Monday, December 1, 2008

ANOTHER ARTICLE REGARDING THE CAUSES OF HOMOSEXUALITY

An article just appeared the other day entitled, Growing research suggests being gay is not 'a choice'

Part of the article reads as follows:

"Compared with straight men, gay men are more likely to be left-handed, to be the younger siblings of older brothers, and to have hair that whorls in a counterclockwise direction.

"Researchers are finding common biological traits among gay men, feeding a growing consensus that sexual orientation is an inborn combination of genetic and environmental factors that largely decide a person's sexual attractions before they are born."

Beyond the intrinsic interest in finding out why we possess what attitudes and perceptions we have; why we engage in what behaviors we do engage in, be they sexual, emotional, occupational, etc., I seen little benefit being spent in studies seeking to understand 'the causes of homosexuality.'"

I very much doubt that even if if were incontrovertibly found that homosexuality was innate, without any choice on the person's part, it would seriously change homophobic people's minds about what they see as the "unseemly" aspects of same-sex love, although such a finding might well remove a lot of the unjustified guilt that many LGBT people feel concerning their sexual orientations given the vilification heaped upon them by assorted clergy and others.

In this connection, I wrote an article several months ago that you might be interested in reading or re-reading. It's entitled, The Homophobia Behind Studies of the Causes of Homosexuality.

Part of that article reads as follows:

"We must again ask why it's so important, beyond the intellectual issues involved, to seek to establish why some people are Gay? Why not study why some people are Straight? Why not study why some people like meat and others don't like meat? Why not study why some people love vegetables and others don't? Why not study why someone's favorite color is different from another person's favorite color? Well, you get the point!

"The fact that sexual orientation is felt to be deserving of the appropriation of funds and expenditure of time and energy by scientists, as opposed to such questions as the above that any scientist would hardly deem likely to investigate, has far more to do with people's hang-ups regarding sex and sexual orientation than it has to do with the intrinsic importance of that subject."

I hope you read the article in its entirety.
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3 comments:

Hazumu Osaragi said...

It's now 12/1/08 0813.

The article is gone from the Woodland democrat, but the comments are still there:
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/daily-democrat/TE4R48UHDRQ58OGC5

Earlier articles on the topics of gays and Prop 8 are still 'up' on the website.

What happened, and is this article a 'wire' article and available somewhere else?

Hazumu Osaragi said...

Here's a better link:

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11104232

Jerry Maneker said...

Thanks Hazumu. I earlier found out it was a dead link and already corrected it. Best wishes, Jerry.