I have considered this idea in my mind ever since I was 10 or younger, but never had much of an interest to talk about it until now. Some could consider this a Gay, Gender, Sexuality, Mental, Medical, etc debate... so I guess I'll see what people choose to debate about.

Here is the idea:

You find two large islands or make two large islands in the middle of the ocean and make sure that no other human being can possibly get onto these islands. You give these islands a rich and balanced ecosystem of animals, fruit, food, etc. You make both islands identical. Island X, and Island Y.

Then, you take a group of willing people of both genders. By willing, I mean completely willing to give up their current life and live the rest of their life on one of the islands following all instructions given to them.

Island X gets all women.

Island Y gets all men.

You set up a comfortable living for both of them and make sure each island can live for years and years comfortably. Each side is to follow a new religion handed to them, and follow set beliefs for the experiment. Then:

You give Island X women all girl babies.

You give Island Y all boy babies.

And then, each Island is to raise the babies in a world, an island, a society of only 1 gender. Those children grow up and then through a careful and thought out action of using religion, beliefs, and science... you give new babies to the new adults. The women are impregnated and set to only give birth to girls (Impossible, I know, but for the sake of argument). The men are given new babies boys in a religious way resembling the stork or something. These children grow up in the same society, and then the process is repeated.

Now to the point:

How would these two societies reacted to believing fully and completely that humans only had 1 gender?

Now, this idea has a lot of things that could happen, but let me throw out a few things...

- Homosexuality:
You set the beliefs and morals of the religions and system to raise these kids believing only 1 gender exists, and that is it completely OK to love each other. The experiment possibly goes on for generation after generation, absolutely no idea that there could be an opposite gender.

What happens? Do the people gain the ability to love each other because they have no thought of an opposite gender? Do the people simply live depressed and clueless their entire life wondering why there seems to be no real point? Do people simply live life without truly falling in love with someone? I do not care if you consider sex(the act) relevant to this or not. Would people intimately fall in love with each other?

If homosexuality came into play, would the people still change their looks, actions, thoughts, beliefs, etc to seem more individual to attract someone?

- Gender Roles and Emotion:
Throw what you know about current day society out the window and think about this. Without one gender to take control over the other, without one to be stronger or superior to the other, how do the children's emotions and roles grow?

Do the girls turn out much differently than we all do? Do the girls develop more "masculine" qualities of being a "tomboy"? Do women oppress each other to make tougher women and weaker women? Do women who do not grow with the factors of our society end up being much tougher than current women?

Do men end up becoming more "feminine" to an extent? Do they still do the macho act, or do they gain or grow more maternal emotions and such?

As already asked, would the genders simply split their own gender in groups and make tougher and weaker variants to compensate for the lack of opposite gender?

War:
Would there be separation and wars between them if only 1 gender was present along with an original 1 religion?

Failure:
Do you think that this would simply destroy itself? Would the people simply kill each other and end the experiment themselves? Would people naturally know there is an opposite gender and try and look for their mates?

This really is something I have thought on for quite awhile, and a few things have made me think about this. My family had two wonderful pet dogs years ago. Both were male and had practically never come in contact with other female dogs in their upbringing as be got them both as puppies and raised them with each other. They did mount each other from time to time. Now, if it was programmed into them, why try and mate with each other if they both knew they were males? Does the fact that they lived their entire life thinking there was only male dogs have anything to do with it at all?

I'd personally like this debate to stay within this topic. I would -really- hate for this to turn into a full on gay debate, and I feel it is irrelevant in -some- areas as all the debates we have done have been in current society.

I know it will be brought up, and I would like it to be brought up, but if you are then please back up your argument with facts, studies etc. I do not want ANY posts that simply say "homosexuality is against god" or "homosexuality is a disease" etc unless you have actual facts and studies to back it up. I really really would like opinions and thoughts on this subject, and voicing your opinion on how homosexuality is does not help me in any way to finding an answer to this. If you do not have anything "nice" to say, then please do not say it.

On that note, anybody that has an interest in this please give me your best opinion on how this experiment with Island X & Y would unfold. I've looked for stuff all over the net on this and am yet to find anything really relevant to what I'm thinking about. In truth, I doubt we will ever know how something like this would work but I would at least like opinions.

Interesting.... I suppose it would take until the 2nd generation were adults to get a true reading of the effects of a single gender population, as the original islanders were naturally raised, so even if they lied to there "children" about the existence of another chromosome the lessons taught and learned would still be from a male/female POV. Regarding homosexuality, I'm sure it would be opposite to past beliefs, that "this is what you desire whether you like it or not" (but without the opposite sex to become attracted to), very confusing. Gender roles.... Hard to say, would they have to provide for themselves or cloth themselves?

This is a good thread I'll have to think more about it.

Well, how limited will their scientific knowkedge on the island be? They might uncover the whole "missing gender" themselves through scientific experimentation in genetics. Also, it's unlikely that the volunteers would be completely straight anyway, or at least they'd have become/have been celibate in the first place. I think much would depend on exactly what the future generations are taught. Also, do you intend to keep the people on the island unable to ever travel beyond it. The original inhabitants might be willing to stay put, but future generations might become more adventurous and discover the opposite sex on their own. This could have the effect of causing a very real schism w/in each group, possibility leading to some kind of civil wars w/in the respective camps over the issue of "gender mixing". In a predominantly straight world there already exist people with a homosexual orientation who are disaffected by the climate around them. If such is determined genetically, you'd likely have disillusioned straight people with only two compatible outlets: themselves or others of same sex orientation. So, while homosexual activity could become "normalized", it's likely only to be b/c it's the "only game in town".

Hmm, well, for sake of argument... lets say it is an more nomadic, Indian culture. Living off the land, everybody having a job type of thing. No electricity, etc. I agree, having advanced technology would present problems if they found modern humans or each other.

Indians? Indians?

Oh come on! I'd rather have it that the silent gender wars finally turned nuclear, and that the males and females form space colonies and get isolated from the rest of society. Males get Mars. Females get Venus. Oh, and they get cloning vats so that the males and females get to manufracture babies themselves without needing to worry about the opposite sex.

Sure, this sort of implies that these people are smart, but hey, they want to volunatrily give up living with the other sex, and what better reason to not live with the opposite sex if you are currently engaging in a world wide war with them? And to keep it simple, both the males and the females make a peace treaty via wireless link NEVER to enter each other's colonies.

So, let us see:

- Homosexuality:
...Well, um, er, depends. Well, actually, no. No, it won't. Males are attracted to females, females are attracted to males. Usually. Why? Brain chemistry, mind control by evolution. To encourage homosexuality in the larger population you either;
1) Modify the brain chemistry.
2) Convince them that there is nobody better around. The dogs mounting each other example. [And who want to go and stand next to those disgusting and evil females? Really!]

- Gender Roles and Emotion:
Throw what you know about current day society out the window and think about this. Without one gender to take control over the other, without one to be stronger or superior to the other, how do the children's emotions and roles grow?

"Well, the Blond Haired Males usually are the weak ones. They are not suited for the hard work that the Brown Haired Males have to do, such as hard larbor and building huge buildings and doing math problems. Nope, the Blond Haired Males must go and start cooking and cleaning dishes, because that is the nature of Blond Haired Males, to do housework." :)

War:
Would there be separation and wars between them if only 1 gender was present along with an original 1 religion?

In my idea, the whole concept of seperation starts off with a nuclear war. Though, judging from the original Indian example, the culture difference is likely to cause at least a bit of trouble and strife.

Failure:
Do you think that this would simply destroy itself? Would the people simply kill each other and end the experiment themselves? Would people naturally know there is an opposite gender and try and look for their mates?

Nope. Give it a try. If it fails, it fails because of reasons totally unrelated to the gender seperation issue. You know, people becoming stupid, female political factions butchering each other, global warming, etc. Not because of this suppressed desire to go and reproduce with somebody else.