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gay: genetic or behavioral?
StoreTags: gay, homosexual, sociology
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lately i've been studying various surveys and experiments and articles about human sexuality. Before Kinsey's studies, this topic was generally regarded as trivial by most social scientists ... but it seems like we (as a society) are still just as confused on the topic as we were 100 years ago. i recently had a discussion with someone about this and it led to nowhere but insults. so i figure i'll try it with smarter people at EM411. the person (he was gay) mistook me for an "ignorant homphobe" because i was straight and I disagreed with him, ugh. i don't hate gay people, and the sad thing was i was on his side until that whole business of me being ignorant ...
so the question is: do you guys think that being gay is (a)genetic or instinctual - inherited through our parents from birth or (b)social - inherited from our social interactions with people and culture?
basically, is it nature or nurture? what's your thoughts?
i'll save my answer for a little later, i'd like to hear y'alls opinion on this. | |
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11/03/06
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mlbot
PS, love is a compulsive behavior.
It looks a lot like drug addiction to neuroscientists.
11/03/06
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datathinner
everamzah said: "... and fucking world wars!  "
you fuck world wars?
that's a new type of sexual orientation i think i haven't seen.
11/03/06
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everamzah
mlboy: haha, how'd you know i used to have asma? at any rate, im sure LOTS of things look like drugs to neuroscientists. especially when the neuroscientists are thinking back to their dorm daze. seriously, tho, we're not attaching any taboo to drug use or anything are we?
datathinner: i dunno i wanna read or click that. i dont follow that shit too closely. why? because IT'S FUCKING SCARY! right? well, true that one should still well be informed, and i am! i'm fairly certain that the real reason (at least in one respect) that these right-wing faulkers dont want gay marriage is because they need BABIES! F R E S H B A B I E S for the society eating war machine that is the motherfucking TRIANGLE OF DOOM!
(sorry, i've been watching some things, lol).... but i digress ... link
11/03/06
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mlbot
Just want to point out that DT's brain-region size study has since found to be wrong.
As have most "brain size" studies, like the ones that proved whites were smarter than blacks because whites have bigger brains.
one indicator of sexuality that seems to hold up, statistically speaking:
The myth was that if your index finger was shorter than your ring finger (on your right hand), you are gay.
It turns out this isnt true.. unless you look at gay men with more than one older brother (and believe really tenuous statistics).
IMO this is interesting for two reasons:
1. i dont think anyone believes that your fingers make you gay or straight... so be wary if someone tells you "i found this physical difference between gay men and straight men, therefore I found what makes people gay!"
2. Shorter index fingers are symptomatic to higher exposure to androgens (testosterone) as a fetus.
11/03/06
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datathinner
thanks for clearing that up. the study, i think, was of little signifigance in proving whether you are actually "born" gay - i'm not a biologist by trade, but that is how i understood it.
11/03/06
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mlbot
That's exactly the conclusion of the study, and that's how it was taught in the psych class I took.
It turns out that later, when other researchers looked at the same region, they found no difference.
Even if they did, can they conclude that X causes Y, or did Y cause X? Or did some factor A cause both Y and X? Or is the link totally by chance?
And does it matter? Because crusty dead old gay men have a bigger brain region than crusty dead old straight men has no bearing on whether they were born that way. Maybe they chose to be gay or straight, and that influenced the size of that brain region over the years.
Now, if these researchers dissect the brains of fetuses, and then look years later at whether they are gay or straight, THEN THEY CAN COME TO THE CONLUSION THAT THERE IS A BRAIN REGION THAT DETERMINES WHETHER YOU ARE GAY OR STRAIGHT.
11/03/06
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datathinner
true, but you can't dissect a brain twice. not yet at least.
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