Do Gays Have a Choice? - Scientific Amerin

Contents:

• 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
• IS BEG 'GAY' A CHOICE? SCIENCE SAYS Y (BUT NOT THE WAY YOU'RE THKG)
• WHY WOULD PEOPLE 'CHOOSE' TO BE GAY?
• DO GAYS HAVE A CHOICE?

BEG GAY NOT A CHOICE: SCIENCE CONTRADICTS BEN CARSON

Ben Carson, a retired nrosurgeon and printial hopeful, recently apologized for a statement which he said beg gay is "absolutely" a an terview on CNN, the potential 2016 Republin printial ndidate mented that "a lot of people who go to prison, go to prison straight, and when they e out they're gay, so did somethg happen while they were there? And nearly 130 bird speci have been observed engagg sexual activi wh same-sex the evolutnary purpose of this behavr is not clear, the fact that animals routely exhib same-sex behavr beli the notn that gay sex is a morn human studi have found specific "gay gen" that reliably make someone gay.

But this so-lled epigenome n also be passed on om generatn to generatn, which would expla why beg gay seems to n fai, even when a sgle gene n't be such gay gen get passed down om generatn to generatn has puzzled scientists, given that gay upl nnot reproduce.

Gay nversn therapy is effective, several studi have found, and the Amerin Psychologil Associatn now says such treatment is harmful and n worsen feelgs of men, studi suggt that orientatn is fixed by the time the dividual reach puberty.

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

However, even women who swch om gay to straight liftyl don't stop beg attracted to women, acrdg to a 2012 study the journal Archiv of Sexual rults suggt that while people n change their behavr, they aren't really changg their basic sexual Tia Ghose on Twter and Google+. Today, the prospect of therapy to ‘overe homosexualy’ is nsired antiquated, effective and harmful as such attempts are not succsful and serve to rerce damnatn of LGB, particularly if therapy is attempted by non-mental health profsnals but those wh relig fervor. 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. Dpe the persistence of stereotyp that portray lbian, gay, and bisexual people as disturbed, several s of rearch and clil experience have led all mastream medil and mental health anizatns this untry to nclu that the orientatns reprent normal forms of human experience.

Helpful rpons of a therapist treatg an dividual who is troubled about her or his same sex attractns clu helpg that person actively pe wh social prejudic agast homosexualy, succsfully rolve issu associated wh and rultg om ternal nflicts, and actively lead a happy and satisfyg life. The phrase “g out” is ed to refer to several aspects of lbian, gay, and bisexual persons’ experienc: self-awarens of same-sex attractns; the tellg of one or a few people about the attractns; wispread disclosure of same-sex attractns; and intifitn wh the lbian, gay, and bisexual muny. Th, is not surprisg that lbians and gay men who feel they mt nceal their sexual orientatn report more equent mental health ncerns than do lbians and gay men who are more open; they may even have more physil health problems.

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

Lbian, gay, and bisexual youth who do well spe strs—like all adolcents who do well spe strs—tend to be those who are socially petent, who have good problem-solvg skills, who have a sense of tonomy and purpose, and who look forward to the future. If they are a heterosexual relatnship, their experienc may be que siar to those of people who intify as heterosexual unls they choose to e out as bisexual; that se, they will likely face some of the same prejudice and discrimatn that lbian and gay dividuals enunter. “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.

“[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. While South Ai’s nstutn protects the rights of homosexuals, and while same-sex marriage is legal here, remas a bone of ntentn, wh anti-gay prejudice nstantly surfacg, often very nasty ways such as ‘rrective rape’, for one. The panel clud one member om UNAS, and UNAS endorsed the rults, a report lled Diversy Human Sexualy which was prented on 6 Augt 2015 at a dialogue held Sandton, Teen pated red for beg gay The panel looked at rearch done this field over the last century, reviewg more than 500 studi and papers.

And across all societi, the percentage of people who are gay remas about the same, at between 5-8% (although there is a difference between the cince for men and women) people argue that this is unter-tuive terms of evolutn: homosexual people are not likely to reproduce. Changg mdsPanel member Profsor Harry Dugmore, director of the Disvery Centre for Health Journalism, poted out that even though many societi are still discrimatory legally or socially, change public opn across the world has fact e remarkably swiftly: 15 years ago, no untri allowed gay marriage, now 19 do (the neteenth beg Catholic Ireland, which racked up a vote of 62% favour recently). Dugmore addrsed the qutn of whether is possible to ‘acquire’ homosexualy – and said the panel’s trawl through all available science had led to a roundg ‘No’ answer: “The ia that sexual orientatn n be acquired bee of greater ntact wh LGBTI [lbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and tersex] people or that societi that are tolerant ‘promote’ an ‘uptake’ of non-normative sexuali has no basis science, ” he Bullyg begs early for gay children As for any evince that attempts through ‘therapy’ to ‘nvert’ someone om homosexualy to ‘normal’ heterosexualy worked, there was absolutely none, he said.

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

”Anyone who would like to read the full report, which is crammed wh fascatg sights, should ntact ASSAf to get hold of a read:SA mp mt be LGBTQI-iendly, says MananaHate crim burn the health of transgenr people SA Discrimatn of black gay men ups anxiety. 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.

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.

WHY WOULD PEOPLE 'CHOOSE' TO BE GAY?

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. 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.

DO GAYS HAVE A CHOICE?

(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:.