Are Homosexuals Born Gay or Is It a Choice - Research Paper Example

? HOMOSEXUALITY: NATURE AND NURTURE Are Homosexuals Born Gay or is it a Choice? Table of Contents HOMOSEXUALITY: NATURE AND NURTURE Are Homosexuals Born Gay or is it a Choice? I. Background Information One of the most talked about issue in today’s world is the issue about homosexuality. It has been a usual topic for debates not just social ones but also in politics. There have been a lot of noted researches, surveys and experiments about the issue of homosexuality whether it is biological or is an effect of the environment. Homosexuality is defined in many ways and aspects. Byrd and Olsen (n.d.) defined the word homosexual in three traits; behavior, orientation and identity. Homosexual behavior is the overt sexual activity between two people of the same sex. The sexual reaction of someone to a person of his or her same gender is referred to as homosexual orientation and the tagging a person as gay or lesbian is called homosexual identity. (Byrd & Olsen, n.d.) II. Hypothesis This paper’s main objective is to answer the question whether homosexual people are born with it or can they choose to change in time. The answer that people have states that homosexuality can never be inborn or is affected by genes and that it is just an effect of environmental social and emotional precursors. People who are advocates of gay rights support the claim that homosexuality is determined by genes, hormones and prenatal development. III. Methods Salk Institute researcher Dr. Simon LeVay evaluated 35 men in 1991 and noted the difference in the brain structure (Knight, 2000). People of Michigan State University headed by Dr. Marc Breedlove and Dr. Cynthia Jordan researched about the physical signs of a pregnant women exposed to androgen. One of these physical signs is finger length which is known by studying finger length ratio of 720 people both men and women, straight and gay (Liberty Education Forum, 2008). Another significant study that gay advocates support is the study of Bailey and Pillard known as the twin study. The experiment focused on identical and non identical twins and regular siblings. Incidence of homosexuality in one of the twin was noted and correlated it with whether the other twin displayed homosexual tendencies (Knight, 2000). Surveys were conducted to disprove the claim that homosexuality is inborn, there were two main surveys done which were both done by the National Health and Social Life Survey. First was the survey of people from urban areas and the suburbs to prove the fact that urbanization can also affect one’s homosexuality and a survey asking men and women of their educational attainment and related it with their sexual preference (Dailey & Sprigg, 2004). IV. Results and Discussion In Dr. LeVay’s research of 50 men studying their brain specifically their hypothalamus, 19 of whom were homosexual and 16 were heterosexual he found out that the hypothalamus was generally larger in heterosexual males than those of homosexual males. These findings made him conclude that homosexuality has a biologic substrate. Dr. Le Vay then stated as cited by Knight (2000), “It’s important to stress what I didn’t find. I did not prove that homosexuality is genetic, or find a genetic cause for being gay. I didn’t show that gay men are born that way, the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work. Nor did I locate a gay center in the brain. …Since I looked at adult brains, we don’t know if the differences I found were there at birth, or if they appeared later” (Knight, 2000). Dr. Marc Breedlove and Dr. Cynthia Jordan conducted their study in 2000 which showed that prenatal androgen exposure was the main factor in the study since androgen is the hormone responsible for the physical characteristics that differentiate men and women. Finger length was one of the physical signs that the researched focused on. Breedlove and Jordan lead a team that examined the finger lengths of 720 men and women. Women who were homosexual had more masculine finger – length ratio than heterosexual women, which did not differ from heterosexual males. The male results gave more strength to the birth to order effect, which states that male sexual orientation is a result of an event in their fetal stage to prior male births (Liberty Education Forum, 2008). Bailey and Pillard’s Twin Study was conducted and the results were that 52% were homosexual twins while only 22% of the fraternal twins were homosexual. Given the fact that identical twins have identical genes the result about the identical twins being heterosexual supports the idea that homosexuality has a genetic basis. Bailey then conducted another study in 1999 still having twins as the subject of his experiment by giving out questionnaires to the whole Australian twin registry which contained personal and sexuality questions. The results of the study showed a less possible genetic influence on homosexuality compared to his first study, only three pairs of identical male twins were homosexual and at least one was homosexual in 27 identical male twins. The research also had 16 fraternal male twin subjects and none of the pairs were both homosexual. Conducting the same study on lesbian gave out the same result (Knight, 2000). Results of the study conducted by the National Health and Social Life Survey stated that more than 9 percent of gay men live in urban areas while only 3 or 4 percent live in the suburbs and only 1 percent of men living in rural areas claim to be gay. The survey also had the same result for lesbians. Another study that focused on urbanization showed that there is a decrease in homosexual population in men with the decline of urbanization. (Source: Original photo from Dailey & Sprigg, 2004) Figure 1. Percentage self-identifying as homosexual or bisexual by place of residence. Education was also a factor that the National Health and Social Life Survey looked at. The results were that the higher the educational attainment the higher number of homosexual population recorded. Up to this time experiments and researches are done to give the most reliable explanation on how a person come up to be a homosexual. Genetic experimentations that were done in the past had a few good points but a lot of deficiencies which gives the sign that genetic experimentation is still at its infancy. The good points were not solid enough to disprove the claim that homosexuality is a choice and can be changed thru therapy and exposing one’s self to a straight environment. Thus, gives more point to the statement that homosexuality is not inborn but just an effect of one’s social, environmental, and emotional aspects. Deciding whether what claim to support or believe still depends on someone’s perspective, until an absolute proof is presented that would disprove the other claim. References Byrd, A. D., & Olsen, S. (n.d.). HOMOSEXUALITY: Innate or Immutable? REGENT UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW. Utah, USA. Dailey, T. J., & Sprigg, P. (2004). Getting It Straight: What the Research Shows about Homosexuality. Washington, USA: Family Research Council. Knight, R. (2000). Born or Bred? Science Does not Support the Claim that Homosexuality is Genetic. CWA 25SR-004. USA. Liberty Education Forum. (2008). Is it a Choice? The Science of Sexual Orientation. Retrieved June 3, 2012, from www.libertyeducationforum.org: www.libertyeducationforum.org Read More