Do Gays Have a Choice? - Scientific Amerin

Contents:

• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• DO GAYS HAVE A CHOICE?
• IS BEG 'GAY' A CHOICE? SCIENCE SAYS Y (BUT NOT THE WAY YOU'RE THKG)
• BEG GAY NOT A CHOICE: SCIENCE CONTRADICTS BEN CARSON
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS

In 1991, a study published the journal Science seemed to show that the hypothalam, which ntrols the release of sex hormon om the puary gland, gay men differs om the hypothalam straight men. Today, however, we know much more about the bra than we did when homosexualy was nsired a disease that required treatment, and the amount of knowledge that we have about the bra is creasg. If we fe beg gay as engagg homosexual behavr (the ncept of “gay” as an inty is a Wtern cultural ncept – people who have sex wh both men and women may ll themselv gay, straight or bisexual, pendg on the l of their culture or subculture), then people stop beg gay as soon as they stop engagg this behavr.

DO GAYS HAVE A CHOICE?

I believe that people have the right to engage any behavr that they choose, as long as their actns do not harm others, and I believe that gay sex and gay relatnships do not e harm to anyone.

If sexual preference n be altered, then people who support gay rights n’t rely on the argument that gay people should be protected om discrimatn bee gay people have no choice but to be gay – an argument that seems like an apology for homosexualy, as if homosexualy is a disease for which there is no cure. Jt as gay people who are happy as they are should not be forced to change their sexual orientatn, gay people who want to be straight should have the right to change if they n – and the rrect word is “change” – not “cure”.

Photo creds: Vanuver Gay Pri Para 2008 by edallaluna on Wikimedia Commons; DNA by ynse on Wikimedia Commons; Bra fMRI by views exprsed are those of the thor(s) and are not necsarily those of Scientific Amerin. They asked more than 477, 000 participants whether they had ever had sex wh someone of the same sex, and also qutns about sexual fantasi and the gree to which they intified as gay or straight.

IS BEG 'GAY' A CHOICE? SCIENCE SAYS Y (BUT NOT THE WAY YOU'RE THKG)

“A lot of people want to unrstand the blogy of homosexualy, and science has lagged behd that human tert, ” says William Rice, an evolutnary geicist at the Universy of California, Santa Barbara, who also was not volved the work.

BEG GAY NOT A CHOICE: SCIENCE CONTRADICTS BEN CARSON

While there is no sgle “gay gene, ” there is overwhelmg evince of a blogil basis for sexual orientatn that is programmed to the bra before birth based on a mix of geics and prenatal ndns, none of which the fet choos. “As a teenager tryg to unrstand myself and unrstand my sexualy, I looked at the ter for “the gay gene” and obvly me across Xq28, ” said Fah Sathirapongsasuti, a study -thor and senr scientist at 23andMe, which he joked once led him to believe he hered his gayns om his mother. The rearchers had members of the same-sex muny review the study’s sign and language, and they adm that their termology and fns for gay, lbian and heterosexual do not reflect the full nature of the sexualy ntuum.

“[Our study] unrsr an important role for the environment shapg human sexual behavr and perhaps most importantly there is no sgle gay gene but rather the ntributn of many small geic effects sttered across the genome, ” Neale said. In the 1968 edn of the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM)—the dispensable diagnostic tool ed by therapists—homosexualy appeared the sectn on sexual viatns as an stance of an aberratn which sexual terts are “directed primarily toward objects other than people of the oppose sex.

Now lled the Stonewall Rts (named after the Stonewall Inn, which was at the center of the melee), they galvanized the morn gay-rights movement Ameri and iated a shift toward greater cultural acceptance of homosexualy. Whereas is te that some homosexuals had poor relatnships wh their fathers when they were growg up, is impossible to say whether those fathers produced homosexual tennci their sons by rejectg them or, stead, whether some fathers simply tend to shun boys who are effemate at the outset.

WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

As for the effectivens of reparative therapy, a landmark study published October 2003 the Archiv of Sexual Behavr, Spzer terviewed 200 men and women who once nsired themselv homosexuals but who had lived their liv as heterosexuals for at least five years.

Although no one study is entirely nclive, studi of tws raised together, tws raised apart and fay tre suggt—at least for mal—that the more gen one shar wh a homosexual relative, the more likely is that one will be homosexual—the hallmark of a geic characteristic. Whereas most people may believe that “straight” and “gay” are discrete tegori, there is strong evince that they are not—and this fact has important implitns for the way we unrstand the different ntroversi that surround homosexualy.

It is unreasonable to say that he has been returned to a “natural” state, however; wh strong social support, he has simply chosen a new path for himself—one that his gen ma possible but that is almost certaly not possible for every gay person. Bee of the enormo prsur phg all of toward the straight end of the Sexual Orientatn Contuum om the time we are very young, is reasonable to assume that most of the people who currently live as homosexuals were probably close to the gay end of the ntuum to beg wh; other words, they probably have strong geic tennci toward homosexualy. If you doubt that—and assumg that you are right-hand—try eatg wh your left hand for a day or two, and good luck wh your article was origally published wh the tle "Do Gays Have a Choice?