Homosexuality: biology or choice?

I think there is a biological basis for our orientation. However it can be expressed in many ways.

According to Kinsey orientation is fluid along a scale and may change over time, however at the extremes of this scale are persons who identify as exclusively Straight or Homosexual. The rest could be loosely termed Bisexual (Lables bah humbug but they serve as an approximation). Persons in this spectrum can and are attracted to members of either sex. the intensity of these attractions can and does vary by individual and over time.

The Gay by choice brigade would probably fall into this class and have chosen for whatever reason to identify as Homosexual; similarly, there are others who would choose to identify themselves as Heterosexual.

For many people Bisexuality is a stable and valid sexual orientation that we did not choose but that we embrace.

Combating Bi Invisibility

I don't think it's a choice.. especially since most of the guys i know that are straight would chose to act like a girl... I'm just putting it out there. it's also not "just a phase" as my mother puts it. I don't choose to like girls, it just happens.

That's what a brain is. It's a very advanced organic electrochemical computer. Pretty cool, huh?

Aside from electrical and chemical impulses, what else is there?

I hate to think I'm biologically straight. I want to think what I see in my wife is more than just chemical impulses, and I bet most of my gay friends hope the love they have for their partners is more than chemicals too.

Science has proven that it is in fact, biological. Unfortunately, bisexuality is becoming a popular fashion statement these days among teens instead of a serious sexuality.

I think understanding what the research is trying to accomplish is important.

From the Guardian's report on the Stockholm Brain Institute's study, "the research is part of a larger effort to identify differences between the male and female brain, in the hope they will shed light on why some mental disorders affect men and women differently. For example, major depressive disorders are far more common and persistent in women, while autism is around four times more common in boys than girls."

On a different note, both Guardian articles, and the posts on this board seem to perpetuate the gender binary, and that is wrong. There are more than two genders, and nearly an infinite amount of ways for humans to express their sexuality.

Question gender!

I don't know that it really matters in the long run but I'd have to guess homosexuality can be both a choice and a biological anomaly. What I don't understand it the vitriolic opposition to it regardless of its cause.

People do change.

A hetrosexual could go from finding a skinny partner ultimatley attractive as a young person to later in life developing an unexplainable lust for a partner others would consider obese.

For some people the urge for a same sex partner could be driven by biology, for some it could be a lifstyle choice.

Is love biological ?

I don't understand... why can't Homosexuality be situational? To clarify what I mean, why can't some people choose to be homosexual, while others are biologically rigged that way?

And let's not forget that human sexuality is a spectrum, with completely straight and completely gay being the opposite poles. Most people fall somewhere in between the two poles at varying distances. Our desire to place all individuals inside one of two possible boxes is not only unrealistic, but lends problems when trying to have meaningful discussions about sexuality.

With that said, I do not believe sexual preference is a choice, but how we self-identify and how we choose to live our lives are. Having the freedom to make those choices honestly is crucial to our wellbeing and is long overdue.

just like we all have the personal freedom to be straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender we all the right to our own opinions concerning how it came about in our lives. sexuality and our experiences with it are personal and as diverse as we are.

What "research"?

I did try to be straight once. I got me a girl, but she had no penis or gay porn, so we couldn't do anything.

What's next? Research on why women have larger breasts than men? Just accept some things at face value, and spend your research dollars on more worthy causes.

I didn't choose to be straight, it was thrust upon me so why is there no debate about that? Live and let live, I say.

First of all, I have yet to meet a single gay person who thinks their attraction was an act of will or choice. I'm sure they exist somewhere, but that school of thought is largely constituted with religious conservatives, not gays or lesbians (although their obsession with homosexuality is suspicious).

This research shows what many studies have so far: that distinct biological differences exist in homosexual humans. Brains, while they do have a great deal of plasticity, cannot reconstitute in a manner accounting for these structural differences. The only likely cause is biological (genetic/hormonal).

To play devil's advocate, this does not definitively prove that these brain configurations cause homosexuality, per se, but the probability of this being a coincidence is astronomically low and certainly points to some connection between the these brain differences and homosexual attraction.

graemesmith - unfortunately there are just some people out there that are so miserable with their own lives, and so fearful of who THEY really are, and of course so ignorant, they will point out anything to give themselves a sense of normalcy - which, realistically, what IS that anyway.

A one-balled fuher said it was blue eyed, blond haired heterosexual beings - and yet his own soldiers had massive orgies with... yup... little boys. This is also the same person who had a high level of insanity and feeble mindedness in his family history - one fo the many things he wanted to wipe out.

We are fun by fear. OR, at least the simple minded are. MAYBE that's why individuals with higher IQs are less likely to believe in organized religion.

Welcome to the U.S.of A. For now, just gotta grit teeth and bear it? Or work to make the change. Ya never know - look at California. Baby steps?

Yes because aged 13 I sat down and thought what was the best possible way to have rough time at school and thought that being gay should do it. I sat there racking my brains thinking about how to have a heart breaking conversation with my mother. I chose all of that.

For what it matters I dont mind it at all. But I didnt chose to be gay. I just am. As is another member of my family. In much the same way we share blue eyes, fair skin and brown hair we clearly share a bit of DNA that determined our sexuality.

Homosexuality is well documented in the animal kingdom. And guess what the goats,dogs etc that decided randomly to be attracted to other males aren't just doing it because the clubs are cooler and all the gay primates have better hair. They instinctively seek out other males.

In the UK the debate over homosexuality is more or less done. The only people who concern themselves with attempting to claim it to be a form of moral perversion or a lifestyle choice are right wing cranks and fundamentalist religious nutcases. Everybody else just gets on with their lives.

Some people are gay. Get over it.