Are People Born Gay?

Being a straight man, or at least identifying myself as "straight" I have often heard one of two arguments regarding gay people in the USA. A) People are born gay, B) People choose to be gay. Honestly, I do not know which one to fully believe.

To me if we go with option (A) it's very dangerous scientifically speaking. Because then even though you would not be able to classify being gay as a personality disorder as suggested by Freud and later changed in the in the 1970's. There will be many whom will see people being gay as suffering from a genetic disorder. Granted this may garner people to feel sympathy because it will come under the auspices that "they cant help it" and is just as natural as skin color, or hair color, but this sounds like pity as opposed to acceptance, and will logically drive those who are against this so-called "alternate lifestyle" to find a cure at the genetic level, you cannot "un-gay" someone after birth regardless of the amount of psychological manipulation as studies have suggested. And thusly, quite the opposite of acceptance of gay people would happen, but rather the outright exclusion and extermination of gays from the genetic pool of human beings.

But let's look at option (B) for a moment. Now let's say being gay is a "lifestyle". Lifestyle meaning a; way of life or style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group.

There is no question there is much evidence that gay people by in large are tolerated, but not accepted even if we are on the brink of close of the year 2006. When I think about it rationally, I like women. I like cars, the opera, the theater, football, golf, beer, and amusement parks. All these things I would consider as part of my lifestyle. Every choice I have made in life so far at least, fits into the lifestyle I want to lead and do not want to lead. Thusly, I would conclude every choice one makes in life is a "lifestyle" choice. As well, I think to call it a choice is actually more empowering when you think about it, all things being equal. It implies you've thought about it, you are in control, the fact that you are taking a stance on the choices you have made and no one can tell you any different nor has a right to do so.

I guess if we say people are born gay, then I would gather you can conclude many of us are born straight.

Now what actually makes a boy gravitate towards a pretty girl, or a boy to a handsome boy and vice versa I'm not sure the actual causation for such. Perhaps it is genetic, maybe it is nurture by parenting or social conditioning through television, ads in papers, and above all parents and friends.

Taking a look at the science for a moment we come across something called prenatal hormones and sexual orientation. And this has started to show some pieces of the puzzle, at least in small part.

Hormonal Theory of Sexuality

The hormonal theory of sexuality holds that, just as exposure to certain hormones plays a role in fetal sex differentiation, such exposure also influences the sexual orientation that emerges later in the adult. Fetal hormones may be seen as the primary determiner of adult sexual orientation, or a co-factor with genes and/or environmental and social conditions.

Physiological factors present at birth may produce behaviors in children that are interpreted as gender difference. Such gendered behavior may be an indicator of adult sexual orientation ,a 1987 longitudinal study suggested that 75% of boys who exhibit cross-gender behavior grow up to be gay or bisexual adults (Green 1987).

There is evidence of a correlation between sexual orientation and traits that are determined in utero. Williams et al. (2000) found that finger length ratio, a characteristic controlled by prenatal hormones, is different in people of distinct sexual orientations.Another study by McFadden in 1998 found that auditory systems in the brain, another physical trait influenced by prenatal hormones is different in those of differing orientations, likewise the superchiasmatic nucleus of homosexual men was found by Swaab and Hopffman to be larger in homosexual men than in heterosexual men, the superchiasmatic nucleus is also known to be larger in men than in women .

Gay men have more older brothers on average, a phenomenon known as the fraternal birth order effect. It has been suggested that the greater the number of older male siblings the higher the level of androgen fetuses are exposed to .

Male homosexuality as feminine or hypo-masculine

In a 1991 study, Simon LeVay demonstrated that a tiny clump of neurons of the anterior hypothalamus which is believed to control sexual behavior and linked to prenatal hormones was on average more than twice the size in heterosexual men when contrasted to homosexual men. Initially he could not rule out that this may be due to AIDS since all of his homosexual male subjects had died from it before the autopsies were performed. However in 2003 scientists at Oregon State University announced that it replicated his findings in sheep.

Female homosexuality

Girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (an autosomal recessive condition which results in high androgen levels during fetal development) have more masculine sex role identities and are more likely to have a homosexual sexual orientation as adults than controls (Dittmann et al. 1990ab, 1992; Zucker et al., 1996; Hines et al., 2004).

An alternative explanation for this effect is that the fact that girls with this condition are born with masculine external genitalia leads their parents to raise them in a more masculine manner which then influences their sexual orientation as adults. However, the degree to which the girls' genitals are masculine does not correlate with their sexual orientation, suggesting that prenatal hormones are the causal factor, not parental influence.

Other studies regarding pheromones, penis sizes, circulating androgen levels, number of sex partners over a lifetime and MRI brain scans also found differences between homosexuals and heterosexuals all related to prenatal hormones. In bovine free martins, a clear causal relationship has been detected between prenatal hormones and adult sexuality.

Now even with all this science leaning more towards the fact that yes (A) people are born gay, do we honestly think that it will be left alone and just be accepted? Human beings have a nature for trying to "cure" things which are interpreted as abnormal and not supposed to happen. To look at someone being gay the same way we look at someone that has sickle cell anemia, scientifically has many facts and many logical questions that have been asked and is leading towards solutions, and eventually I think perhaps a "final solution" which in itself I'd call is most unethical, but would not be the first time mankind has tried eugenics either. However, if we still stay with option (B) at least there I think is more room for understanding. If someone for sake of argument says I'm gay, and I chose to be. We can better try and understand their rationale as to why, and develop a lot more understanding and acceptance as opposed to merely tolerance of such a lifestyle.

To say one is born gay, I think is a cop out. I worry about this faulty logic. I think to say people are born gay is faulty because, what happens when we find a link between certain hormonal tendencies and combinations that makes one a serial killer, a murder, pedophile, or an asshole, all these things should they then be excused by courts? by society? Hey I mean after all just say you got bad genes and you'll get away with such and said actions cannot and should not be held against. Now I am not saying that people whom are gay whether they claim being born this way, or by choice should have to be persecuted by others simply because there is a lot of sentiment against them and therefore should have to deal with the consequences of negative action against for admitting who they want to be, or who they are depending on their perspective.

While most of these are brought up through conditioning there has to be some genetic precursor's to them and that this merely influences that they may receive just helps brings these traits to the surface and exposes them....unlocking them from their chamber if you will. And if this is to be the case sooner or later someone is going to figure out how to either keep the lock locked, or eliminate the offender period.

Sources

Green, R. (1987). The "sissy boy syndrome" and the development of homosexuality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Dailey, T. and Sprigg , P. (2001). Getting It Straight - What the Research Shows about Homosexuality, Family Research Council, Washington D.C.

Dittmann et al. (1990) Congenital adrenal hyperplasia. I: Gender-related behavior and attitudes in female patients and sisters. Psychoneuroendocrinology 15:401-420.

Dittmann et al. (1990) Congenital adrenal hyperplasia. II: Gender-related behavior and attitudes in female salt-wasting and simple-virilizing patients. Psychoneuroendocrinology 15:421-434.

Dittmann et al. (1992) Sexual behavior in adolescent and adult females with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Psychoneuroendocrinology 17:153-170.

Hines et al. (2004). Androgen and psycho sexual development: core gender identity, sexual orientation, and recalled childhood gender role behavior in women and men with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. Journal of Sex Research 41:75-81.

Rahman Q. (2005). The neurodevelopment of human sexual orientation. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 29 :1057-1066.

Williams et al. (2000). Finger-lengths ratios and sexual orientation. Nature 404:455-456.

Zucker et al. (1996) Psycho-sexual Development of Women with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. Hormones and Behavior 30:300-318.