Sex and the Catholic Church It has been said that the two most powerful drives in a human, besides the practical need for food and shelter, are sex and religion. The sexual urge is strong in nearly everyone, as advertisers of everything from chocolates to cars can tell you, and the urge to worshi...

For thousands of years, most cultures around the world have recognized marriage as a union between a man and woman. In the majority of modern nations, including almost all of the United States, same sex or gay couples cannot be legally married. Several gay couples have unsuccessfully filed lawsuits ...

Gay rights have been a very controversial issue in the past fifty years. The oppression of homosexuals has been an expanding focus in our media and society. After reaching a satisfactory level of equality within gay rights after the Equal Rights Act of 1973, the opportunity of gay marriages is the n...

A little girl dreams of her wedding day from the first day of kindergarten. She imagines a beautiful white gown, a traditional religious ceremony, and a Hawaiian honeymoon. She envisions a long, happy marriage, a large family, and separation from her partner only at death. Unfortunately, today, ...

Issues/Strengths/Challenges What does it mean to be gay? "I never had any real attraction towards women, but I really knew that I was gay when puberty began. I felt an attraction toward the other boys and I was curious to find out what they were like." P.J. Smith (Personal communication, November 2...

The topic of gender is relevant to everyone. It is also a topic that evokes a strong emotional response. Gender is a social construct and few of us are aware of the system of rewards and punishments that have shaped our gender identity. For others who this system did not 'succeed' are...

Same-sex marriage There are many important issues discussed in public policy today. One of these issues is homosexual marriage. This is an important issue because it deals with a relatively large minority of the United States. This issue is put into many different lights. Those of morals,...

During the last 2,000 years of Christianity many changes have taken place in how it sees people and their place in the kingdom of God. The Church has changed its views of people of other races as inferior, or savages, in need of salvation. They have changed their views on womens equality. They are e...

Homosexuals and their Struggles Who are we to judge? Well people sometimes judge other people just because... a person is different. What I mean by different is not just the way they look but the way they identify themselves as; and judgments such as "that is nasty, you are gay" or &qu...

Sexual orientation has been and to some degree is still seen as a taboo topic. For many years it has been argued that sexual orientation is based on one's gender and one's sexual preference, should be based on one's sex (i.e. females should be attracted to males and males to females). For gener...

The joke goes "you can hardly find a strait play on Broadway anymore," however, that wasn't always the case. A lot of devoted theatre artists spent much time in jail and being ridiculed in order to get us our say on the legitimate stage. From obscure hints at homosexuality in such ea...

Paedophilia has risen to epidemic proportions in Australia. Although there is no hard empirical evidence, the enormous surge of recent attention on the abuse of children by priests suggests that there is an even bigger endemic in the Australian church. The psychological damage to victims of child se...

Gay Marriages - Why is Society Afraid? You meet someone special and start to form a connection. Soon the sharing of your hopes, joys, and fears begin. Soon after this friendship develops into love, and you realize that you want to spend the rest of your life with this person. They are not only y...

Gertrude "Ma" Rainey and is one of the biggest names in Blues history. She was extremely talented and touched on many issues through her songs, including alcohol, death, abandonment, erotica, injustice, love, murder, poverty, sex and homosexuality. Through this paper I hope to take a loo...

"Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable"(Leviticus 7:22). This is the quote that most often justifies Christian homophobia. This essay will show that everyone, is this is what they believe, is welcome into the kingdom of God no matter what their sexual prefe...

I. Introduction A gay man remembers his high school years filled with loneliness, fear, and self-hatred. Another man recalls spending every lunch period in a bathroom stall. A lesbian recollects her bottling up all her emotions and silencing all impulsive gestures, terrified of saying or doing a...

RACISM We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. The Declaration of Independence The legal barriers to racial equality have signi...

Hate Crimes In America Did you know that people with blonde hair have low I.Q.s? Or that people less than five feet tall are more likely to spread a disease? How about that people with brown eyes are really worshipers of Satan? That did not sound very logical, did it? No,...

For minority protection by lesbians and gay men has moved to the center of American life at the outset of the 1990's. It is almost certain that lesbian and gay issues will be a more eminent aspect of the public consciousness and American political scene in the coming decade than in any other time i...