sábado, 20 de febrero de 2010

Equal Right to Kiss? Why You May Be Disgusted by Gay Behavior without Knowing It


"Gay-friendly" people unconsciously feel that two men kissing in public is morally wrong.

With the exception perhaps of just a handful of places in the world gay couples are not free to participate in this most basic, mindless and normal exhibition of romantic behavior.

Compared to the issue of gay marriage, gaining equality in the “right” to display such innocent feelings of affection for one’s same-sex partner is an even greater hurdle for gay rights advocates—and, in many ways, it’s an even more important one. This is because recent findings indicate that changing negative attitudes toward gays begins not with education, per se, but instead with exposing people more regularly to same-sex romantic behavior.

More simply, what makes the situation complicated is the fact that, although many people hold the explicit belief that it’s okay for gay people to be affectionate with one another in public (that is to say, if you were to ask them whether it’s okay for gay people to kiss in public, they’d say of course it is), the same people nevertheless hold implicit negative attitudes on the subject. That’s what Harvard University psychologist Yoel Inbar and his colleagues reported in a recent study in the journal Emotion.

Jesse Bering

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=unconscious-disgust-gay-behavior

1 comentario:

Enrique V. dijo...

Creo que hay un circuito de retroalimentación en todo este proceso.

La cultura debe cambiar para que se modifiquen las normas, pero las normas deben impulsar los cambios culturales. La discriminación por razones de preferencias sexuales no debe ser permitida en ninguna circunstancia.

La ley debe ser general y abstracta, por lo que no puede establecer obstáculos para que dos individuos -- del mismo o de diferente sexo -- decidan vivir juntos, apoyarse y tener relaciones sexuales en privado.

Así como generalmente se acepta manifestaciones de cariño entre personas heterosexuales, debe avanzarse hasta lograr lo mismo con esas manifestaciones entre personas del mismo sexo.

Pero eso no se puede lograr solo con la ley, sino que tiene que hacerse mediante el ejemplo y la familiaridad que surge de la vida diaria.