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

Contents:

• '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
• WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?
• IS A PERSON ‘BORN GAY’, OR IS BEG GAY A LEARNED BEHAVR?
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• ARE WE BORN GAY?
• ‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’
• CAN A PERSON BE BORN GAY?
• IS THERE ARE GAY GENE? ARE YOU BORN GAY OR IS BEG GAY A CHOICE?
• AM I GAY?
• ARE GAYS ‘BORN THAT WAY’? MOST AMERINS NOW SAY Y, BUT SCIENCE SAYS NO
• HOMOSEXUALY & CHOICE: ARE GAY PEOPLE 'BORN THIS WAY?'
• HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
• THE POPE SAYS GAY CATHOLICS ARE BORN THIS WAY
• GAY NVERSN IS THE MISSN OF GEIA’S ‘BORN THAT WAY’ MISTRY
• BEG GAY: UPBRGG OR BORN THAT WAY?
• NEWS: 'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT... (THE GUARDIAN) - BEHD THE HEADL
• SECTN 2: KNOWG GAYS AND LBIANS, RELIG CONFLICTS, BELIEFS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY
• WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?
• KEV SPACEY: I N’T TELL WHETHER MEN ARE GAY JT BY LOOKG AT THEM
• PROOF YOU N'T BE 'BORN GAY'

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

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). 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.

“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. Numero legislative and judicial efforts are currently unrway to outlaw voluntary therapy or to ny the legimacy of adults who experience some level of same-sex attractn but choose not to engage same-sex relatns or intify themselv as gay or lbian, on the grounds that such actns ny their immutable nature.

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

Followg Polrman’s study, a team of proment sexualy rearchers terpreted the replited low level of herabily to suggt that, while ternal sexual attractn may not be socially malleable, the adoptn of a sexual inty unnstraed by ternal attractn—homosexual, heterosexual, or somethg else—is well wh the range of velopment for most people. On the General Social Survey (a biennial statistil profile of the US populatn fund by the Natnal Science Foundatn), 57 percent of people who intify as gay (40 percent of gay men and 78 percent of lbian women) report havg had one or more oppose-sex sex partners sce age eighteen. 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.

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.

WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?

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.

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

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.

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

”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.

ARE WE BORN GAY?

” 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.

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

”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. “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? Every few years, a new “disvery” would be ma about “provg” that people were born gay, only to be replaced by the latt “disvery, ” none of which proved Febary, 1992, a ver story for Newsweek featured the face of an fant and the qutn, “Is This Child Gay?

CAN A PERSON BE BORN GAY?

In other words, as has often been noted wh regard to the possibily of blogil ntributns to homosexualy, predisposn is not prestatn and rrelatn is not is unrsred by the more recent study of epigeics, of which Lisa Diamond and Clifford Rosky state their prtig volume, The APA Handbook of Sexualy and Psychology, “In sence, the current scientific revolutn our unrstandg of the human epigenome challeng the very notn of beg ‘born gay, ’ along wh the notn of beg ‘born’ wh any plex tra.

In the same way, the bt thg we n do for those stgglg wh genr nfn is to ntue to treat them wh passn, regnizg the great torment they have often lived wh, while fdg ways to help them fd wholens and ntentment harmony wh their ’ve had s of experience alg wh misleadg headl about the latt disvery that homosexualy is nate and immutable. Passg the Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Fay Valu bill would further rce eedoms a untry where gay sex is already punishable wh up to three years jail, crics and activists Odoi, an amic rearcher, filed a lawsu on July 7 challengg the bill's nstutnaly, sayg would impact donor aid and other forms of fancial support.

IS THERE ARE GAY GENE? ARE YOU BORN GAY OR IS BEG GAY A CHOICE?

Ghana's Supreme Court on Wednday led her arguments were not sufficiently nvcg to grant an lg cleared the way for the bill, one of the harsht towards the LGBTQ muny Ai, to go through a fal stage of parliamentary approval before beg signed to May, Uganda's Print Yoweri Meveni signed one of the world's tought anti-LGBTQ laws, which spelled out the ath penalty for "aggravated homosexualy"'s bill, backed by relig and tradnal lears, clus jail sentenc of up to 10 years for advotg for LGBTQ rights. 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. Laboratory studi such as those nducted by Michael Bailey of Northwtern Universy and Meredh Chivers of Queens Universy suggt that, while such people probably do exist -- at least North Ameri, where many sexologists have foced their attentns -- 's not unmon for straight-intified people to be at least a ltle aroed by the ia of same-sex media has tend to broadst the news that gay-intified men and straight-intified men have que discernible aroal patterns when they are shown var kds of sexual stimuli.

Still, there do seem to be some blogil evince that at least some straight people probably were born strongly cled that Blanchard of the Universy of Toronto has articulated the "aternal birth orr effect" (FBOE): The more olr brothers a male has om the same blogil mother, the more likely he is to be a gay adult. But we n't show any kd of clear al lk between the experience of childhood abe (sexual or physil) and adult sexual abe to ph children toward straight or gay orientatns they might otherwise not have had, would have to be the se that children's sexual orientatns n be shifted directn, tentnally or untentnally, and the tth is that the evince for that is th at short, we don't really know where human sexual orientatns e om yet.

A gay man is more likely than a straight man to have a (blogil) gay brother; lbians are more likely than straight women to have gay 1993, a study published the journal Science showed that fai wh two homosexual brothers were very likely to have certa geic markers on a regn of the X chromosome known as Xq28. This led to media headl about the possibily of the existence of a “gay gene” and discsns about the ethics of abortg a “gay” have also been headl about an “alholism gene”, which mak people bee alholics, and a “warrr gene”, which mak people unually n’t ntrol behavr pletely, though. Throughout history, marriag have been fluenced by fay relatns and by enomic adhere to cultural nstrats of monogamy spe beg attracted to people other than their culture affects your views on some societi, homosexualy is accepted, others, is owned upon but tolerated, yet others, is a ser crimal offense, possibly punishable by homosexual behavr was expected ancient Athens.

AM I GAY?

Most Amerins would be probably be nseated if they learned that, when they thought they had been eatg beef, they were, fact, eatg dog, even though there is nothg herently unhealthy about dog you have learned about homosexualy as you were growg up will affect whether you nsir engagg homosexual acts to be sirable or people might argue that if you are “geilly gay” but the thought of homosexualy nseat you, then you jt haven’t accepted the fact that you really are gay. That argument is based on the assumptn that sexual preference is purely blogil; therefore, has no place a discsn about the possible of BraThe stcture of the bra might fluence sexual 1991, a study published the journal Science seemed to show that the hypothalam, which ntrols the release of sex hormon om the puary gland, gay men differs om the hypothalam straight men. The third terstial nucls of the anterr hypothalam (INAH3) was found to be more than twice as large heterosexual men as homosexual menThis study was cricized bee ed bra tissue obtaed at topsi, and all of the homosexual subjects the study were believed to have died of AIDS.

It did, however, show that gay men, nrons the INAH3 are packed more closely together than straight and MRI studi performed 2008 have shown that the two halv of the bra are more symmetril homosexual men and heterosexual women than heterosexual men and homosexual women. By manipulatg hormone levels durg this time, scientists n make rats engage homosexual behavr later your bra was fluencg your sexual preference even before you were n expla why many gay people feel that they have always been velopment do not stop at birth, though.

However, women do experience chang to the stcture of the hypothalam – which is thought to be associated wh sexual orientatn – throughout the menstal far, attempts to “cure” homosexualy by operatg on the bra – homosexuals were once given lobotomi – have never worked. Perhaps one day we will be able to adjt sexual preference via surgery – focg on the particular regns of the bra that are associated wh sexual preference – or via nral implants or Sexual Preference Can Be ChangedEven if gay people n never stop beg attracted to members of the same sex, they n learn not to act on their already learn to stop smokg, to give up certa foods, and not cheat on their hbands or 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 they stop?

ARE GAYS ‘BORN THAT WAY’? MOST AMERINS NOW SAY Y, BUT SCIENCE SAYS NO

)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 is an element of homophobia that argument– the implitn that gay people would bee straight, if only they uld. In fact, when we you do so, you rerce the belief that your behavr is has to prove that blogy forc them to vote for a particular polil party, practice a certa relign or follow a particular 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” his blog post, Lowr stat, “Many crics will argue that appealg to blogy is the only way to protect agast the attacks of the relig right.

HOMOSEXUALY & CHOICE: ARE GAY PEOPLE 'BORN THIS WAY?'

” g om queer Catholics worldwi who are creasgly feelg seen by their Church’s lear, pecially after his latt ments support of the LGBTQ+ what is wily nsired to be his most acceptg statement to date, Pope Francis reportedly reassured a Chilean man durg an timate meetg that he was born gay and that God loved him unndnally.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

” rponse om 2013 wh regards to gay when the Vir of Christ tells someone of fah that he personally don’t re about their sexualy, and even go so far as to say that ’s herent and God-given, that gture alone is absolutely revolutnary, particularly for those of who have spent years lookg for validatn wh the Church and have stead enuntered closed doors wh signs that effectively read, “Knock and shall be opened to you.

We’ve had the Book of Levic thrown at ; we’ve heard that Adam and Eve (not Steve) are prent Genis; we’ve been told repeatedly that we’ll never be able to get married or possibly even adopt children om fah-based agenci bee of this notn that homosexualy, specifilly, is mak Pope Francis’ latt pro-gay pot that much more signifint, even if ’s the kd of sentiment that isn’t reciproted by tradnalists both the pews and at the altar. The “Christian Counsel for a Confed Culture” nference is unrway Moultrie, Geia, and teachg participants how to “prevent sexual nfn” and “achievg liverance om a sexual s” as part of an anti-gay mistry that po people are not born gay, but some are born to be celibate. “US public opn about gays has changed drastilly recent s on the issu of marriage equaly and LGBT acceptance as a whole, possibly related to the fact that three four Amerins say they have a iend, relative, or worker who has told them that he or she is gay, ” Gallup reported support for same-sex marriage has reached an all-time high of 55 percent – more signifintly, nearly 80 percent among young adults.

THE POPE SAYS GAY CATHOLICS ARE BORN THIS WAY

Approval of gay or lbian relatns jumped 19 percent between 2001 and 2013 (om 40 percent to 59 percent, aga acrdg to Gallup), Amerins are about evenly divid on whether homosexualy is somethg a portn of the populatn is born wh or, stead, is a characteristic rultg om upbrgg and environment – prent before birth or 1978, a majory of Amerins (56 percent) believed to be upbrgg and environment; jt 13 percent thought gay men and lbians were “born that way. ”Meanwhile, the polil and legal bate over sexual orientatn and gay rights Fort Worth this weekend, the Texas Republin Party was to nsir a proposed plank to s platform that would "regnize the legimacy and efficy of unselg, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seekg healg and wholens om their homosexual liftyle. “There are a lot of lbians who subscribe to the ‘born this way’ narrative, part bee 's bee almost an obligatory story, ” said Jane Ward, a profsor of genr studi at the Universy of California-Riversi and thor of Not Gay: Sex Between Straight Whe Men.

GAY NVERSN IS THE MISSN OF GEIA’S ‘BORN THAT WAY’ MISTRY

’”An important reason why the science on sexual orientatn is limed, van Anrs says, is that the ways which scientists fe sexual orientatn for the purpos of their studi — who unts as gay, who unts as lbian, who unts as bisexual — assum we n draw bright l, when we n't. "Most aspects of human experienc are actually bpsychosocial: a long word which means that they volve our blogy, our psychology, and the social world around , wh all of those thgs fluencg each other plex feedback loops, makg impossible to tease apart each element or the directn of any e-effect relatnships, " Barker "born this way" mantra of the gay rights movement is both simple and absolute, spe the science that shows human sexualy is plex and fluid.

BEG GAY: UPBRGG OR BORN THAT WAY?

While large majori of almost all mographic and partisan groups say they know someone who is gay or lbian, there are differenc both the number of gay and lbian acquatanc people have and whether people say they have close fay members or iends who are gay.

NEWS: 'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT... (THE GUARDIAN) - BEHD THE HEADL

Osr-wng actor Kev Spacey has said he is attracted to mascule men but is not able to tell whether someone is gay jt by lookg at cross-examatn durg his trial on sex abe charg, the Hollywood star nied he was a “sexual bully” and told the jury he did not have a “power wand” to make people want to sleep wh about his sexual preferenc, Mr Spacey said he had prevly had romantic enunters wh men who would not scribe themselv as homosexual. This scenar has two possible : 1) Sally nverted om hetero to homo, and there is no anic basis for sexual orientatn, or 2) rearchers built their studi on the premise that Sally and those like her were hetero, only to have to disrd all their rearch bee 's based on flawed assumptns. If those bras labeled "straight" clud homosexuals who have not yet e out, while the bras labeled "gay" clud straights that are really jt nfed and only thought they were homosexual, the rearcher is jt parg one group of gay and straight bras wh another group of gay and straight bras.

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. 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.

SECTN 2: KNOWG GAYS AND LBIANS, RELIG CONFLICTS, BELIEFS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY

WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?

KEV SPACEY: I N’T TELL WHETHER MEN ARE GAY JT BY LOOKG AT THEM

PROOF YOU N'T BE 'BORN GAY'