Why would people 'choose' to be gay? | Science | The Guardian

Contents:

• DO GAYS HAVE A CHOICE?
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• BEG GAY NOT A CHOICE: SCIENCE CONTRADICTS BEN CARSON
• IS BEG 'GAY' A CHOICE? SCIENCE SAYS Y (BUT NOT THE WAY YOU'RE THKG)
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS
• 'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK, WE'RE BORN THIS WAY. LET’S AL WH .
• MANY GEN INFLUENCE SAME-SEX SEXUALY, NOT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’
• WHY WOULD PEOPLE 'CHOOSE' TO BE GAY?

DO GAYS HAVE A CHOICE?

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. 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”.

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. 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.

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

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. AbstractThe Amerin Psychiatric Associatn and the Amerin Psychologil Associatn have suggted for many years now that there is signifint empiril evince supportg the claim that homosexualy is a normal variant of human sexual orientatn as opposed to a mental disorr.

The accatn of g outdated material and viatg to realms beyond the spe of one's expertise impli two thgs; first, impli that there actually is rmatn that is more up-to-date than what the nun prented on the topic of homosexualy, and sendly impli that there are credible experts who are more qualified to teach or speak on the topic of homosexualy. When one brows the Inter, one will see that apparently many of the so-lled experts on mental disorrs claim that there is a signifint amount of scientific evince support of the claim that homosexualy is not a mental disorr. Hence, is necsary to provi a summary and analysis of that purported up-to-date scientific evince which supports the claim that homosexualy is not a mental two groups that are typilly emed thorative and credible experts on mental disorrs the Uned Stat are the Amerin Psychologil Associatn (APA) and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn; th, I will prent their stanc on homosexualy and then analyze the “scientific evince” that they claim supports their stanc.

BEG GAY NOT A CHOICE: SCIENCE CONTRADICTS BEN CARSON

As a rult of their ficienci, the credibily of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn and the APA, at least their claims regardg human sexualy, is lled to Amerin Psychologil Associatn and the Amerin Psychiatric AssociatnI will beg by scribg the APA and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, and I will then prent their stanc on the topic of homosexualy. Dog so will provi more evince of the stance of both the APA and the Amerin Psychiatric Two Associatns’ Stance on HomosexualyThe APA wr:Same-sex sexual attractns, behavr, and orientatns per se are normal and posive variants of human sexualy— other words, they do not dite eher mental or velopmental disorrs.

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

2009, 15) Brief of Amici Curiae for both the APA and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn siar language:Des of rearch and clil experience have led all mastream mental health anizatns this untry to the ncln that homosexualy is a normal form of human sexualy. (Brief of Amici Curiae 2003, 1)Hence, the basic stance of the APA and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn is that homosexualy is not a mental disorr but is rather a normal form of human sexualy, and they propose that their stance is based on signifint scientific evince.

)Aled KseyThe APA Task Force document proceeds by cg two books wrten by Aled Ksey 1948 and 1953 (Sexual Behavr the Human Male and Sexual Behavr the Human Female):At the same time that the pathologizg views of homosexualy Amerin psychiatry and psychology were beg dified, untervailg evince was accumulatg that this stigmatizg view was ill found. The publitn of Sexual Behavr the Human Male and Sexual Behavr the Human Female monstrated that homosexualy was more mon than prevly assumed, th suggtg that such behavrs were part of a ntuum of sexual behavrs and orientatns. 2009, 22)Implied that statement is a “normaly” of the sexual behavrs, specifilly homosexualy, on the ntuum; for a study to be ced as “untervailg evince” of the claim that homosexualy is abnormal, the study mt suggt that homosexualy is normal.

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

(Ksey and Pomeroy 1948, emphasis add)In regards to homosexualy, Ksey (and the APA thors) nclus that bee some people experience sexual attractn to the same genr, then tomatilly follows that there is a normal ntuum of sexual attractns. Therefore, there is a normal variatn (or a normal “ntuum”) of sexual replacg homosexualy wh the exampl of body tegry inty disorr and self-harm/self-mutilatn Aled Ksey's and the APA's argument (that is, if we follow the logic of Ksey and the APA) the argument would be as follows:.

Ford and Beach also “pot out that among non-human primat both mal and femal engage homosexual activy” (Gentile and Miller 2009), the APA thors suggt that bee two rearchers 1951 found that homosexual sex is observed some humans and animals then the ncln follows that there is “nothg unnatural about .

THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS

)Evelyn Hooker and Others on “Adjtment”The APA task force ntu wh s claims that homosexualy is not a mental disorr by wrg:Psychologist Evelyn Hooker's rearch put the ia of homosexualy as mental disorr to a scientific tt. Hooker found, among other thgs, that based on three projective measur (the Thematic Apperceptn Tt, the Make-a-Picture Story tt, and the Rorschach), the homosexual men were parable to their matched heterosexual peers on ratgs of adjtment.

Strikgly, the experts who examed the Rorschach protols uld not distguish the protols of the homosexual hort om the heterosexual hort, a glarg nsistency wh the then-domant unrstandg of homosexualy and projective asssment techniqu.

2009, 22, emphasis add)The Amici Curiae Brief for the APA and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn c Hooker's study as well, cg as a rigoro examatn:In one of the first rigoro examatns of the mental health stat of homosexualy, Dr.

'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK, WE'RE BORN THIS WAY. LET’S AL WH .

Evelyn Hooker admistered a battery of standard psychologil tts to homosexual and heterosexual men who were matched for age, IQ, and tn … She nclud om her data that homosexualy is not herently associated wh psychopathology and that “homosexualy as a clil enty do not exist. In Hooker's study, the endpot measured was the “adjtment” of homosexuals and heterosexuals, and Hooker claimed that the adjtment measured for homosexuals and heterosexuals was siar; she do not, however, outright fe that term “adjtment.

MANY GEN INFLUENCE SAME-SEX SEXUALY, NOT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’

My foc for this paper is the irrelevant endpot—“adjtment”—ed by Hooker as scientific evince supportg the claim that homosexualy is normal; I foc on that endpot bee as of 2014 “adjtment” is still the endpot ced by the major associatns as scientific evince supportg the claim that homosexualy is a “normal variatn of human sexual orientatn.

2009, 23, emphasis add)That last le which I emphasized is extremely important; the “newly veloped measur” pared the “adaptatn” and abily to functn society homosexuals and heterosexuals and ed the parison to support the ncln that homosexualy is not a disorr. Furthermore, Gonsrek suggts that “The only relevant issue is whether any well-adjted homosexuals exist at all” (Gonsrek 1991, 119–20) andWhether homosexualy per se is or is not pathologil and ditive of psychologil disturbance is easily answered.

Gonsrek impli that if sexual orientatn is “related” to psychologil adjtment, then one uld nsir homosexually cled people to be mentally disorred; if, however, there is no difference adjtment measurements of heterosexuals and homosexuals, then (acrdg to Gonsrek) homosexualy is not a mental disorr. Texas filed by the APA and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn also c Gonsrek's review as scientific evince which supports the claim that “homosexualy is not related to psychopathology or social maladjtment” (Brief of Amici Curiae 2003, 11).

WHY WOULD PEOPLE 'CHOOSE' TO BE GAY?

The brief then offers a few more catns of scientific evince supportg that claim; one article ced is a review study om 1978 which also looked at “adjtment” and “nclus that fdgs to date have not monstrated that the homosexual dividual is any ls psychologilly adjted than his heterosexual unterpart” (Hart et al. ” Gonsrek claims that bee homosexuals are siar to heterosexuals measur of prsn, self-teem, relatnship disrd, and sexual disrd, tomatilly follows that homosexualy is not a disorr, as he not: “The general ncln is clear: The studi overwhelmgly suggt that homosexualy per se is not related to psychopathology or psychologil adjtment” (Gonsrek 1991, 115–36). Hence, there are multiple mental disorrs which measurg adjtment has no relevance whatsoever to the mental disorr; this is a major ficiency the lerature ed as scientific evince to support the ncln that homosexualy is not a mental is a signifint fdg, although I am not the first to mentn the problem wh diagnosg mental disorrs by lookg at distrs, social functng, or other endpots that are clud unr the terms “adjtment” and “adaptatn.

” So, the homosexualy-is-not-a-mental-disorr claim is based on a meangls (and outdated) Irvg Bieber, “one of the key participants the historic bate which culmated the 1973 cisn to remove homosexualy om the psychiatric manual” (NARTH Instute n. Ronald Bayer summarized the events surroundg the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's (1973) cisn by notg that Spzer'srtricted fn of mental disorrs, articulated after he had cid that homosexualy had been appropriately classified, entailed two elements: For a behavr to be termed a psychiatric disorr, had to be regularly acpanied by subjective distrs and/or “some generalized impairment social effectivens or functng.