Gender and same sex attraction

Caution: Controversial Topic

Well this week we touch on one of the most controversial topics of our days today. Same sex attraction and gender. In the world we live in right now this can mean many things to many different people. There are so many views on this topic. So this article I write today is strictly my views and how I perceive the information that I learned in class. In my class we only learned the facts about same sex attraction and gender, and everything I am writing is my own thoughts and feelings, nothing to do with my teacher or education, purely my own thoughts and impressions.
So this week, we talked a lot about the gender differences in males and females, especially how we are for the most part born different. When pondering upon the differences, the ones we came across were females have more of a relationship recall, are more verbal, can read emotions and body language, are more emotionally expressive, more cooperative, etc. This is a very generalized list and doesn't fit for every female. As for the male list we came up we found males are more competitive, more assertive, have more upper body strength, more aggressive, have a protective nature, hands on, etc. Again, this is generalized. It was interesting for me to think about how each of us are born with different traits that are very generalized to our gender, it testifies to me that God has a purpose and a plan and men and women have their differences to fulfill that plan here on earth.
We also watch a funny video called men brain vs. women brain (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KrOZe2SxoQ), this man I think explained it so well, how even men and women think differently. We again have such different traits, yet the whole gender generally thinks the same. To me this is very interesting to see how we are generally made the same, yet each of us have such diverse personalities and traits.
Now for the more controversial portion on my beliefs. We discussed a lot about same sex attraction. I pondered and thought a lot about this, whether or not we are born that way, whether or not we can change, whether or not this is what our punishment or our destiny. My personal thoughts are that God does have a path and destiny for us, some of us I truly believe are born with same sex attraction as their struggle in life (while others may be, physical disability, struggle with genetic alcoholism, etc.) we are all born with struggles, and some of us our struggle can be same sex attraction. But I firmly believe that it is not a sin to be attracted to the same sex, but acting upon that attraction is where the sin lies. Just as when married it is okay to be attracted to other women, as long as you are not lustful or acting upon it. It is all where your thoughts and actions lie.
I also believe that there may be times where you can get help through bishops, church members, family counseling, family, etc. where you can grow our out of those feelings (now this is not for everyone and may be for only a select few but, it is possible). I know for some that all their life they are called names like gay, fag, etc. and then think that they are. Even though they normally would not have thought of them selfs as that and tend to then start liking the same sex due to their thought process from the name calling, but as soon as they can see that those differences in personalities can be more then just gay, they can change their thoughts and begin to liking the opposite sex.
With all of this said, I am not by any me a homophobe, or hate LGBT. But in reality I love them, no matter what they identify with or who they have feelings towards. We are all God's children and are all apart of His plan.

Gender Roles

Hey!

So, this week was a pretty interesting topic, gender roles. It was interesting to learn about what male and female contribute to relationships, as well as, seeing how it fits into God's plan. 

We watched this video "John Stossel, Men, Women, and the Sex Difference." Which was a fascinating video on finding out if we can raise children the same, will they still end up either girly or tom boy. The did many researches where they put a group of boys and girls in a room with both "girl toys" and "boy toys" to see if the girls would go for the boy toys or the girl toys and vice versa. The conclusion was the girls would go for the Barbie’s and pink toys and the boys would go towards the building blocks or race cars. This research wasn't convincing evidence for some, so they interviewed parents who had both sexes of children and asked if they raised their kids in knowing they were a girl or boy. The families that said they would raise the kids equally and without boy or girl titles, still would go for the toys that are towards their sexes. Some still argue through that their environment changes them, by the tv shows kids watch or clothes selections at stores.

The main question was being most of us born into this stereo type of liking the toys

or color according to sexes or if are environment change us into liking what we should. The conclusion throughout this video was that we truly are born this way, and it is wired into us. It is a part of God's plan for us to be boys and girls. It reminded me of a video from lds.org called "Gender is an Essential Characteristic." (https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-07-132-gender-is-an-essential-characteristic?lang=eng).  In this video, there was a clip from a talk, which talked about how God has a plan and a part of that plan is each of us are by design made into men and women. Which, reminded me of the “A Family Proclamation to the World” and says, “ALL HUMAN BEINGS—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.” Now, I don’t know what everyone’s personally purpose is on this Earth, but I do have a testimony that we truly are here for a purpose and that through prayer, ponder, and following the commandments that we can find that purpose and work our hardest to know how it fits into God’s plan for each of us individually.

After seeing how important gender is and how each are very different, have you ever noticed how gender effects the family role? How mothers naturally are more nurturing and fathers tend to be more of the bread winning roles in the family? How girls tend to be more emotional while boys are more destructive? It was interesting thinking upon this and my family, and seeing how my mother always more nurturing, not only to our family but to others at church or at work. While my father enjoyed his role of providing and caring for our family. Think back on your family roles and how gender played a part in them. It is amazing to see how our natural instincts are exactly how God made us, when in the Family Proclamation it says, “THE FAMILY is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan... By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.” As we see, we are a part of God’s plan and are built in the ways that God attends us to be male and female. The way we are born and act are all a part of God’s plan.