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

Contents:

• WHY WOULD PEOPLE 'CHOOSE' TO BE GAY?
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• IS BEG 'GAY' A CHOICE? SCIENCE SAYS Y (BUT NOT THE WAY YOU'RE THKG)
• IF BEG GAY WERE ACTUALLY A CHOICE, THIS IS WHAT SOME STRAIGHT GUYS WOULD CHOOSE
• GAY MARRIAGE: IF BEG GAY IS A CHOICE, SO WHAT?
• BEG GAY NOT A CHOICE: SCIENCE CONTRADICTS BEN CARSON
• DO GAYS HAVE A CHOICE?
• ‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• WHAT’S WRONG WH CHOOSG TO BE GAY?WHAT’S WRONG WH CHOOSG TO BE GAY?
• BEG GAY IS A CHOICE

WHY WOULD PEOPLE 'CHOOSE' TO BE GAY?

Homosexual members of society n unfortunately expect to regularly be challenged, sctised and nmned by belligerent type who are seemgly nvced that homosexualy is a “liftyle choice” issue has e up aga (for what is possibly the 12, 456, 987, 332nd time) for several reasons. The mastream media has always been somewhat blunt or ham-fisted s portrayal of even heterosexual relatnships (for evince of this, see pretty much any married uple an advert), so was a long shot that they’d show homosexuals accurately.

Normally heterosexual characters sudnly displayg homosexual leangs when a boost viewg figur are need is a mon trope the days, so you n sort of see how this might make some people thk ’s a “choice”, if they lack more realistic sayg that sexualy is set stone om birth is also not que right, the ma emphasis of those g the choice argument is that homosexuals have weighed up their optns and nscly cid “I am gog to be gay om now on”. Comedian Todd Glass mak a brilliant pot his book (which is great, I got for Christmas), which is that if you genuely believe sexualy is a choice, then you’re not actually straight, you jt haven’t met anyone persuasive enough those who argue that homosexualy is a choice variably assert that is a wrong 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.

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

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. If is a choice, then that means we have ls license to nmn this is hopefully changg, is a near certaty that people who nmn homosexualy and same-sex marriage and who thk that beg gay is a choice lean right strik me as odd.

But, this issue seems to be so cut and dry, so obv, and so termed by nservatism’s re value, that I am still, I subm this statement for review to believers that beg gay is a choice:“The fact that beg gay is a choice is a fact which mak ls, rather than more an issue which we should nmn wh public policy. Is the implitn of the popular bumper sticker slogan, “It is not a choice, is a child, ” that if were simply a choice, we would support other words, we have actively affirmed that we do not nmn the followg type of suatn: One which people make choic about their own bodi, so long as everybody volved is pable of nsentg and do, ed, choice of, say, two men to engage nsensual long or short term gay sexual partnership is jt such a suatn. I, as a straight male, happen to be attracted to a certa shape of hairls, bipedal great ape, which is a b softer and more round than my gay iends, who tend to like a kd of boxier, ually bigger (but ultimately very siar), hairls, bipedal great ape.

It jt don’t were a choice, fewer people would take though we have seen above that is morally ntral whom we want to have sex wh, there are good reasons that people would choose to be gay or this article is wrten wh paful awarens of, certa people have ma beg gay a paful and unpleasant experience. 8% of all of , are all of the vrl, wh all of the hatred and discrimatn, wh the broad abily for a same-sex uple to enjoy the spirual and material benefs of marriage, wh the abily of a same-sex uple to produce geic offsprg (though I thk that don’t matter), why do so many people still choose to be gay? The theory, veloped s ago, may not clu the "born this way" argument, but if the ntuum theory is te, would help to expla all the shas of sexualy and genr we fd the theory also rais addnal qutns for me:When someone dabbl homosexualy but ends up livg a straight life, was that a choice, or is that person on a certa place on the ntuum: more straight than gay?

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

When a homosexual person dabbl heterosexualy, say his llege years, but ends up married to another man, is that a choice, or is that the man g out as he was born, fally, after alg wh so many years of opprsn that kept him closeted, even to himself? It might help to know their orig orr to figure out how to nip them the bud, but no amount of rmatn about the genis of the behavrs is gog to change my md about whether they are morally to homosexualy, the real issue isn't where om, but whether 's harmful.

If they want to monstrate that homosexualy is wrong, they have to show the actual harm that rults om , not wh metaphors about "tearg the moral fabric of society, " but wh ncrete exampl of dividuals sufferg om same-sex relatnships. We all face the same choice, to be thentic and te to your heart and md, or pretend to be someone you are by Kon Karampelas on UnsplashBy John PavlovzConfsn all of my Christian brothers and sisters who sist that homosexualy is a choice, I need to break down and fally adm somethg: I agree wh you.

When you say que matter-of-factly that homosexualy is a choice, I’m not sure you really know that moment, jt what you mean by “homosexualy” too often Christian, when you make the statement that beg gay is a s, what you’re really dog whout realizg is rcg all LGBT people down to a sex act; as if that alone f ’re nyg any emotnal ponent their liv; any pacy to feel real love or show genue affectn toward someone a gross oversimplifitn, you’re labelg a plex, fully formed human beg as merely a performer of ’s somethg you would never do wh heterosexualy, and pecially not wh your own sexualy, bee you unrstand implicly that your sexual orientatn is about much more than a physil act. 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?

IF BEG GAY WERE ACTUALLY A CHOICE, THIS IS WHAT SOME STRAIGHT GUYS WOULD CHOOSE

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. 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+. 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.

GAY MARRIAGE: IF BEG GAY IS A CHOICE, SO WHAT?

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. 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.

BEG GAY NOT A CHOICE: SCIENCE CONTRADICTS BEN CARSON

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. Now, if you fd yourself overwhelmgly attracted to members of the oppose sex, and not at all to members of the same sex (obvly, the are oversimplifitns; sex is not a simple bary), you would be a bad cizen of your language muny to go on and apply the label “gay” to yourself.

DO GAYS HAVE A CHOICE?

But if you’re pable of feelg attractn to members of more than one sex, as many people are, and yet you orient your romantic and sexual behavr primarily around the “same-sex” si of thgs (by dt of your own ee choosg), then go ahead and nsir yourself gay.

The timele of events history that led to the propagatn of the “’s not a choice” unter-argument clearly shows that this is not herently a matter of gay-rights activism, but, rather, a necsary graspg unto somethg prented by a segment of the scientific muny that simultaneoly uld enable a need moment of relief om relentls attacks agast the soul. If a group rts s beliefs ( the se of creatnism) or s moral standpot ( the se of gay rights) on a set of claims that are unlikely to be borne out by the evince (or reful nceptual analysis), then risks losg s beliefs, or sacrificg s moral standpot, when the plex realy n no longer be nied. Specifilly, once the relevant facts bee wily unrstood (or when our technologil paci for alterg sexual orientatn improve), the right-wg persecutors of gay men and women will be able to claim victory, and harns the data to their si.

“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. Natnal Cancer Instute and his lleagu published a paper suggtg that an area on the X chromosome lled Xq28 uld nta a “gay gene.” But other studi, cludg the new paper, found no such lk, and Sathirapongsasuti says that the new study is the fal nail the ff for Xq28 as a e of same-sex attractn. You so obvly nnot be gay, was her implitn, bee this is good was 2006, a full five years before Lady Gaga would set the Born This Way argument atop s unassailable cultural perch, but even then the popular unrstandg of orientatn was that was somethg you were born wh, somethg you uldn’t change.

‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’

But what feels most accurate to say is that I’m gay – but I wasn’t born this people may fd their sir changg directn - and n't jt be explaed as experimentatn (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)In 1977, jt over 10% of Amerins thought gayns was somethg you were born wh, acrdg to Gallup.

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

Throughout the same perd, the number of Amerins who believe homosexualy is “due to someone’s upbrgg/environment” fell om jt unr 60% to ias reached cril mass pop culture, first wh Lady Gaga’s 2011 Born This Way and one year later wh Macklemore’s Same Love, the chos of which has a gay person sgg “I n’t change even if I tried, even if I wanted to. ”People who challenge the Born This Way narrative are often st as homophobic, and their thkg is nsired backwardAs Jane Ward not Not Gay: Sex Between Straight Whe Men, what’s tertg about many of the claims is how transparent their speakers are wh their polil motivatns.

In fact, the homophobic and non-homophobic rponnts he studied shared siar levels of belief a Born This Way Samantha Allen not at The Daily Beast, the growg public support for gays and lbians has grown out of proportn wh the rise the number of people who believe homosexualy is fixed at birth; would be unlikely that this small change opn uld expla the spike support for gay marriage, for stance. “It don’t seem to matter as much whether or not people believe that gay people are born that way as do that they simply know someone who is currently gay, ” Allen spe of the studi, those who ph agast Born This Way narrativ have been heavily cricised by gay activists. The efforts are potentially harmful, acrdg to the APA, “bee they prent the view that the sexual orientatn of lbian, gay and bisexual youth is a mental illns of disorr, and they often ame the abily to change one’s sexual orientatn as a personal and moral failure.

WHAT’S WRONG WH CHOOSG TO BE GAY?WHAT’S WRONG WH CHOOSG TO BE GAY?

The APA, for example, while notg that most people experience ltle to no choice over their orientatns, says this of homosexualy’s origs:“Although much rearch has examed the possible geic, hormonal, velopmental, social and cultural fluenc on sexual orientatn, no fdgs have emerged that perm scientists to nclu that sexual orientatn is termed by any particular factor or factors. ”Siarly, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn wr a 2013 statement that while the of heterosexualy and homosexualy are currently unknown, they are likely “multifactorial cludg blogil and behavral roots which may vary between different dividuals and may even vary over time.

” Acrdg to LeVay’s rearch, a specific part of the bra, the third terstial nucls of the anterr hypothalam (INAH-3), is smaller homosexual men than is heterosexual as they might, scientists have stggled to inty any particular gen that nsistently predict the directns of our love and sire (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)Read moreYou n spot the problem wh this study a e away: were the gay bras LeVay studied born that way, or did they bee that way? Bis the dividual criqu leveled agast each new study announcg some gay gene disvery, there are major methodologil cricisms to make about the entire enterprise general, as Grzanka pots out: “If we look at the raveno pursu, particularly among Amerin scientists, to fd a gay gene, what we see is that the ncln has already been arrived at. ”Gay or not, our sir are oriented and re-oriented throughout our liv (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)In fact, the straight-intified men Ward studied for her book sometim found themselv suatns that sparked the sire for homosexual sex: aterni, ployments, public rtrooms, etc.

I’m claimg that at some pot durg llege, my sexual and romantic sir beme reoriented toward menThkg back to my llege romanc wh women and men, I n beg to unrstand how my own experienc might have helped me to ‘cultivate’ my sire for homosexualy.

BEG GAY IS A CHOICE

“Limg our unrstandg of any plex human experience is always gog to be worse than allowg to be plited, ” he gay rights activists pared sexualy to relign - a ccial part of our life that we should be ee to practise however we like (Cred: Ignac Lehamann)So what are we to do wh the Born This Way rhetoric? ”Acrdg to surveys, ls than half of Generatn Z intify as "100% heterosexual", suggtg more and more people have embraced their sexual fluidy (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)Perhaps is time to look to the begng of the gay rights movement. The Amerin Medil Associatn is agast therapy that is “based on the assumptn that homosexualy is a mental disorr or that the person should change their ’s important to know that there is nothg wrong wh lovg people of the same genr as you.