The theory that people are "born gay" has been ed to argue that sexual orientatn is siar to race - that "gay is the new black." Based largely on this premise, the proposed "Equaly Act," which is currently unr nsiratn Congrs, would treat sexual orientatn exactly like race unr feral civil rights laws. But is te that sexual orientatn is termed at (or before) birth?
Contents:
- ARE WE BORN GAY?
- 'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK, WE'RE BORN THIS WAY. LET’S AL WH .
- IS A PERSON ‘BORN GAY’, OR IS BEG GAY A LEARNED BEHAVR?
- SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY
ARE WE BORN GAY?
* born gay theory *
Will our child grow up to be gay or straight? ) and adult homosexualy.
But on the other, he totally wrtl wh the image produced by the ia that one might be "born gay, " of a ltle male neonate appearg wh illy pk diapers and graspg a Barbie doll.
Plörl pared self-clared homosexual or heterosexual inti adults to their memori of genr nformy childhood. First, by ncentratg on the left si of the graphs, the rear n see that there is a segment of adult gay men who remember beg highly genr non-nformg as kids. But there were a signifint number of genr-nformg men who, nohels, veloped a gay or bisexual inty adulthood.
'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK, WE'RE BORN THIS WAY. LET’S AL WH .
Maybe we n agree that the image evoked by "born gay"—that ltle girl neonate appearg wearg overalls and graspg a toy tck—do not help thk through qutns of sexual sire and inty. The theory that people are “born gay” has been ed to argue that sexual orientatn is siar to race — that “gay is the new black.
When the qutn is posed whether some people are “born gay, ” the real qutn is, “Are some people oriented om birth toward homosexual attractns?
In the early 1990s, there was great hope some circl that a “gay gene” would be found that would prove homosexualy to be fixed and termed geilly. “There is no nsens among scientists about the exact reasons that an dividual velops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay or lbian orientatn. Studi of intil tws show that, when one tw is homosexual, the other (geilly intil) tw is ually not homosexual.
IS A PERSON ‘BORN GAY’, OR IS BEG GAY A LEARNED BEHAVR?
This disprov the ia of homosexualy as a fixed, geilly termed tra. For example, has been reported that men wh more olr brothers are more likely to be homosexual, and has been speculated that this uld relate to a blogil effect the mother’s womb.
SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY
Most rearchers prr to the 1970s believed, as many still do today, that homosexual attractns are primarily a velopmental rult of childhood experienc. Even some people who self-intify as gay are rejectg the ia that they were “born that way” — and the fensivens of the implied argument, “I’m only like this bee I n’t help . The “born gay” theory lacks scientific credibily, and — and polici premised on , such as the Equaly Act — should be abandoned.
In a recent Guardian article, Simon Copland argued that is very unlikely people are born gay (or prumably any other sexual orientatn). Fdg evince for a blogil basis should not sre or unrme gay, lbian and bisexual (LGB) rights (the studi I refer to do not clu transgenred dividuals, so I’ll nfe my ments to lbian, gay and bisexual people). Evince om pennt rearch groups who studied tws shows that geic factors expla about 25-30% of the differenc between people sexual orientatn (heterosexual, gay, lbian, and bisexual).