Posted on 02/03/2010 5:29:33 PM PST by RGirard
There is a lot of controversy right now over homosexuals in the military, gay marriage, teaching children in school ... At the root of this issue is the question of whether or not it is a choice, or if a person can be born gay/homosexual.
In the book "If You Read Just One Book This Year ... " the author, who goes by the pen-name "An American Man," addresses this issue ... The author starts out with a humorous approach ... by comparing homosexuals to vegetables ...
He proceeds to address hate crimes and how television media plays a role.
"Many people in the media seem to forget that intelligent consumers want to understand both sides ... I want to know and understand WHY people are gay ... Even if you don't like or didn't expect the answers you receive, shouldn't the TRUTH actually BE important?"
American Man then discusses how we are "losing out because of manipulative, selfish agendas ... because there is "no genetic proof that anyone is born gay. However, does that mean that people are NOT born gay? No. .... just like stem cell research, and evolution, and the education system ... ...
The author points out that "Many people have come in and out of the lifestyle...
So if it's not a genetic thing, then what is it?
"Part of it is cultural sexual lust ... it is like a fad or a virus. Some people are more susceptible than others. And once infected ..."
What other reason(s) could there be? ... [ see article ]
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Dead wrong.
Sorry to point this out, but maybe he had a different biological father.
There are probably people born with homophilic, pedophilic, beastophilic, necrophilic, and various criminal tendencies. Sometimes operating on the self-center of impulse must be supressed for the sake of a stable society.
None that were reliable, complete, replicable or valid. Even the studies have been studied, and the conclusion even of pro-gay scientists is that there is no gay gene. Ergo, no "born gay" is possible.
The thread is about an objective topic, not your subjective emotions concerning a family member, which fail to advance the discussion.
Brokeback Farmhand -- LOL!!
In 1963, Canadian ethologist (animal behavior expert) Farley Mowat published Never Cry Wolf, a detailed description of wolf family life and behavior. He claimed that most wolves mate for life, but some "lone wolves" fail to find a mate; then they attach to a couple and act as "uncles", helping with the care and feeding of the wolf kits. This is analogous to the theory put forth by your professor to explain homosexuality.
Mowat's book was widely celebrated in animal behavior circles and had a huge influence, similar to the Jane Goodall studies of chimpanzees that came out in the same time frame. I believe many human behaviorists were influenced by such animal studies. But I would have to see your professor's quantitative proofs to believe that his theory is an overarching explanation. Supportive "unclehood" may be but one motivation among many for a person's choice to avoid heterosexual anxieties or to engage in homosexual identification or conduct.
Amen to that! The dissolution of the Christian marital ethic paved the way for homosexual activism. Now, even the "objectively disordered" can attempt marriage, since so many heterosexual couples fail at it, or never even try to make it work.
Studies in brain recovery after stroke suggest that repeated behaviors do, in fact, change the brain. Logically, this phenomenon is a component of any addiction or compulsion.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. —Romans 12:2
Nothing in your story suggests he was born that way -- just the opposite. Perhaps because of the "size-ism" in his own family, he didn't feel masculine enough to defend himself, and therefore he didn't feel masculine enough to pursue a woman and bear up under the rejections of dating. Had he grown up with similarly sized siblings, he might have developed a self-image of greater "normalcy", since he would not have been different from his brothers.
He also became accustomed to having other males protect him. His father, or moral guide, was dead, leaving him, the eldest, with too much heterosexual responsibility to become the man of the house before he was ready. This is a psychological situation.
And I would not discount the possibility that he had a different father, and that his mother concealed that "shameful" secret, adding to the anxieties he absorbed in addition to explaining his physical difference from his brothers.
Yeah, that's just how it's working out with Global Warming.
Yes, I do believe that. These men and woman don't just play act feminine or masculine, they are that way.
The majority have body types and mannerisms opposite from their sex, that were usually displayed from the time they were little.
There is nothing that will convince me any different, and I am sure the same can be said for you. So, lets agree to disagree.
Very true; and the brain is changing constantly due to various doses of behaviors as we learn new things, play repetitive games, meet new significant others, take a new job, etc.
There is no substitute for the individual will, and the individual choice to harmonize with the larger design of nature or to rebel against it.
Whose theory? All fetuses are essentially neutral until a certain point in the pregnancy, when the gene sequencing of a fetus intended at conception to be male starts signalling the mother's brain to introduce the hormones to develop the fetus's maleness. If there is a breakdown at this point, a full transition to the intended gender may not happen as completely as it should. But even that does not mean the individual cannot learn new brain skills and catch up to an acceptable point through changing attitudes and behaviors. The brain is much more plastic than people believe, according to recent brain studies of recovery from stroke and traumatic brain injury.
Proves nothing. A lifetime of acting like the opposite sex will indeed change the brain structure.
Read some brain studies by neuroscientists helping people recover from stroke or traumatic brain injury, and you will stop scoffing. The brain can and does change through repeated behavior, and through attitudes that affect the will to behave a certain way.
The reason for our different conclusions is that I have extensively studied the research literature on the topic, and you clearly have not.
yea, that must be it.
The problem here is: there are more effeminate heterosexual men than homosexual men. So why do some people equate effeminate behavior in men with men with same-sex attraction? There's no valid reason to do so, scientific or otherwise.
As I see it, some people have fallen for the: if you repeat a lie often enough people believe it. There are times we all need to pull our head out of the group-think we so often see and start, clearly, thinking for ourselves.
Perhaps then people will start to realize most of what they think, read and hear about homosexuality is based on nothing other than somebody or some group with a very liberal agenda pushing complete fabrications as if they were the truth.
Prove it. One way or the other. Neither one of us can.
Here you go:
The above site claims its members choose to be gay. There are also LUGs (Lesbians Until Graduation). That is, women who choose to be lesbians until their high school or college graduation.
As I see it, the vast majority do not choose their same-sex attraction but neither are they born with their same-sex attraction. It's quite complicated but environment, as any credible scientist will say, is the major factor.
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