Posted on 07/12/2006 2:07:22 PM PDT by carlo3b
No scientific basis for 'born gay' theory By David Clarke PrudenAlthough the simple "born gay" theory has faded from the science scene, activists continue to misrepresent scientific findings. When you assert that individuals are born gay and cannot change, people naturally jump to the conclusion that same-sex marriage is the only rational choice for same-sex attracted individuals.
However, the innate-immutable theory of homosexuality has no basis in science. The simplistic biological theory has been dismissed by all of the researchers whose studies have been cited to support the notion that homosexuality is so deeply compelled by biology that it cannot change.
Let's examine the words of just one of those often incorrectly cited as providing evidence for a "gay gene." Simon LeVay notes, "It is important to stress what I didn't find. I did not prove that homosexuality was genetic, or find a cause for being gay. I didn't show that gay men were born that way, the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work."
A new research study by a University of Illinois team, which has screened the entire human genome, reported that there is no one gay gene. Writing in the journal Human Genetics, lead researcher Dr. Brian Mustanski noted that environmental factors were also likely to be involved.
Of the innate-immutable argument, Dr. Richard C. Friedman and Dr. Jennifer Downey, noted, "At clinical conferences one often hears . . . that homosexual orientation is fixed and unmodifiable. Neither assertion is true . . . The assertion that homosexuality is genetic is so reductionistic that it must be dismissed out of hand as a general principle of psychology."
And the fluidity of homosexual attractions is well-established. Dr. Ellen Schecter of the Fielding Institute studied women who had self-identified as lesbian for more than 10 years and who after age 30 were now in intimate relationships with men lasting a year or longer.
Even more prominent was the research by Robert Spitzer, the very psychiatrist who led the charge to remove homosexuality from the psychiatric manual. His study of 200 gay men and lesbian women who had undergone re-orientation therapy concluded: 44 percent of the women and 66 percent of the men had arrived at what he called "good heterosexual functioning" and 89 percent of the men and 95 percent of the women reported that they were bothered slightly or not at all by unwanted homosexual feelings.
Mainstream gay-affirming publications like The Advocate are changing their terminology to embrace the concept of fluid sexual attractions. Matt Foreman, of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, summarizes what the gay movement has done.
"We as a movement can take pride that we opened the door for young people to be much more fluid about sexuality, gender, gender roles, orientation and sexual behavior than any other generation in history. That's what the gay movement has contributed to society, and that's a tremendously good thing."
But is it? If the innate-immutable theory of homosexuality has no basis in science then why do so many activists still insist that individuals are born gay and cannot change? LeVay provided the answer. He notes " . . . people who think that gays and lesbians are born that way are more likely to support gay rights."
This is not to say that anyone chooses homosexual attractions nor do most of us choose many of the other challenges we face in life, but we do choose how we respond.
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David Clarke Pruden is the executive director of Evergreen International, a nonprofit Latter-Day Saint organization that provides resources and educational services for same-sex attracted members.
While I agree that there isn't a gay gene. I wonder what causes people to be sexually attracted to the same sex? My brother in law tells me that he's never had any feelings of sexual attraction to women but has to men since he was in middle school. I'm sure more psychological study of this phenomena will reveal more as time goes on.
I know people who were born gay, as in Helen Keller would know they are gay. Maybe science can't prove this but I believe some people are just born gay.
Agreed. There clearly isn't a gay gene -- if there were, evolution would have weeded it out -- but to call homosexuality a choice is to miss the point as well. It's certainly a pervision, and I believe it's wrong. But that doesn't mean someone woke up one day and decided to be attracted to men. Something happened in their lives to cause them to be confused about their sexual identity. We won't make any headway by telling gays simply to choose differently; we have to adjust the cultural circumstances that make such confusion commonplace.
I can't think of one good reason why one man would choose to wake up in the morning with his arms wrapped around another man. (all dumb jokes aside)
That sure is a DUH ALERT!
Could someone send this to Bush and other gay sympathizers? Oh yeah, Bush is against "gay marriage" but loves to hire them to do jobs NORMAL people are groveling around to do.
Absolutely no proof of this. Twin studies actually show that there is no Gay gene.
"Maybe science can't prove this but I believe some people are just born gay."
That statement alone proves it to be untrue.
God allows all sorts of mysteries and challenges to unfold before our eyes. Its how we deal with those mysteries and challenges that is what He is looking at. Gay Pride, somehow, doesn't strike me as the correct response to the challenge of misorientated sexual preference.
Except that it's been removed as a class of "mental illness" so it is no longer being studied except on a genetic level.
Yes, we are all born the same and then during life we choose what we want to be. White-black, conservative-liberal, male-female, gay-straight.
We were all born with the ability to think and choose, my parents and adult support groups always furnished me with enough information to make sound judgments about dangerous behaviors.. The gay lifestyle is generally far more dangerous than parachuting..
Parents never let your child ponder on this subject without your sound warning against homosexuality..
More psychological study won't help.The Psychologists have already decided that they don't want to hurt the feelings of gay people by labeling them as anything worse than a 'variation on normal'. I believe that men are born gay but I believe that it is a personality disorder. I also think that some men have a woman induced trauma (bad break-up or divorce, etc.)and decide that another man might not hurt them as easily. Pure speculation. I'm not in the field of Psychology.
As a born-again, heterosexual married to the same woman for 37 years next month, I have a question.
Having been active in church for many years, I have found myself in situations where I have had to counsel homosexual men. What do you say when they sit there, with tears rolling down their cheeks and say: "I can remember being attracted to boys since I was 5 years old." Or, when they say: "I did not choose to be this way. Give me a pill to make me straight and I'll take it."
Having always been taught that no one is born homosexual, I've never really known how to "adequately" respond to those types of statements.
Anybody got a clue?
Wow. Propaganda really works for you. Bought it all. You lumped in genetics with a choice and a "not likely" quite nicely.
I do know about the twin studies. And you're right. When one identical twin is gay, less than half the time will the second identical twin be gay.
I find it hard to believe that anyone would choose to be gay. Why would anyone choose a lifestyle which is clearly outside of the mainstream and clearly unnatural, if not for being born that way? I don't understand it but some people have different urges.
" Oh yeah, Bush is against "gay marriage" but loves to hire them to do jobs NORMAL people are groveling around to do"
I was going to suggest Bush hires based on ability rather than who people have sex with. But the Harriet Meyers (sp?) nomination clearly blew that theme.
Pondering on my next door neighbor's son wasn't in my basket, but if it had been, I would have thought it was a sick behavior, and would have avoided the thoughts.. Get it!
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