SYNOPSIS:

    "Sex-and-gender minorities" is an expression intended to embrace
all variations from 'standard' sex and gender.
The sex-script hypothesis will not explain all of the observed variations.
But several variations can be illuminated by the hypothesis
that we are imprinted with various sexual responses early in life.

    The Unitarian Universalist movement has taken strong stands
supporting all sex-and-gender minorities.
And we endorse those theories of sexology
that do not attempt to 'cure' or 'correct' sex-and-gender differences
but which seek first to understand.

OUTLINE:

I.  THE UU MOVEMENT AND VARIOUS FORMS OF SEXOLOGY

II. SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE SEX-SCRIPT HYPOTHESIS

III. THE IMPACT OF HAVING A GAY PRESIDENT

IV.  CONCLUSION: UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM
IS OPEN TO ALL SEX-AND-GENDER MINORITIES

    "Sex-and-gender minorities" is intended to be a blanket term,
covering all forms of variation from 'standard' sex and gender.
Thus, "sex-and-gender minorities" includes:
homosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals, intersex individuals,
persons with unusual gender-personalities,
persons with unusual sex-scripts ("paraphilias"),
people living as members of the other sex, transvestites,
& everything else commonly lumped together
under that other catch-all term "transgender".
Such variations of sex and gender
are far too numerous to list individually here.
For example, about 100 different paraphilias have already been named.
And there is no limit to the possible variations in sex-scripts.
(No offense is intended toward any sex-and-gender minority
not explicitly named above.)

    The Unitarian Universalist movement
is very open to sex-and-gender minorities.
Perhaps only those religious organizations
created by and for sex-and-gender minorities
---such as the Metropolitan Community Churches for gays and lesbians---
are more open to persons with variations of sex and gender.

    Because of this openness, the UU movement
attracts many people who feel rejected by the religion of their youth.
Sometimes the explicit doctrine of a traditional church
condemns behaviors associated with sex-and-gender minorities.

    The most extreme example of such condemnation
is found in the Roman Catholic Church.
Altho the Roman Catholic Church
embraces individuals who are sex-and-gender minorities,
it nevertheless condemns homosexuality,
for instance, as "objectively disordered".
This doctrine arises because of the belief
that the central purpose for sex is procreation.
And homosexual behavior cannot lead to pregnancy.

    Most traditional religious movements
approach the sex-and-gender minorities
(except those born intersex and a few others)
as a problem of morality.
They affirm only one standard pattern
of sexual identity and sexual behavior.
And all variations from this standard are "sin".
This statement is an oversimplification,
especially with respect to the more liberal Protestant denominations.
But it does reflect the oppression many sex-and-gender minorities feel
from most traditional organized religions.

I.  THE UU MOVEMENT AND VARIOUS FORMS OF SEXOLOGY

    Because the UU movement has decided
to be very open to all sex-and-gender minorities,
it does not embrace any sexological theories
that would be incompatible with this openness.

    On the other hand, the UU movement
does not endorse any particular theories of sexology.
Only those theories that cannot be reconciled
with affirming sex-and-gender minorities
would be outside the pale of UU thinking.
For example, all 'disease' models attempting to explain
the behavior of sex-and-gender minorities would not fit.

    On the other hand, genetic models
---which attempt to explain sex-and-gender minorities by their genes---
would be compatible with the UU political stance
of affirming all sex-and-gender minorities.

    But it would be a mistake for the UU movement
to endorse any particular form of sexological theory
simply for this political reason.
Sexology as a science is still in its infancy.
It will take a generation or two of scientific investigation
before broad consensus is reached among sexologists.

II. SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE SEX-SCRIPT HYPOTHESIS

    One of the competing theories within sexology
which is compatible with the UU openness
to all sex-and-gender minorities
is called the "sex-script hypothesis".

    Briefly, this explanation suggests that most sexual responses
can be understood as the result of 'sexual imprinting'.
This 'sexual imprinting' takes place early in each life
---definitely before age 20 in most cases.

  Imprinting differs from ordinary learning
because it takes place very quickly
and it leaves a permanent pattern in our brains.
Ordinary learning require many repetitions.
Consider the process of learning a second language.
We also note that many of the things we learned in school
are easily forgotten, if we do not use them.
Those memory traces will gradually dim over time.
However, the imprinted content of the brain
(such as one's native language)
will never be forgotten by that brain.

    Just as we are not individually responsible
for which native language gets imprinted on our young brains,
likewise, we are not responsible for the sexual imprinting we receive.
We just grow up knowing a particular native language
and having particular contents of sexual imprinting.

    If the sex-script hypothesis is substantially correct,
then it has the same social implications
as all genetic theories of sex-and-gender minorities.
According to both theories,
sexual orientation, for example, is a given.
Like speaking English or French,
being right-handed or left-handed,
one's basic sexual responses are just there to be discovered
when one begins to speak or to use one's hands
---or begins to become sexually active.

    In UU thinking, no sexual orientation is 'immoral'.
Rather, we seek to understand our own sexual inclinations
as we experience them from the inside.

III. THE IMPACT OF HAVING A GAY PRESIDENT

    Having an openly-gay President of the United States
is still a generation or two into the future.
In the general population, prejudices against
all sex-and-gender minorities is so great that a gay candidate
will not even try to be elected President of the USA for many years.

    But that future has already arrived within the UUA.
For more than a year leading up to the election
of a new UUA president in 2001,
one of the three candidates was a gay man.
Three months before the election, he decided to withdraw.
The fact that we seriously considered a gay candidate
proves our openness to sex-and-gender minorities.

    If and when a member of a sex-and-gender minority
does become the chief executive officer of our Association,
this would become world-wide news immediately.
It might not matter so much to the member congregations
of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
We are mainly concerned with having a president
who can fulfill all the important functions of that office.
But the general public would be very impressed
that our movement has been so open-minded
that we have elected a member of a sex-and-gender minority
to the highest post in our association of congregations.

IV.  CONCLUSION: UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM
IS OPEN TO ALL SEX-AND-GENDER MINORITIES

     We Unitarian Universalists are committed to the intuition
that all variations of sex and gender
should be affirmed rather than condemned.
This intuition leads us to the political commitment
as an organization to affirm only those forms of sexology
we find compatible with such open-mindedness.

    It might seem a bit odd to begin a scientific inquiry
with a political commitment that the resulting theory
must correlate with our collective, intuitive openness
to all variations of sex and gender.

    However, this intuition itself is a given phenomenon,
worthy of scientific investigation.
No matter what our sexual orientation
---heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual---
we EXPERIENCE our sexual responses
as arising from deep within ourselves.
This experience differs profoundly
from the ways we experience
all the elements of our human behavior
that we have LEARNED since birth.

    However, we need only to review the history of sexology
to see that the opposite assumption
---that unusual sexual behavior should be
'explained' and perhaps condemned---
prevailed thru the first several decades of research
---at least research conducted by persons of 'standard' sex and gender.
Researchers who themselves have some variation
have a deep and abiding reason for attempting to understand
why they feel so different from the general population.

    Science has mostly become value-neutral about these matters.
For example, unusual sexual responses are called "paraphilias"
---a value-neutral term---rather than "perversions",
which is certainly loaded with negative connotations.
But most established religious movements
will probably remain in the mode of condemnation.
They will endorse those sexological theories
that correspond with their negative moral evaluation
of all or most variations of sex and gender.

    The Unitarian Universalist movement, however,
will be most open to those sexological theories
that seek first to understand (rather than correct)
the complex phenomena of human sexuality.

    We UUs welcome all sex-and-gender minorities.
And we will seek to understand rather than condemn.

AUTHOR:

    James Park is an existential philosopher and reader of sexology.
He is working on a book to be called:
Imprinted Sexual Fantasies: A New Key for Sexology.
The outline of this book will be found here:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/SS.html

And a synopsis of each of its 11 chapters will be found here:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/syn-sex.html

A very short version (one paragraph for each chapter) will be found here:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/10KB-SS.html

The only printed version of the sex-script hypothesis
is a chapter of another book by James Park, New Ways of Loving:
How Authenticity Transforms Relationships: Chapter 7
"Loving Beyond Sex: Transcending Our Imprinted Sex-Scripts".
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/NWL105.html

    James Park is also working on another book
exploring the many different variations of sex and gender.
It will be called:
Variation of Sex & Gender: Six Phenomena Frequently Confused.
This book-in-progress explores six areas of variation:
(1) biological sex---female, male, or in-between;
(2) male/female self-designiation---women, men, & transsexuals;
(3) sex-roles---everyday behavior assigned on the basis of sex;
(4) gender-personalities---thousands of possible gender-patterns;
(5) sexual orientation---heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual;
(6) transvestism---several different reasons for cross-dressing.

    Much more about the author of this cyber-sermon
will be found on his home page:
An Existential Philosopher's Museum:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/

BIBLIOGRAPHIES:

  The Sex-Script Hypothesis
If you would like to read more about sex-scripts,
this bibliography reviews 13 books
supporting the sex-script hypothesis:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/B-SEX-SC.html

  Variations of Sex and Gender Bibliography
This bibliography reviews a few books
that explore several different kinds of variation:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/B-V-SG.html

  The Intersex Bibliography
One book that treats the phenomenon
of sexual birth defects scientifically.
And one book about a person who changed sex twice:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/B-CRIT.html

  Transexual Bibliography
A dozen books exploring philosophically and scientifically
the phenomenon of people who believe they are the other sex.
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/B-TS.html

  Transsexual Autobiographies
People who have changed from one sex to the other
tell their own stories and the thinking behind their sex-change:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/B-TS-AB.html

  Gender-Personality Bibliography
These several books explore how
our 'masculinity' or 'femininity' develops:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/B-GEND.html

  Sexual Orientation Bibliography
Five scientific and philosophical books
attempting to explain the emergence of sexual orientations:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/B-ORNT.html

  Same-Sex Marriage Bibliography
Four books exploring all dimensions of same-sex marriages,
including two books describing same-sex relationships already working.
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/B-SSMARR.html

LINKS:

Office of Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Concerns
    This office has been operating
in the Unitarian Universalist Association since 1973.
Its website will give you the history of UUA affirmation
of the dignity and rights of all sex-and-gender minorities.
You will also find books, curriculum materials for children and adults,
and links to other groups with websites.
Perhaps most important, this office coordinates
the Welcoming Congregations Program of the UUA,
which helps local congregations to become more
open and welcoming to people of all sex-and-gender minorities.
As of April 2004, more than 40% of the local congregations
that make up the Unitarian Universalist Association
are Welcoming Congregations.
http://www.uua.org/obgltc/

Interweave
    Interweave is a social, educational, and political network
for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Unitarian Universalists
and their heterosexual allies.
An annual Convocation brings together
members and friends from all over the country.
And at the annual General Assembly
of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Interveave always has a strong presence,
promoting the dignity and rights of sex-and-gender minorities
within Unitarian Universalism.

"The mission statement of the Interweave Continental, Inc.:
Interweave is a membership organization
affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association,
dedicated to the spiritual, political, and social well-being
of Unitarian Universalists who are confronting oppression
as lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender persons,
and their heterosexual allies;
and facilitates the celebration
of the culture and lives of its members."
http://qrd.tcp.com/qrd/www/orgs/uua/uu-interweave.html

Cyber-Sermon draft 3-11-2000; revised 7-22-2000;
revised again 10-24-2000; revised a fourth time 11-1-2000;
fifth revision 3-12-2001; sixth revision 1-28-2002; seventh revision 4-1-2003;
meta tags revised 6-14-2003; 6-19-2003; 6-18-2007

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.