Hello, I would like to discuss homosexuality. Before I do so I would like to state that I understand this is a controversial topic and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I mean no disrespect towards anyone.
That being said I do not understand how people deny homosexuality as being scientifically proven to not be a "lifestyle choice". What proof do you need?
You mean besides the over 15 years of scientific studies that included brain scans (CT and MRI) that showed the brain of a gay person was actually structurally and functionally more like that of the opposite sex than their own?
In 1991, brain scientist Simon LeVay reported that the hypothalamus, which is involved in sexual behavior, tended to be smaller in gay men. Other researchers subsequently showed that the brains of gay and straight people appeared likely to respond differently to sexual images. The researchers who conducted the new study previously reported that the brains of gay and straight men seemed to react differently to suspected pheromones -- odors thought to be involved in sexual arousal.
Ivanka Savic and Per Lindstrom of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in which they used MRI to compare brain symmetry in straight and gay men and women. They found that gay men tended to have brains that were more like those of straight women than of straight men -- the right and left sides were about the same size while gay women's brains tended to be more like those of straight men than of straight women -- the right side tended to be slightly larger than the left.
When they switched to PET scans, they found that in a part of the brain involved in processing emotions -- the amygdala -- and is connected to other brain regions gay men tended to be more like straight women, with a stronger link between the amygdala and regions involved in emotions. Gay women tended to be more like straight men, with stronger connections to motor functions.
There are other biological markers as well, with recent studies having been done at CSU Fullerton and Queen Mary, University of London, among many, many others.
In other words, you cannot dispute that there is a biological, genetic cause for homosexuality, no matter what your feelings are about it.
This question is unresolved. What we do know is that it is highly unlikely that a gay gene exists.
This causes some degree of friction between certain factions of the discussion. Because nurture and some degree of choice certainly exist for many people.
So, there are many who would like to prevent their children from being gay, even if they wouldn't be particularly troubled by raising a homosexual child. In this way, they prefer to shield their children from such influences and this, from another perspective, could be viewed as discrimination.
It does seem that female children have more mutable characteristics and can have more confusion issues than males, but, it might be determined by another type or age of exposure.
No, I am not proposing this as the only issue or determinate. Or, even as the primary determinate. I am saying that we don't know, and would like to alleviate some of the friction between reasonable parties in this discussion.
Discussions about studies using gay adults are often not surprising, because of their acclamation to dealing with, having sexual relationships with, and close long term relationships with, people of the same sex.
However, gay is not a sex, and sexual activity is certainly mutable that we can expect responsible behavior from people. Including from men and women, with homosexual tendencies who are married, and often have children. They should get support and not temptation... this is pet problem of mine in this discussion.
