Understanding a Piece of Same Sex Attraction

     So I understand by the title that many of you are thinking, "Wow! This is such a heated big topic". I wish to talk about a piece of Same Sex Attraction. This isn't universal for everyone, but can help us understand a little about what is happening.
      In my class this week, we talked about gender roles. What gender roles can you think of? When talking of men and women let us look at what once were traditional gender roles such as men go out and provide for your families, women stay home and take care of children. I am sure we know this list of differences. Now, lets look at children. Girls play with ponies, barbies, and anything pink. Boys wrestle, play with action figures, make toy guns and such. These are just some of the thing boys and girls may do differently. We can see that society plays a role in what we play with and how we act. Now, society isn't necessarily the only reason we have these roles. We must also take into account our biological make up or the biological differences between males and females.
      We watched a video and I would recommend anyone watch this video called, "Understanding Same-Sex Attraction". In this video, men who are dealing with same sex attraction talk about how they felt like they didn't fit in with their gender. They had siblings that would put them down and make them feel separated from their gender. Caleb, in the video, talks about how he wasn't as fast as the other boys or as good at kicking as the other boys were. So, he decided not to play sports as much because it hurt. He felt distant. The video talks about fathers who were absent, personality differences between fathers and sons, and abusive fathers. So, their sons felt the need to connect with their fathers. This doesn't mean fathers are responsible. Caleb talks about another point the video makes as a contributing factor of Same-Sex Attraction. He says that he was molested by a male. Three of the men talk about their molestation by males.
     The video gives a lot in thirty minutes about a wounded gender identity, bullying, attention from dad, mother confusion, and pornography. These things played a role in many of the men's lives and impacted their association with same sex attraction. The men talk about the healing they felt came when they felt valued by other men in ways that were not sexual. They felt that as their fellow male peers accepted them their masculinity increased and they began to feel the love or respect they deserved from other males.
     I think the experience of these men is interesting and how they came into their feelings of same-sex attraction is intriguing. I also think it is important to state that, like the title says, it is just a piece of understanding the attraction. It would be wrong to say he suffers with same sex attraction, so he must have been this, this and this. We don't know everything.
     What we should do is show them we care about them, treat them with respect, and love them as Christ would love them. There are many people who struggle with this as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. If you are LDS and suffer with same sex attraction, this isn't here to offend you; but, we understand some of the things we do know about same-sex attraction. As many leaders of the church have talked about, the Atonement can heal everything. Come closer to Christ and he can help you. Many members that suffer with this do turn away and it sad but it doesn't have to be. There are resources out there and while it may not work for everyone God loves his children. I hope anyone reading this will not just throw it to the side and say it is garbage or that it isn't true. We can help by trying to understand the attraction. I don't want to go around fixing everyone who has struggles with same-sex attraction; but, I can have more compassion for people and realized that my actions can affect a way a person has those feelings. Again, the reasons I have talked about are not true of everyone; but, they do show us some interesting things.