Best evidence yet that being gay is not a choice

"The Homosexual agenda has been trying to divert peoples attention from the promiscuity of Homosexual activity by introducing "user-friendly" language. "

AA saying that there is an agenda to divert peoples attention from gay promiscuity is completely false because straight people do the same thing. Its called a one night stand. When did you decide to become straight? Being gay isn't a choice.

to A_A:
it's amazing to me that people can be so rudely homophobic...let's say that arousal is a choice; you don't see homosexuals discriminating against heterosexuals, you never hear of heterophobia. come to think of it, people like you make me feel very heterophobic. you're behind in thinking A_A. your are so afraid of something that doesn't concern you. if promiscuity bothers you that much then don't practice it. and since when are heterosexuals not promiscuous? at least homosexual promiscuity doesn't lead to underage pregnancy and abortion. oh and one more thing, aren't straight men the pedophiles usually? A_A hates homosexuals because he/she is afraid of their own sexuality and has an incredible amount of unmet needs. don't even waist your time writing back to me because you know what, i could give a flying shit what you think.

Your argument has no basis in reality AA and is supported by NO evidence, especially considering the fucking ARTICLE that you're posting under.

But let's run with your embarassingly stupid argument for a minute AA. According to your logic, you choose to have an erection? Becuase that would be quite a feat. So when your wife wears something attractive and starts to touch you, do you will yourself to have an erection?

I guess by that extension then, you can be "converted" to homosexuality, since someone can choose to be gay. Better watch out, the gays are coming after you! o___o

What a moron.

I am just going to ignore the ridiculous comments made by America_Again and actually write about the article itself ...

When I read about this study some time ago, it was actually said that the researchers were unsure whether the brain differences were the CAUSE or the EFFECT of sexual orientation. Therefore, you might very well choose to be gay or lesbian and still have a different brain!

I ultimately think it does not make a difference as sexual orientation is a highly individual and not always stable element of human life that is most likely cased caused by a combination of factors - natural and cultural, predetermined and based on choice.

Health crisis? Maybe we should go after burgers and lack of exercise first, they kill far more people. The only reason you are homophobic is a deep-seated brain program that has been around for a couple million years: The fear of anything different. It's a survival trait, crude and effective, but it's outdated software. Just like religion.

Actually the narrator explained that there are no negative consequences in the animal kingdom for homosexual behavior. In other words, they do not judge each other, but accept each other.

Jana, why would someone choose to be gay?

To be clear, I'm not asking 'why would someone make love to someone of the same sex?' To ACT on one's attraction IS a choice, always; also, people experiment and there are bisexuals who are truly bi-, but 'being gay' is different.

America_Again, do you have an actual response to the article - that is, to the scientific findings? I'd be interested in knowing what your reaction to the actual facts is, rather than seeing any more ranting from you. You have an ax to grind, for some reason. Fine. But the article seems rather compelling - suppose the findings are true, for a moment. Does that alter your perspective in any way?

Seriously, though, don't respond if you just want to rant. I am not interested in that.

That purple donkey-horse obviously has some hang-ups.

The bottom line is, homosexuality is biological, and for anyone who has had a close personal relationship with someone who's gay, this is not surprising.

So, purple donkey-horse, homophobia is equivalent to racism and any other biologically based discrimination. Do you really want to be part of that?

As for the article.... I would love to have scientists scan my brain every which way. I think having the empirical data would help me make decisions and decide my path. If they told me I have a 'gay brain' I might examine my sexuality more scrutinously than I have in the past, or at least consciously weigh my own biological data against the forces of society.

All of what you just said has already been refuted.

What's the logic behind anal sex? Some people think it feels good. What's the logic behind protected heterosexual sex?

The abuse of your anus does NOT lead to cancer, that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Besides STD's, which can be transmitted in a number of ways besides anal sex, there are no deadly or seriously harmful risk factors in engaging in anal sex.

Eating fatty foods is a damage to the body and DOES lead to death Should they all be banned?

A gay man did NOT introduce HIV/AIDS and even if one did did, how is that relevant to him being gay? YOu can still get AIDS regardless. Can we blame straight people for all other STD's?

I figured this was common sense. Just observe the homosexual behavior and heterosexual behavior of both sexes. It's pretty apparent which condition is associated to which sex, in my opinion. Of course scientists can never take a hint. They always gotta ruin the fun with methods and data.

i'm not convinced. not even close. i still believe that you can be genetically predisposed toward homosexual tendencies, but that doesn't automatically make you can. just like you can be genetically predisposed toward getting cancer, but that doesn't mean you'll definitely get cancer. i still believe it is largely the result of environmental causes from early childhood. gay men almost always seem to have issues with their father's . i'd like to see a scientific study looking into that.

This science is not about genes, it is about actual brain scans. The brains of homosexual men are similar to heterosexual females and the brains of lesbians are similar to heterosexual males.

Hasn't anyone seen little children with tendencies of the opposite sex? One of my best friends in school was one of those children. We knew he was feminine and didn't fully understand, not that it made any difference. He was just a good friend and playmate. He was murdered as a young man by some maladjusted gay basher. Take your damned hate and stuff it.

this article was clipped a few weeks ago too, there was a nice discussion thread on that one too, would be good to link em together.

I agree with diabolical. The environment does have a role. Why should our sexuality be the only thing we do not have control over due to the predisposition of our genes? (When you say that homosexuals do not have a choice of what their sexualities [in this case, due to their genes], then you are also saying that heterosexuals do not have a choice either, since they would seem to have a different genetic make up than homosexuals.) If society was comprised mostly of homosexuals, everyone would be much more inclined to being homosexual, since by observing the society around them, it is what they know best. In addition, if genes have such complete control, why would it only stop at the orientation of our sexuality? Why are we not all exactly like our parents? One's sexuality is a preference. It is a preference because that person like's one sexuality more than another. They PREFER that sexuality over another. Our genes give us the initial set up to prefer other things as well, but why aren't those fixed? Why do we sometimes later decide that we do not like the same things as our parents? Why do we deviate? If our genes had complete control over our preferences and predispositions, then we would be EXACTLY like our parents. But, obviously we are not, so the environment does have a role. How much a role nature and nurture have is something indefinite and for now unquantifiable, so please be wary before you give one factor dominance over the other.

http://current.com/items/89028380_wired_to_be_gay

Hate to rain on this parade, but I think this has been chronicled before.

However, I'd love it to be a headline again so the purple donkey/horse and other hateful bigots can keep reading what they're so afraid of.

This is more evidence that they shouldn't be treated differently.

Sweet we have almost figured it all out and when we do nothing will change because Id bet that there are people that are born to be prejudice too. We as a people do not need to prove why we are or who we are, better to just appreciate and enjoy being.

what is all of this homophobia talk? if someone disagrees with homosexuals that means their afraid of them? or afraid of being gay? i don't get this cop out

You know - if a gay's mind is looking for a male's mind, how come they would pick another "women" mind???

One of the largest legal hurtles homosexuals face, is qualifying as a protected class like women, racial minorities, and disabled people.

Opponents of equal rights have argued that homosexuality is a choice, and therefore it can not be a protected class.

Now that we have biological evidence contradicting the choice argument, we may eventually qualify as a protected class, leading to federal court decisions guaranteeing protection and equality under the law. For example, federally recognized same-sex marriage.

To suggest that a gay man's brain is "like a woman's" and a gay woman's brain is more "like a man's" brain is in an of itself, a terrible way to convey a study to the public...

I do not have a "woman's brain" or anything resembling that because my brain rests in the body of a man...

Give me a break...this is awful and misleading.

This study seems to assume that all gay mens sexual attraction in their brains are the same, and at the same time all lesbians sexual attraction in their brains are the same, and then it compares the two based on that assumption. If this is the case then how does this explain being a bear, butch, etc...

Some gay men are really masculine and they like other masculine men or maybe feminine men. And feminine men like jock type men, similar to cheerleaders or something. And then there are lesbians who many seem to have male/female type relationship roles and even try hard to look like men, and of course two very feminine women relationships. What I'm saying is that all of these exist so where is the common ground here?
This study has far too many gaps and I can see why some would think this is propaganda. I don't know that for sure but lets not just jump all over it because it supports something you may want.

By the way, I'm not gay but have had over my lifetime close to 100 gay friends, in social environments, modeling, bars scenes, roommates, work, and have been close friends to many of them. When I read this kind of stuff it does not coincide with anything that I have ever experienced. I have had numerous conversations with my gay friends and only 2% would come even close to having this study make any sense. Big difference between real world and this it seems.

I read this article just for the sake of reading yet another headline proclaiming to have found hard evidence of anatomical differences in brain anatomy determined by gender. What I found was exactly what I expected it to be another correlational study which doesn't prove anything. What was much more shocking to me was the pseudoscience being dished out by the many bigoted readers of Current. I don't have time to sit here and knock down each of the nonsense arguments I have read here today. There are many university / college level gender studies courses you can take if you really have an interest in this. I suggest doing so because it would be really unfortunate if you spent all this time yelling your beliefs and hurting other people only to find out later that you wouldn't have held such awful beliefs if you had only taken the time to get acquainted with the subject you are arguing about.

What I would like to take a stab at is the foundation of the hate which is so rampant here. If you are one of these homophobic posters I hope you take a moment to read about this and think about what you are doing.

You seem to feel threatened by Homosexuality. Many of your arguments center around gay sexual interaction, promiscuity and STIs. (Sexually Transmitted Infection)

You claim that homosexuality is not natural in spite of the fact that it is ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom and has always been a part of human culture.

In the heterosexual world a man who is successful on the dating scene is called a player. Men brag about the number of women they have had sexual relations with.
(If you have ever participated in this sort of behavior you have no place complaining about promiscuity)

Homosexuals in the united states are currently seeking the right to marry. Marriage is the institution which heterosexual individuals use to solidify a monogamous relationship. Currently more states have taken measures to ban gay marriage than to legalize it. Why is it that that the very groups who speak out against homosexuals for being promiscuous want to deny them any opportunity to form a stable monogamous relationship? Shouldn't such interest groups be encouraging any movement towards monogamy.

Someone posted something about the dangers of anal sex. I'm not going to touch that one because I know a lot of heterosexual men who spent a lot of time trying to think of ways to get their girlfriends into the practice. I also know a few females who got their boyfriends into it. It's found in nature, has always been part of human culture, it happens in both gay and straight relationships .... I'm not sure how you can hate gay people for something that isn't unique to them. It would be like hating people from canada who have brown eyes while living in the US and wearing brown tinted contact lenses.

STIs: Yes there is an increased risk of contracting Aids with unprotected anal sex. It's really unfortunate for Homosexual men. They really have a lot of things going against them right don't they? We should give them as much love and support as we can. Did you know that women also have a higher likelihood of becoming infected with HIV during sex than heterosexual men? You wouldn't hold that against them would you? HIV is also really unfortunate for all the Heterosexuals who contract the disease. It's also unfortunate for all the intravenous drug users who become infected. Anal sex isn't the most common route of transmission for HIV. If all anal sex in the world stopped tomorrow HIV wouldn't go away. It sure will be nice when we find a cure. Then the gay bashers will have one less reason to hate Homosexuals. Yay!

Depression: There's higher incidence of depression / suicide in homosexual individuals than in heterosexuals. Why do you think this is? Could it be because you openly hate on them in public and post your ignorant comments based on garbage science on the internet? How do you think it would feel to watch CNN and hear about the number of people who want to make sure you can't get legally married because that word is theirs and they hate you so much that they don't want you to be able to use it.

Imagine for a moment. The roles are switched: It's normal to enjoy having man on man sex, but you are attracted to women. Now go have sex with men and act like you like it for the rest of your life or face people treating you like you have some kind of disease, or worse. Or kill yourself, whatever sounds better to you.

Here's something you guys can answer for me: Why can't you see the similarity between your hatred for Homosexuals and racism? Both are based on the pseudoscience of the day, target a minority group and made their lives miserable by excluding them from the rights and privileges of the majority group.

I feel ashamed to be part of such a bigoted society.

Does it matter if being gay is a choice? I would almost prefer that the research doesn't get done. Think about it. If people find a genetic link it opens up the possibility eugenics and that is even more disturbing than what I am already reading here.

Correlational twin studies already indicate that homosexuality is heritable to a degree. I'm satisfied with that. Lets spend the research dollars trying to find better ways to educate people on tolerance.

Men and Women have similar brains, period - we are of the same species, so naturally, our brains are similar. This is an incomplete and derogatory study, with no control factor - that factor being that there is no study in which "straight men" and "straight women" brains are compared. There is also no study that shows the differences between "gay men and women" or "straight men and women" For this to be true science, there needs to be much more input and study...overall.

Hold on this study just make a suggestion

The researchers added that the study cannot say wheter the differences in brain shape are inherited or due to exposures to hormones such as testosterone in the womb and if they are responsible for sexual orientation

"These observations motivate more extensive investigations of larger study groups and prompt for a better understanding of the neurobiology of homosexuality" they wrote.