Do you think all lesbians or homosexuals in general are born that way? Do you think that there could be some negative event in their life that turns their sexual orientation at some point? For instance, I know a boy who was molested by his grandfather for years. When he was about 16 he declared himself gay and has been ever since. Would he have been gay anyway?
Answer:
First of all, we are truly, truly sorry for the abuse your friend experienced. If we could take just a portion of the energy that has been wasted over the gay debate and focus it on eradicating pedophiles, we think the world would be a much better place.
So, on to the million dollar question! Are gays born or made?
The short answer is that it has not yet been empirically proven one way or the other, but continuing studies seem to suggest that it is probably genetic and that environmental factors, including biological conditions occurring en utero contribute to defining a person's sexual orientation.
The longer answer is that studies continue to be made and we are getting closer to determining a more concrete answer in the scientific sense, but we have never met a single gay person who has said they were made gay. Everyone of our friends we've discussed this with, and it comes up often, is that we were born this way. Even those of us who came out later in life, know that we were always gay and social pressure was the reason for for the delay in figuring it out.
As far as research goes, though, one of the most comprehensive studies occurred in Sweden in 2007 and contained the largest sample of gay twins to date. The Swedish study, along with several other subsequent studies, appear to indicate that the sexual orientation of the subject is genetic, with environmental factors providing some effect. Another interesting study performed in 2007 seems to indicate that a group of genes may be the key to sexual orientation. The study discusses the biological environment en utero primarily focusing on testosterone exposure at key points of development, among many other interesting ideas. Our favorite quote from the linked article is when the researcher says
“Bullshit...A mathematical model is a nice exercise, a mental masturbation about how these things could work, but it makes better sense to do that once we know a bit more..."Hehe! "mental masturbation"- brainy naughtiness! (Not that there is anything wrong with masturbation!) Anyway...
On a lighter note, a more recent study performed in South Korea found that a gay gene may have been found in female mice. By removing a single gene they found that female mice will gravitate toward other females. The gene's name: FucM. We didn't make that up! That's scientific.
Proving the existence of a gay gene would be a blessing and a curse for us. To finally get the religious right to stop trying to pray the gay away or, better yet, stop the psychologically damaging practice of trying to convert gays to straight, would take away a lot of the negative energy behind the condemnation of gays, and go a long way toward establishing peace for this controversial subject. But scary, scary, scary, is the thought of what people may resort to if they knew how to identify the gay gene and then start thinking about how to eradicate it. This would turn the whole abortion debate around on it's head. Think about it, progressives and conservatives alike, would have to rethink their stand on abortion. Being pro-choice, it would be hard for us to support another woman exercising her right to choice just because the baby might be gay. It's not for us to judge- but that would be tough...and a subject for another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment