The Science Of Sexual Orientation (Mega Barf Alert!)

CBS News ^ | March 12, 2006 | Shari Finkelstein

[brooklyn dave]

I live in MNY---and know lots and lots of gay folks----dykes, trannie the whole lot. But as far as gay men go--I am talking adult men--not children who are still in some stage of development. There are all sorts of outward behavior. The vast majority have some kind of feminized behavior. Maybe they will dress comformatively--but mannerisms, interests, etc are not only feminized, but uber feminized. A good portion of straight women I know aren't as fixated on such things as many gay men are. Then you have a smaller group of gay men who are into being masculine--just that they prefer to have sex with a man rather than a woman. I know I am not attempting to answer any questions such as which came first the chicken or the egg---oh hell, blame on a queer rooster.

[Galveston Grl]

I was a tomboy growing up. I loved boys from a young age :) and was good at sports so I got to play with them. It was a lot more fun than playing dolls, etc.
Today the lesbos would lay claim to me before I was out of diapers.

[Unam Sanctam]

The fact is that the question of whether homosexual activity is moral has nothing to do with the causation of deep-seated homosexual attraction. Whether it is from birth or environment, it is deep-seated and some and those are called to live chastely.

[BadAndy]

I think it was interesting that 60 minutes seemed to be making the case that being gay was a DISORDER. Think about all the piddly things that are considered disorders nowadays but being unable to relate properly to the opposite sex is considered normal. Serious gender identiy issues and attraction to the same sex is now "Normal" according to psychological "experts". This position is scientifically and logically flawed to the extent that it should be an untenable argument. We should push the obvious conclusion that being gay is a disorder.

[TheOracleAtLilac]

A truly disgusting & biased segment on 60 Minutes.
Any surprise ?

Doesn't it occur to these dim bulbs that, unlike other siblings, twins are competing for parents' attention in same time frame
i.e. some need to distinguish themselves - sometimes to extreme.

It's common knowledge that a "dominant" twin emerges in the early years.

How did 60 Min. find these freaks ? (surely, not by accident)

I suspect parental complicity/enabling in what was viewed last night.

[MrBlueSky2005]

wait...9 years old?? Do these kids not have parents? What child would buy their nine year old SON a Bratz doll (I wouldn't even get one of those things for my daughter, but thats another issue...) or go to school with NAIL polish? Ugh...I can only imagin what my father would have done had he found me wearing nail polish.

[Tony O]

I've thought for quite a while that homosexuality is a psychological disorder, not genetic, and that many homosexuals can be helped through therapy.

However, now that the condition is considered "normal", by the APA, the therapy isn't available.

[MrBlueSky2005]

Danielle, Adam and Jared's mom, says she began to notice this difference in Adam when he was about 18 months old and began asking for a Barbie doll.

18 months? Incredible. Does the word "no" mean anything at all...I feel bad for this kid, he is going to have a rough life because he parent(s?) didn't have the strength to teach him well.

[Tony O]

My thoughts as well.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

While I have sympathy for some of these cases it is not love to embrace abnormality without at least trying to find a cure.

I would ask this question: Can the orientation result from a choice? For example, while in prison a guy behaves homosexually, then he develops a thing for it. Or a boy is molested by another boy...and then he becomes "oriented" that way. While not a choice of the victim it was a choice of the perp and therefore still the result of choice. If that is possible -- and I believe the evidence reveals that it is -- then it should not be ignored in these studies.

The other question I would have is, are there any negative behaviors humans exhibit which are not entirely chosen and yet are 100% undesireable and should be rejected? I suppose you could say we are all born selfish and greedy. But we still are trained by out parents to not be either. Implied in some of these studies is the idea that if a desire develops early in life, then it must be good, normal and wholesome. I would strongly argue that that is false. Some children like to torture puppies for example. Were they born that way? Should we help them embrace that desire?

There are probably a variety of ways a person develops into a homosexual, just like there are a variety of ways a person develops into a pedophile, a rapist, a sex addict, a pornographer or whatever. But with homosexuality one thing you know for certain: it is a biological abnormality.

Lastly (for now), we could argue that no one is born for monogamy. We can easily be sexually attracted to more than one person. But desire is rightly suppressed by a society that values marriage, family and fidelity. Even the Supreme social engineers on the Massachusetts Supreme Court held onto the "binary" nature of marriage. Why? If the presence of desire makes an act wholesome then we are an oppressive society to limit relationships to only two adults.

[surrey]

It didn't appear to be an ordinary nail polish job. It looked as though it had been done in a salon. If I remember correctly the polish was blue and had little designs on it. I certainly couldn't do that at home. At my salon the manicurists take some time painting flowers etc. on nails.

[Millee]

9 years old is too young for any child to be wearing makeup. I had play makeup as a youngster, but my mom never let me wear it out of the house. I feel bad for this boy.

[kstewskis]

I was a tomboy growing up. I loved boys from a young age :) and was good at sports so I got to play with them. It was a lot more fun than playing dolls, etc. Today the lesbos would lay claim to me before I was out of diapers.

Amen to everything you said, GG. I too was a huge tomboy, hated dresses, played tons of sports...but LOVED playing with the boys! No question!

(and you're right, it was more fun!)

Thank goodness the Lesbian Nazi's weren't out there to attempt to hijack us when we were growing up!

(I might have done my tom-boyish thing, and punched one in the nose!)

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

I wonder how much of the feminized behaviour is innate, and how much is culturally determined -- i.e. it's learned from being part of the "gay culture".

[madprof98]

There's also the environment that happens to us while we’re in the womb.

I thought we were just lumps of formless nothingness til we magically turned into people on the day of our birth (or, if Peter Singer is right, a month or so later).

[ahayes]

Incredible steaming pile of lies and assertions with absolutely no basis in fact.

This part is true. I read the study.

". . . for every older brother a man has, his chances of being gay increase by one third. Older sisters make no difference, and there's no corresponding effect for lesbians. A first-born son has about a 2 percent chance of being gay, and the numbers rise from there. . ."

[gusopol3]

can you imagine trying to fob this stuff off as "science?"

[wbill]

Little Adam is mentally ill....Little Adam is destined for a regular butt-kicking, if it's not already happening.

I am sympathetic, because it's not his fault that a) The father is not around and b) his mother indulges his 'feminine side' instead of wondering what's wrong.

I think that this is a PRIME example of the news media grabbing a very isolated case and hyping it up, all in the name of 'proving' that this sort of thing happens all the time. No wonder people have such a skewed view of reality today.

[Tony O]

Well put, Ghost.

[Tokra]

There's also the environment that happens to us while we’re in the womb. And scientists are realizing that environment is much more important than we ever thought it was," Bailey explained.

Dr. Breedlove (appropriate name, I think) says he can take a male rat and make it behave like a female for the rest of its life, and vice versa for a female, just by altering the hormones it's exposed to at birth.

There was a study done years ago in Britain that proved that women who went through a traumatic event while pregnant tended to have a much higher incidence of a homosexual child than otherwise. Scientists concluded that it was the influx of adrenaline to the fetus that caused the effect.

Those babies didn't "choose" to be homosexual - they just ended up that way.

The study was initiated after scientists noticed that the percentage of homosexuals was greatly increased among babies who were in the womb during the London bombings in WWII.