BORN GAY: THE PSYCHOBIOLOGY OF SEX ORIENTATION

born gay the psychobiology of sex orientation

Are our sexual preferenc acquired through social learng or are some people lerally born gay? What are the geic and prenatal hormone ntributns of sexual orientatn? How do 'gay gen' survive extermatn by non-reproductivens? What possible adaptive value might they have? Cultural and historil variatns acceptance/tolerance of mory sexual preferenc.

Contents:

REVIEWBORN GAY? THE PSYCHOBLOGY OF HUMAN SEXUAL ORIENTATN

* born gay the psychobiology of sex orientation *

In femal, s distributn is more variable; femal beg ls prone towards exclive homosexualy. In both sex homosexualy is strongly associated wh childhood genr nonnformy. Homosexualy may have evolved to promote same sex affiliatn through a nserved nrovelopmental mechanism.

Key areas for future rearch clu the nroblogil basis of preferred sexual targets and rrelat of female homosexualy. For the most, dictat that mal will mate wh femal but, a mory, the homosexual impulse is equally pellg. The first als wh the phenotypic pattern of sexual orientatn, the send wh evince for geic fluenc, and the third propos an tegrated scenar for the evolutn of homosexualy.

REVIEWBORN GAY? THE PSYCHOBLOGY OF HUMAN SEXUAL ORIENTATN

Sectn snippetsDistributn of sexual orientatn and s rrelatThe prevalence of heterosexual and homosexual orientatn has received a great al of attentn. The nsens is that approximately 2–5% of men are exclively homosexual, the figure for women beg about half that: 1–2% (Diamond, 1993, Lmann et al., 1994, Wellgs et al., 1994). Th homosexualy reprents a small but signifint mory phenotype humans.

Homosexual men have more homosexual brothers than do heterosexual men (around 15% greater; Pillard and Werich, 1986, Bailey and Bell, 1993, Bailey et al., 1999), whilst homosexual women have more homosexualEvolutnary nsiratnsGiven the geic ponent to homosexualy and s nant rced reproductive succs, the qutn aris as to why such gen have not been selected agast durg evolutn.

BORN GAY: THE PSYCHOBLOGY OF SEX ORIENTATN

There are several plsible evolutnary scenars whereby gen that predispose towards homosexualy uld be mataed wh populatns (Pillard & Bailey, 1998).

BORN GAY : THE PSYCHOBLOGY OF SEX ORIENTATN

Any X-lked geic ntributns to sexual orientatn may certaly affect sexual differentiatn, given the profn of gen on the X chromosome for precisely this form of ontogenis (Putative nrovelopmental mechanismsThe profil of sex-atypil featur associated wh homosexualy differentiate early durg velopment and are mimally fluenced by psychosocial factors.

This partly reflects a lack of empiril support for tradnal behavurist and psychodynamic mols, which regard homosexualy as pathology (Gonsrek & Werich, 1991). Bailey, Barbow, Wolfe, and Mikach (1995) reported that over 90% of sons of gay fathers are heterosexual, whilst Golombok andFuture directnsThere are a number of directns for further quiry ncerng the psychoblogil basis of human sexual orientatn.

BORN GAY? THE ORIGS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATN

Of clear importance is the need for large-sle natnal probabily surveys of the prevalence of male and female homosexualy g a range of sensive measur that clu fantasy and attractn ratgs. As well as tablishg the distributn of sexual orientatnConclnsHomosexualy seems to e as a “package” of tras nsistg of mostly sex-typil modul, such as aspects of male and female matg psychology, but also signifint sex-atypily others, most notably directn of preferred sex of partner, handns and sex dimorphic nropsychologil functn (see Table 1, Table 3). By (117)The dark si of the rabow: Homosexuals and bisexuals have higher Dark Triad tras than heterosexuals2021, Personaly and Individual DifferencNatural variatn nrovelopmental procs may lead to sex-atypil behavrs and attus (e.

Moreover, bisexual men and women tend to show genr nonnformy and cross-sex nroanatomil chang which place them between heterosexual and homosexual participants (Abé et al., 2021; Rieger et al., 2020) behavur as a natural laboratory for unrstandg dividual differenc2021, Personaly and Individual DifferencHomosexualy is a difference between people that n be likened to left-handns; a difference ditg non-pathologil variatn human velopment (Lalumière, Blanchard, & Zucker, 2000). Though homosexualy was once a psychiatric diagnosis (and remaed so, most believe, for rather too long), this was bee Frdians saw the behavur as a ‘perversn’ om normaly (Roughton, 2002) partner preference animals and humans2020, Nroscience and Bbehavral ReviewsAddnal al factors th need to be intified. The work of LeVay on sexual orientatn differenc the hypothalamic stcture of men and the subsequent work of Hamer and lleagu on the molecular geics of male homosexualy generated an enormo amount of attentn the scientific muny and the public at large (Hamer, Hu, Magnon, Hu, & Pattatucci, 1993; LeVay, 1991).

This work was followed by a proliferatn of studi on the blogil bas of homosexualy, which was subsequently reviewed by the same vtigators (Hamer & Copeland, 1994; LeVay, 1996). Rearch to the blogil bas of homosexualy has ntued unabated the terveng such diverse areas as geics, endocrology, nroblogy, physlogy, evolutn, morphometrics, gnn, and animal behavr. Subsequent to their crique of psychosocial theori for sexual orientatn, Wilson and Rahman review the available scientific lerature on homosexualy as relat to geics, evolutn, hormon, birth orr, nroblogy, and childhood velopment.

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

They also clu a chapter that outl the evince for homosexual “typ, ” such as butch and femme lbians, and they nclu wh a chapter on the soccultural implitns of rearch to the blogil bas of sexual orientatn. The science of sire: The search for the gay gene and the blogy of behavr.

A difference hypothalamic stcture between heterosexual and homosexual men. Queer science: The e and abe of rearch to homosexualy.

176 pag: 22 cm"Are people born gay, or do upbrgg or even nsc personal choice play a part? The ongog row between gay-rights activists and the nservative lobby over this burng qutn has now raged for many years.

BORN GAY? THE PSYCHOBLOGY OF HUMAN SEXUAL ORIENTATNBORN GAY? THE PSYCHOBLOGY OF HUMAN SEXUAL ORIENTATNBORN GAY? THE PSYCHOBLOGY OF HUMAN SEXUAL ORIENTATNBORN GAY? THE PSYCHOBLOGY OF HUMAN SEXUAL ORIENTATNBORN GAY? THE PSYCHOBLOGY OF HUMAN SEXUAL ORIENTATN

" "Sce the work of Simon LeVay and Dean Hamer the early 1990s to the blogil of homosexualy, a tremendo amount of new rearch has been rried out by scientists, who now unrstand a great al more about the blogy of sexual attractn.

Born Gay is the first book for the general rear to provi a summary of this new rearch, much of which has been unrtaken by the thors, Glenn Wilson and Qazi Rahman.

BORN GAY: THE PSYCHOBLOGY OF SEX ORIENTATN

They provi new evince that sexual orientatn is largely nate and mystify much of the nfn about such equently mised terms as 'the gay bra' and 'the gay gene'. They show that attempts to fd a soclogil e for homosexualy have ltle foundatn and argue that popular efforts to 'blame' parents or teachers for a child's homosexualy are futile and unjt.

Born Gay? People often talk about the "gay persuasn". But we nnot be persuad by anyone to be gay, any more than we are persuad to be straight.

BORN GAY? THE PSYCHOBLOGY OF HUMAN SEXUAL ORIENTATN

There is a famo graffi exchange: "My mother ma me a homosexual".

" If mothers do make their children homosexual, they do so through gen and hormon - not by 'smotherg' them or any other dub child-rearg practic. There are some who argue that homosexualy is a matter of what you do, rather than who you are. In Iran the threat of hangg may lsen homosexual activy, but there are still plenty of gays.

If any cultural prsure was gog to create homosexualy surely this would be - only didn't. This is much the same as the proportn of gay mal Wtern society.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* BORN GAY THE PSYCHOBIOLOGY OF SEX ORIENTATION

'Gay gen': science is on the right track, we're born this way. Let’s al wh . | Qazi Rahman | The Guardian .

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