable test-retest reliability 30 and acceptable validity for practically all diagnoses, with the exception of acute psychotic presentations.

The following DSM-III-R diagnoses were recorded: mood disorders depression, dysthymia, bipolar disorder , anxiety disorders panic disorder, agoraphobia, social phobia, simple phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder , psychoactive substance use disorders alcohol or other drug abuse and dependence, including sedatives, hypnotics, and anxiolytics.

Although eating disorders and schizophrenia and other nonaffective psychotic disorders were recorded as well, these data are not presented here because of their low prevalence. The assessment of psychiatric symptoms took place before subjects were asked about their sexual behavior, thus minimizing the chance of contamination.

The fieldwork was done by 90 interviewers, experienced in systematic data collection and extensively trained in recruiting respondents and computer-assisted interviewing. Respondents were asked verbally whether they had sexual contact in the preceding year and the gender of their partner s. If the respondent had had sex with someone of the same gender exclusively or not , he or she was categorized as homosexual.

Other sexually active people were categorized as heterosexual. Homosexually active men and exclusively heterosexually active subjects are subsequently referred to in this article as homosexual and heterosexual persons, respectively. Sexual orientation itself was not assessed. Of the total of persons, 30 respondents did not answer the questions regarding their sexual behavior. Of the remaining , More men than women reported having been sexually active Of the sexually active respondents, 5 lacked the necessary data to classify them as heterosexual or homosexual, leaving persons for the present analysis.

Of the men, 2. Of the women, 1. To assess differences in prevalence rates, adjusted odds ratios ORs were computed separately for men and women. Age, level of education, residency, and not having a steady partner were controlled for in these analyses, given that these variables were positively related to prevalence rates in the total sample. Homosexual and heterosexual respondents differed on education and relationship status Table 1.

Both homosexual men and women had a relatively higher educational level than heterosexual men and women. Both homosexual men and women less frequently reported being currently in a steady relationship than heterosexual men and women.

Homosexual and heterosexual men differed on residency status. Homosexual men were more likely than heterosexual men to live in urban areas. Compared with heterosexual men, homosexual men had significantly higher month and lifetime rates of mood and anxiety disorders Table 2 and Table 3. Inspection of the specific mood disorders revealed that compared with heterosexual men, homosexual men had a much larger chance of having had month and lifetime bipolar disorders and a higher chance of having had lifetime major depression but no significant differences were seen regarding dysthymia.

Regarding the specific anxiety disorders, the lifetime prevalence was significantly higher in homosexual men than in heterosexual men for all but generalized anxiety disorder. The biggest differences were found in obsessive-compulsive disorder and agoraphobia.

The month prevalences of agoraphobia, simple phobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder were higher in homosexual men than in heterosexual men. Regarding substance use disorders, the only significant difference was found in lifetime alcohol abuse. This is the only disorder more frequently observed in heterosexual men than in homosexual men. Homosexual men were not more likely than heterosexual men to report 1 or more month and lifetime disorders.

More homosexual men than heterosexual men had 2 or more disorders, both lifetime and in the preceding year. Not controlling for relationship status resulted in an increase in the various ORs data not shown.

Furthermore, some differences in month and lifetime prevalence became statistically significant. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male W. Saunders, Philadelphia, PA. Sexual Behavior in the Human Female W.

Klein, F. Sexual orientation: A multi-variable dynamic process. Michaels, S. Miller, H. Rubin, D. Smith, T. Spira, A. AIDS and sexual behaviour in France. Turner, C. Voeller, B. Some uses and abuses of the Kinsey Scale.

Download references. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Reprints and Permissions. Kirkpatrick proposes that any reproductive disadvantage from a low level of same-sex sexual behavior could be minor or negligible, irrespective of the degree of SSSA associated with the behavior. While specific measures vary all studies recognize that males and females reporting some degree of SSSA are relatively common, and not rare Kinsey et al.

Bisexuality is more common than homosexuality, but the nature of variation in SSSA is often not well appreciated since experimentalists are prone to force a binary dichotomy across what is in reality continuous and multivariate variation in sexuality Jordan-Young, There may also be cultural reasons why the degree of SSSA in populations may go under-reported.

We emphasize that our hypothesis is not that homosexual people are domesticated, or even more prosocial than the population average. Rather, we recognize that self-domestication has been an important process in the recent evolution of our species as a whole. SSSA has increased in frequency in humans as a consequence of the self-domestication syndrome experienced by our species. If correct, this sociosexual hypothesis comprehends the phenomenon of human SSSA as part of broader adaptive prosocial changes in recent human cognitive and social evolution Burkart et al.

Prum argues that for humans female dispersal was the ancestral condition, with females rather than males leaving their natal group. He proposes that female SSSA could evolve as part of selection for female prosociality to aid female introgression into a new social group and strengthen female-female social bonds Prum, , p. He further argues that male SSSA and homosexual behavior could have evolved through female mate choice Prum, Females may have preferred males that show a degree of SSSA since this male trait would lessen the intensity and investment of males in sexual and social control of females, and would subsequently have fostered the evolution of prosocial males and more cooperative male—male and female—male relationships Prum, , p.

Wrangham has also recognized an association between prosociality and homosexuality, but Wrangham proposes a very different hypothesis for why this association might be so. Wrangham , p. Wrangham argues that selection for reduced reactive aggression reduced prenatal testosterone levels in males, which resulted in a maladaptive expression of homosexuality in a minority of males. By contrast, prosocial benefits of SSSA would be expected to apply to both female—female social relationships and male—male social relationships Kirkpatrick, Here we have argued a link between prosocial evolution and SSSA.

Prum recognizes this selective force for females, but considers female mate choice the primary driver of human male SSSA, with prosociality in human males an outcome of female mate choice.

This hypothesized evolutionary scenario is perhaps more complex than ours, but that does not mean it is less likely. There are many variants of the endocrine hypothesis, but they all propose that SSSA is caused by some malfunction or gendered misexpression of endocrine systems considered responsible for establishing gender-typical behavioral differences between heterosexual males and heterosexual females Mustanski et al.

Hypotheses vary as to when or how in development a change in endocrine systems could result in SSSA. Arguments in support of the endocrine hypothesis come from a range of experimental manipulations of mammals, including primates, which demonstrate a role for androgens in the organization and development of male and female typical sexual and social behavior, and also show that severe manipulations of endocrine systems in early development can result in males showing female-typical sexual behavior and vice-versa Balthazart, ; Poiani, This disorder causes prenatal hypertrophy of the adrenal gland, and consequently the developing fetus is exposed to higher than normal levels of testosterone.

Females with CAH report a higher incidence of adult homosexual orientation than that of the population as a whole, but most females with CAH report exclusively heterosexual attraction Meyer-Bahlburg et al.

This would suggest that for women there is not a simple relationship between elevated prenatal testosterone and SSSA. Further, in both animal studies and the human cases of CAH pre- or perinatal endocrine manipulations have consequences for the development of anatomical secondary sexual characteristics and genital morphology. Female rhesus monkeys given testosterone postnatally develop an enlarged clitoris Pfaff, ; Dixson, and some females with CAH also develop partially masculinized genitalia Bailey et al.

There is no evidence that homosexual people male or female have intersex genital development Jordan-Young, ; Bailey et al. Rice and Gavrilets Rice et al. This is an interesting theory, but there is currently no evidence such a precise epigenetic modifier of testosterone sensitivity exists in either humans or other animals.

However, it is proposed, the endocrine hypothesis effectively categorizes homosexuals as partially intersex: homosexual men as partially feminized and homosexual women as partially masculinized Mustanski et al. Such a portrayal of homosexuality perpetuates discredited ideas of homosexuality as sexual inversion Ellis and Symonds, , and the historic medical and psychological view of homosexuality as pathological.

These views of homosexuality have long since been rejected by clinical and social psychology because in clinical psychology they have been found to be inaccurate, unsupported, and unconstructive Haumann, ; Jordan-Young, ; Bailey et al. We argue that it is time for evolutionary psychology to also question the veracity of the endocrine hypothesis for human homosexuality. Our proposed hypothesis for human SSSA has no requirement for sexual inversion.

It would not require that SSSA be masculine-like for females or feminine-like for males. We have argued that SSSA evolves as part of selection for increased prosociality. This hypothesis is testable. If it is correct there should be a detectable benefit to SSSA in contexts of within-group cohesion or cooperative tasks.

Some evidence already points to a relationship between affiliation and SSSA in humans. Kirkpatrick documents ethnographic examples of SSSA and homosexual behavior strengthening important social affiliations in both males and females and SSSA supporting long term supportive social bonds. Human males self-reported a higher level of homoerotic motivation if they were primed with words related to friendship than if they were primed with words related to sex Fleischman et al.

This suggests that for males social affiliation is a greater releaser of SSSA than a sexual context Fleischman et al. Whether within-group SSSA enhances cooperation and group performance to provide individual selective benefits remains to be tested, however.

Animal models could provide a powerful resource to explore these questions. We have described how homosexual behavior is more common in highly prosocial species than non-prosocial close relatives. We would predict homosexual behavior to enhance cooperation, group cohesion and performance and ultimately increase the reproductive success of individuals that are part of a high-functioning group in animals also.

Comparing the consequences of homosexual behavior in bonobos and chimpanzees for group function would be a test of this hypothesis Moscovice et al. If the sociosexual hypothesis of SSSA evolution is correct we would expect to see an introgression of systems causal of human SSSA and social and affiliative behavior at both genetic and physiological levels of analysis.

As we have discussed above, current evidence is compatible with this hypothesis, but significant gaps remain in our understanding of the genomic and neurophysiological basis of human sexual orientation and much work remains to be done. Exploration of human SSSA has thus far been dominated by assumptions that the trait must be maladaptive Bell et al. It may be timely and beneficial to explore alternatives that consider the sociosexual adaptive functions of same sex attraction and sexual behavior, and the full spectra of expression of SSSA.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Abild, M. Does proximity influence the expression of avuncular tendencies in Canadian androphilic males? Google Scholar. Bagemihl, B. Bagley, C. On the prevalence of homosexuality and bisexuality, in a random community survey of men aged 18 to Bailey, J. Genetic and environmental influences on sexual orientation and its correlates in an Australian twin sample.

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