(Home-My Story)....... True, Tragic and Unnecessary Gay Youth Suicide Stories...................... (Español)
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PART 2 (page 23 of 34)
Advances Toward Proving
that Homosexuality is not a Choice for
Conservatives*
Homosexuality: Nature or Nurture? (Part 2 of 5)
Further Proof that Homosexuality is Not a Choice -
The Results of Scientific Studies Plus
Gay
Rights is a Civil Rights Issue and Not a Moral or Religious Issue
Sufficient Proof that Homosexuality is
not a Choice for Everybody Else
Click
Here for: Bogaert, A.
F. (2006). Biological versus nonbiological older brothers and men's sexual
orientation. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 103, 10777-10774.
Click
Here for: R.
Blanchard, "Fraternal birth order and the maternal immune hypothesis of male
homosexuality," Hormones & Behavior, 2001, 40, Pages 105 to 114.
Click Here for: R.
Blanchard & L. Elllis, "Birth weight, sexual orientation, and the sex of
preceding siblings," Journal of Biosocial Science, 2001, 33: Pages 451 to 467.
Click Here for:
Blanchard, R. (2007). Sex ratio of older siblings in heterosexual and
homosexual, right-handed and non-right-handed men. Archives of Sexual Behavior.
2008 Dec;37(6):977-81
2) Identical Twins - If homosexuality is largely genetic in origin, then the more closely related that people are, the greater should be the concordance of their sexual orientation. That is in fact what the following studies found. Since identical twins have the same or 100% genetic makeup (genotype) while non-identical or fraternal twins share only 50% of their genes, a difference between these types of twins provides evidence of a genetic component. In studies done in 1991 by Boston University psychiatrist Richard Pillard and Northwestern University psychologist J. Michael Bailey, they compared fifty-six "monozygotic" twins (identical), from the same zygote, or fertilized egg, fifty-four "dizygotic" twins (fraternal) , and fifty-seven genetically unrelated adopted brothers. They found out that when one identical twin is a gay man, the other twin is gay up to 52% of the time, when one fraternal twin is a gay man, the other twin is gay up to 22% of the time, percentages far higher than would occur if genes played no role. Another way to say this is that it was found that 52% of monozygotic brothers (identical twins), 22% of the dizygotic brothers (fraternal twins) were concordant for homosexuality and only 5% of non-related adopted brothers were concordant for homosexuality. In fact, these studies show that genes play a greater role in determining sexual orientation than they do in whether or not you're right or left handed. And we don't punish the left-handed, at least not any more. One note of caution here: 52%, not 100%, of monozygotic brothers (identical twins) were concordant for homosexuality in the study. Therefore, there are other complicated biological and even some social environmental factors involved in the cause or causes of homosexuality. Click Here for more details.
3) Structure of the Brain - Scientists Ivanka Savic and Per Lindström at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden in a study dated April 30, 2008 using PET and MRI technology studied brain scans of 90 living gay and straight men and women, and found that the size of the two symmetrical halves of the brains of gay men more closely resembled those of straight women than they did straight men. In heterosexual women, the two halves of the brain are more or less the same size. In heterosexual men, the right hemisphere is slightly larger. Scans of the brains of gay men in the study, however, showed that their hemispheres were relatively symmetrical (equal), like those of straight women, while the brains of homosexual women were asymmetrical (unequal) like those of straight men. The number of nerves connecting the two sides of the brains of gay men were also more like the number in heterosexual women than in straight men.
"The big question has always been, if the brains of gay men are different, or feminized, as earlier research suggests," says Dr. Eric Vilain, professor of human genetics at University of California Los Angeles, "then is it just limited to sexual preference or are there other regions that are gender atypical in gay males? For the first time, in this study it looks like there are regions of the brain not directly involved in sexuality that seem to be feminized in gay males." Click Here for more details. Click Here to see the original study abstract.
Click Here for: Savic, Ivanka and Lindstrom, Per. “PET and MRI show differences in cerebral asymmetry and functional connectivity between homosexual and heterosexual subjects.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105.27 (2008): 9403-8.
4) Fingertip Ridges - In 1994, J.A.Y. Hall and D. Kimura at the University of Western Ontario at London, Ontario, Canada examined the fingerprints of 66 homosexual and 182 heterosexual men. They found a relationship between the number of fingertip ridges on men and their sexual orientation. They compared the number of ridges on the index finger and thumb of the left hand with the number on the corresponding fingers of the right hand. They found that 30% of the homosexuals tested had a surplus of ridges on their left hand, whereas only 14% of the heterosexuals did. This is a particularly interesting finding, because fingerprints are fully determined in a fetus before the 17th week of pregnancy, and do not change thereafter, through birth, infancy, childhood, youth and adulthood. This would seem to prove that for at least some adult homosexuals, their sexual orientation was pre-determined before birth, perhaps at conception; certainly by the end of the 4th month of pregnancy. Click Here and Here for more details.
Click Here for: Hall, J.A.Y., Kimura, D. 1994. Dermatoglyphic asymmetry and sexual orientation in men. Behavioural Neuroscience 108:1203-1206.
5) "Sexy" Smells Different for Gay, Straight Men - A study published in May of 2005 by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden shows that gay men respond differently from straight men when exposed to a suspected sexual stimulus found in male sweat. When homosexual men smelled the odor of male sweat—more specifically, a chemical in the male hormone testosterone—their brains responded similarly to those of women. The findings suggest that brain activity and sexual orientation are linked.
The scientists
exposed heterosexual men and women and homosexual men to chemicals found in male
and female sex hormones. One chemical is a testosterone derivative produced in
men's sweat. The other chemical is an estrogen-like compound in women's urine.
These chemicals have long been suspected of being pheromones, molecules emitted
by one individual that evoke some behavior in another of the same species.
Pheromones trigger basic responses, such as sexual attraction, in many animals.
But scientists have long debated if humans respond to pheromones. The new study
suggests that pheromones indeed play a part in making humans sexually attractive
to one another. The researchers found that the testosterone compound activated
the hypothalamus in homosexual men and heterosexual women, but not heterosexual
men. Conversely, the estrogen compound activated the hypothalamus only in
heterosexual men.
"It shows a different physiological response to the same external stimulus,"
said Ivanka Savic, a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute and the study's
lead researcher. "This response [occurred] in the brain region involved in
reproductive behavior." The results show that the human brain reacts
differently to potential pheromones compared with common odors. When the study
subjects sniffed scents such as cedar or lavender, all of their brains reacted
only in the region that handles smells—not sexual behavior. "It directly shows
a link between brain activity and sexual orientation. This is one more line of
evidence that there's a biological substring for sexual orientation," said Dean
Hamer, a geneticist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
However, the
different pattern of activity that Dr. Savic sees in the brains of gay men could
be either a cause of their sexual orientation or an effect of it. But this study
does seem to provide us with another bit in a longer and longer line of evidence
suggesting a biological basis for homosexuality. Click
Here for more details in the article in National Geographic from which much
of this summry comes from. Click
Here for
the article entitled For Gay Men, an Attraction to a Different Kind of Scent
by Nicholas Wade, published in the New York Times on May 10, 2005.
Click
Here for: Savic I,
Berglund H, Lindström P (May 2005). "Brain response to putative pheromones in
homosexual men". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102 (20): 7356–61.
doi:10.1073/pnas.0407998102. PMID 15883379.
Can Animals Be Gay? by By Jon Mooallem, Published: March 29, 2010 in The New York Times Magazine. This is a great article which shows that unlike in humans, animals who engage in homosexual sex do so for many complex reasons. Also, it explains why trying to equate homosexual sex in lower animals to human behaviors can be very tricky.
7)
The Stance of the Mental Health Community - Every major mental
health organization in the United States has affirmed strongly that
homosexuality is neither an illness nor a choice and cannot be changed.
Click Here
for Homosexuality: Nature or Nurture? (Part 2a of 2)
and more details regarding the stance of
the Mental Health Community.
o
Biased Studies?
Research studies, often conducted by individuals or organizations with a vested interest in the outcome, are contradictory. Studies linked to conservative political and religious groups almost never show anything positive about homosexuality and studies linked to liberal political and religious groups and/or gay support groups almost never show anything negative about homosexuality. So this means that we all have to take a step back and look at all these studies with a calm and a cool head. Though obviously being biased (since I know what the truth is from my own life experience) I still can not include any studies financed by the anti-gay religious right because for me the results are disingenuous, outrageous or even outright laughable. For example, Click Here to read about the ruse or junk science known as the Thomas Project or “Ex-Gays?”: A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change In Sexual Orientation whose principal investigators, Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse both worked for universities with strong anti-gay biases (and therefore had a vested interest in the outcome of the study) Wheaton College and Pat Robertson University respectively. On the other hand I have tried to weed out the studies with the more favorable outcomes to my side that seem to have some basic problems with their methodology. For example, I have not included the results of the following studies because these results could not be independently replicated by other researchers:o
Recommended Links:
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What Does All Of The Above Mean
. . . . . . . . .
However in spite of all of the above scientific studies, according to the American Psychological Association's own website, "there is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation. Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles; however most people whether heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual, experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation.
" Click Here on the American Psychological Association Website link, then scan down to the question "What causes a person to have a particular sexual orientation?" and you will find the direct quote as used above.What does all this mean when the contentious issue of Religion is taken out of the whole issue of homosexuality, at least as much as possible? Can we expect the fields of science and medicine to help society to accept homosexuals and bisexuals as equals by slowly tipping the scales more and more from nurture (environmental/psychological factors) to nature (biological factors) as to what is the main determinant/cause of sexuality? Let's look at some of the hopes and challenges.
The above mentioned scientists had to sift for their conclusions through results from a disparate group of small and underfunded studies that are sometimes difficult to interpret. Yet out of all the web of complexities it is becoming ever clearer that biological factors play a role in determining human sexual orientation, but we just don't know exactly how much. But Harvard neuroscientist Simon LeVay said that because there's been so much of this disparate research, we can see it "all sort of pointing in the same direction, [which] makes it pretty clear there are biological processes significantly influencing sexual orientation."
The search for scientific answers is not without its opponents. Some, recalling
earlier psychiatric "treatments" for homosexuality, discern in the biological
quest the seeds of genocide (Click Here to read about
the horrific cruelty that was carried out in the 1940s and 1950s by medical
doctors trying to "cure" homosexuals under the heading "The Difficult History of
How Society Has Viewed Homosexuality-Before 1973"). They conjure up the specter
of the surgical or chemical "rewiring" of gay people, or of abortions of fetal
homosexuals who have been hunted down in the womb. "I think all of us working in
this field," Angela Pattatucci, a geneticist at the National Institutes of
Health, says, "have delusions of grandeur in thinking we can control the way
this knowledge will be used." Certainly the potential for abuse is there, but
that is true of much biomedical knowledge. It is no reason to forswear knowledge
of ourselves, particularly when the potential benefits are great.
Some of the benefits could be indirect. Laura Allen,
a postdoctoral assistant in
Roger Gorski's laboratory in the department of anatomy at UCLA,
points out, for example, that there are many now-mysterious
diseases—autism, dyslexia, schizophrenia—that affect men and women differently,
hiding inside parts of the human mind and body that we cannot penetrate.
Neurobiological research into sexual differentiation may help us to understand
and cure these diseases, as well as to unlock other mysteries—the mysteries of
sexuality.
Science and Human Rights, Human Freedom, and Human
Tolerance
Some would ask: How can one justify discriminating against people on the basis
of their sexuality, as more and more evidence points in the direction of a large
role for biological determination? And more and more are answering: One cannot.
Yet it would be wise to acknowledge that science can be a rickety platform on
which to erect an edifice of rights. Science can enlighten, can instruct, can
expose the mythologies we sometimes live by. It can make these objective
distinctions — but we cannot rely on science to supply full answers to
fundamental questions involving human rights, human freedom, and human
tolerance. The issue of
gay people in American life did not arise in the laboratory. The principles
needed to resolve it will not arise there either.
oo
And finally for all of us doing our bit for the fight for fair and equitable treatment for everybody in the Homosexual and Bisexual communities remember that this struggle has been going on for a long time and that "faint heart never won fair lady" so we just need to persevere knowing that time, the tide of history and the Almighty God of Love Himself are on our side.
Church is so confusing for Zack. His new pastor preaches nothing but hate and condemnation of gays and lesbians, but no matter how carefully he reads his Bible, he can’t find where it says God hates him. Will things change when Zach's boyfriend Billy suggests that they all go to his church instead? Click Here or on the icon to read the story.
o
Now put your tongue in
your cheek as you read the following:
*A
Conservative is someone who:
admires liberals, but not until 50 years after their
death.
believes nothing should be done for the first time.
(Thomas Fuller
and/or
Lynwood L. Giacomini)
makes no changes and consults his grandmother when in doubt.
(Woodrow. Wilson)
believes in change, but not now.
has a haunting fear that someone somewhere, may be happy. (Shamelessly
borrowed from H. L. Mencken's definition of a Puritan)
was born with two legs, but never learned to move forward.
(Franklin D. Roosevelt)
wishes to preserve old evils as opposed to a liberal who clamors for
new ones.
thinks giving a single mom $10,000 a year in welfare will be a disincentive
to work, but thinks letting a rich kid inherit $500,000,000
will make him a productive member of society.
thinks that Jesus would oppose social safety nets and progressive tax plans,
you know like "spreading the wealth".
reads the story of Robin Hood and thinks the Sheriff of Nottingham is "the
good guy."
does and believes things because that's the way it's been done or believed
for the last 2,000 years.
.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Footnotes:
"What Does All Of The
Above Mean . . . " uses much of the ending summary of an article by Chandler
Burr entitled "Homosexuality and Biology" that appeared in the June 1997 issue
of the The Atlantic magazine. The URL is
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199706/homosexuality-biology
Click Here for What Parents of Gay and Lesbian Teens need to Know about Suicide - What Are The Warning Signs?
Click for Page 24 - Homosexuality: Nature or Nurture? (Part 3 of 5)
After 1973-Where Has The Mental Health Community Stood Up To Today?
Could The Ex-Gay Programs be a Form of Brain-washing
and a Cruel Hoax?
Your Sexual Orientation Can Indeed Change Over Time,
But You Can't Change It
Click for A Bisexual's
Beliefs About God and Religion at The Present Time - Gary Lynn
-
Click
below to go to:
The Anti-Gay Religious
Right's Really Cruel and Idiotic Argument
Their Message to a Gay Person is: Be alone. Live alone.
Die alone.
Click for Homosexuality is neither a Choice nor a Sin - Table of contents
Click for Gary Lynn's Home Page
