FactCheck Q&A: are people born gay?

Contents:

• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• ARE WE BORN GAY?
• IS A PERSON ‘BORN GAY’, OR IS BEG GAY A LEARNED BEHAVR?
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• CLIL STUDY CONFIRMS PEOPLE ARE NOT BLOGILLY “BORN GAY”
• IS ANYONE BORN GAY?
• WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?
• 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 .
• ARE YOU BORN GAY OR IS A CHOICE? SCIENTISTS MIGHT HAVE FOUND THE ANSWER
• THE SCIENTIFIC REASON THAT PROV HOMOSEXUALS ARE GAY AT BIRTH

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

Rpondg to a qutn om dience member and Christian pastor Matt Prater about the Prime Mister’s support for same-sex marriage, Rudd fend his posn by g the startg pot that gay people are born that way, rather than cidg at some later stage to be straight or gay. Rearch suggts that same-sex attracted people who try to “choose” to be straight, such as by unrtakg “nversn therapy”, nnot do so any more than straight people n “choose” to be gay. “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.

ARE WE BORN GAY?

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.

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. “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. It very much appears that same-sex sexual attractn is not a choice but actg on is; so if you fe gay as the mere prence of same-sex attractn, then om everythg we unrstand, beg gay is not a choice.

IS A PERSON ‘BORN GAY’, OR IS BEG GAY A LEARNED BEHAVR?

If people were born wh geic dg to practice homosexualy, that geic would soon be erased om human DNA bee would not be passed along to subsequent generatns (bee homosexualy isn’t procreative). Supreme Court lg that sanctned so-lled “gay marriage, ” ma their lg, part, bee of the claim that homosexualy was blogilly nate to certa dividuals, and therefore to prohib their marriage, was discrimatory.

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

The news this week that the largt study of s kd failed to nfirm the existence of a "gay gene" is not so much a disappotment for those lookg to unrstand the LGBTQ muny, as is an acknowledgement that science do not need to tell what should be plaly obv: gays, lbians, bisexuals and pansexuals are who they are. "There is no ‘gay gene’ that term whether someone has same-sex partners, ” said Ganna, who is also a geicist at the Broad Instute of MIT and Harvard as well as the Universy of Helski.

While the variatns the gen are not enough to raise a rabow flag and label anyone as unqutnably gay, the rearchers say the blogil variants may at the very least partly fluence sexual behavr. Geics nnot tell "the whole story, " as Eric Vila, director of the Center for Geic Medice Rearch at Children’s Natnal Health System, told the Post, about what "mak" somebody gay.

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).

CLIL STUDY CONFIRMS PEOPLE ARE NOT BLOGILLY “BORN GAY”

Gen uld themselv nudge one towards a particular sexual orientatn or gen may simply teract wh other environmental factors (such as sex hormon the womb environment) to fluence later sexual bras of gay and heterosexual people also appear to be anised differently.

The fluence of blogy ns throughout our sexual and genred liv and those differenc, that diversy, is surely to be wrers tend to wave off the scientific evince by urgg to look to the history of sexualy or claim that homosexualy is a social nstctn (cue Michel Fouult and the like).

Surely our choic are the rult of thgs we didn’t choose (our gen, personali, upbrgg, and culture) worry that scientific rearch will lead to “cur” for homosexualy (which is an odd worry to have if you don’t believe the “born this way” argument). We are who we are, and our sexuali are part of human worry about the claims of social nstctn, choice and such like is that plays to the hands of homophobic iology, to the hands of the “aversn therapists”, and to the hands of a growg culture which seeks to mimise gay differenc.

IS ANYONE BORN GAY?

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. Lead scientist Alan Sanrs said that the work “eros the notn that sexual orientatn is a choice” – but said the study also did not intify a sgle gene which was the direct e of homosexualy. “Y, we have a choice life, to be ourselv or to nform to someone else’s ia of normaly, but beg straight, bisexual or gay, or none of the, is a central part of who we are, thanks part to the DNA we were born wh.

Richard Lane of Stonewall told the Inpennt: “While some people may choose to foc on the ntug bate of whether people are born gay or not, we’ll ntue to foc on makg sure everyone has the same rights and opportuni regardls of who they love. 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. This paper summariz and analyz that purported scientific evince and explas that much (if not all) of the evince is irrelevant and do not support the homosexualy-is-not-a-mental-disorr claim.

WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?

As a rult of their ficienci and arbrars, the credibily those two groups that are typilly emed thorative and tstworthy is lled to summary: At one time, homosexualy was nsired to be mentally disorred. Texas, AdjtmentIntroductnShortly before this paper was wrten, a Catholic nun was acced of “g spect anecdot, antiquated data, and broad generalizatns to monize gays and lbians” (Funk 2014). 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.

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

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. One document begs wh Sigmund Frd, who suggted that homosexualy was “nothg to be ashamed of, no vice, no gradatn, nnot be classified as an illns, but a variatn of sexual functn” (Frd 1960, 21, 423–4).

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

They note that Frd attempted to change one woman's sexual orientatn, but after failg to do so, “Frd nclud that attempts to change homosexual sexual orientatn were likely to be unsuccsful” (Glassgold et al. )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.

ARE YOU BORN GAY OR IS A CHOICE? SCIENTISTS MIGHT HAVE FOUND THE ANSWER

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. (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.

THE SCIENTIFIC REASON THAT PROV HOMOSEXUALS ARE GAY AT BIRTH

They based that claim off of Ksey's studi which “monstrated that homosexualy was more mon than prevly assumed, th suggtg that such behavrs were part of a ntuum of sexual behavrs and orientatns” (Glassgold et al. 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:.