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This is a broad-ranging book on homosexuality, its direction not always clear to this reviewer, and its several parts not easily fitting into any overall conceptualization.
Its argument would seem to run somewhat as follows. Homosexuality is not so different from heterosexuality. It is part of the diversity of the human sexual potential. It is just a matter of conditioning to a love object of the same sex. It has its problems, but so does heterosexuality. Its expression of love may even exceed in intensity that attainable in heterosexuality. It can make its own unique contribution to society. It is omnipresent, so why the discriminatory attitude toward it and the hypocrisy in dealing with it?
To establish his general thesis, Tripp leans heavily on the work of John Money, which purports that sex of assignment and rearing determines gender role. One can therefore argue that it is just a matter of chance whether one is heterosexual or homosexual and that, for all intents and purposes, one is the equivalent of the other.
There are some important difficulties with this argument. Money's evidence has not resisted challenge, and Money himself has modified his initial pronouncements. Furthermore, as explanation, the biology of sex-role determination is giving increasing promise of paralleling its complex clinical manifestations. There is evidence for the existence of dimorphic areas in the brain's preoptic and hypothalamic regions for behavioral sexualization. Mediation through hormones is more complex than previously envisioned, and includes their metabolites and time factors, as well as receptors for sensitizing target tissues. While the evidence is not all in for a biologic determination of gender role, it is hazardous to base conclusions on social conditioning with the present available data.
Moreover, the just treatment of homosexuals should not be dependent on whether the condition is biologically caused or socially conditioned, nor, for that matter, what its evolutionary