Is being Gay a sexual preference?

[Reverend Rick]

Are people born Gay?

Is it a result of a person's environment?

Is this a physical thing, a mental thing or both?

Is there any proof that being Gay is not just a sexual preference, or are we required to just take someones word on this?

 

[standing_alone]

What Causes a Person To Have a Particular Sexual Orientation?
There are numerous theories about the origins of a person's sexual orientation; most scientists today agree that sexual orientation is most likely the result of a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factors. In most people, sexual orientation is shaped at an early age. There is also considerable recent evidence to suggest that biology, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person's sexuality. In summary, it is important to recognize that there are probably many reasons for a person's sexual orientation and the reasons may be different for different people.
Is Sexual Orientation a Choice? No, human beings can not choose to be either gay or straight. Sexual orientation emerges for most people in early adolescence without any prior sexual experience. Although we can choose whether to act on our feelings, psychologists do not consider sexual orientation to be a conscious choice that can be voluntarily changed.

http://www.apa.org/topics/orientation.html

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Are people born Gay?

Is it a result of a person's environment?

Is this a physical thing, a mental thing or both?

Is there any proof that being Gay is not just a sexual preference, or are we required to just take someones word on this?

I think in terms of the nature vs. nurture debate it is both.

There is evidence that brain structure and chemical responses to pheromones play an influential role in sexuality--as well they should! But it also makes sense that behavioral psychology will also influence sexuality.

It's not just a sexual preference (though that should be enough), in the same way that religion is not just a spiritual preference. It's a cultural influence.

 

[Halcyon]

Are people born Gay?

Yes.

Is it a result of a person's environment?

If you mean how they are raised, then no.

Is this a physical thing, a mental thing or both?

It is both physical and mental.

When the brain is developing in the mothers womb it is shaped via the interaction with male and female hormones, the levels of androgens and oestrogens determine the physical construct of two specific areas of the brain.

One area (A) tells us which sex we are, the other (B) informs us which sex we find attractive. Sometimes hormone levels in the womb are different to the norm (i.e. what we would expect for the production of a heterosexual offspring). This could be due to the genetic make-up of the mother or the fetus, or both.
It could also result from a reaction the mother's endocrine system has to the presence of the fetus, and has even been suggested to correlate to the sex of previous offspring (i.e. if a woman has a son, the second son is more likely to be gay due to the mother overcompensating with oestrogen in response to the levels of androgens produced by the fetus).

Homosexual people have area B reversed, that is gay men have an area B that resembles a heterosexual woman's brain, and gay women have an area that resembles a heterosexual man's.
In transexuals area A is reversed, and in some cases both areas may be reversed.

Is there any proof that being Gay is not just a sexual preference, or are we required to just take someones word on this?

http://endo.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/145/2/475#
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/03/differential-brain-activation.pdf
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...=5613324&md5=1c7979c6c2b849de19b5c7fb81129c0e

 

[Reverend Rick]

Very interesting reading!

 

[Quiddity]

I think it has much to do with coditioning at early age. Everything from how you raise them, enviroment, nuero-associations, etc. Although I question the biological aspect of it. I'm certainly no expert on the topic, but I haven't read anything that impressed me in this area.

 

[Jaymes]

From what I learned in my psych class last quarter, it's all up in the air. Anything involving nature vs. nurture pretty much is, whether it's in relation to inclination to violence, depression, optimism, sexuality, whatever.

 

[Reverend Rick]

I think it has much to do with coditioning at early age. Everything from how you raise them, enviroment, nuero-associations, etc. Although I question the biological aspect of it. I'm certainly no expert on the topic, but I haven't read anything that impressed me in this area.

If all that was true, we would be able to prove your sexual interest with a single test. You might even be able to change your desires by taking a certain hormone or something. I can see it now, designer sexual preference drugs.

 

[Halcyon]

If all that was true, we would be able to prove your sexual interest with a single test. You might even be able to change your desires by taking a certain hormone or something. I can see it now, designer sexual preference drugs.

Sexual preference can't be changed by hormones after birth - they've tried it, only fetal hormones work and only with a developing brain.

 

[Reverend Rick]

Sexual preference can't be changed by hormones after birth - they've tried it, only fetal hormones work and only with a developing brain.

I guess I got carried away. I know it is not possible now, but anything is possible later.

 

[Green Gaia]

I think it has much to do with coditioning at early age. Everything from how you raise them, enviroment, nuero-associations, etc. Although I question the biological aspect of it. I'm certainly no expert on the topic, but I haven't read anything that impressed me in this area.

If it were true it's how one is raised then why aren't my 5 siblings gay?

 

[Quiddity]

If all that was true, we would be able to prove your sexual interest with a single test. You might even be able to change your desires by taking a certain hormone or something. I can see it now, designer sexual preference drugs.

That would be neat drug!
Since my sexual interest have changed over time, I haven't the foggiest idea what the drug would do but tell you I like X. In truth, psychological states are extremely difficult to change. You think they could make you like guys?

 

[Quiddity]

If it were true it's how one is raised then why aren't my 5 siblings gay?

Beats me.... As it's all still in it's infancy, I don't know what makes one this way. I know with one of my good friends his father's ways had a huge impact for example.

 

[Green Gaia]

Beats me.... As it's all still in it's infancy, I don't know what makes one this way. I know with one of my good friends his father's ways had a huge impact for example.

How do you know that and why do you assume it's that way for every glbt and straight person? How do you know that if he's father's ways were different, he wouldn't be exactly the same.

Look, families are a somewhat controlled environment. If you say it's how a person is raised, then shouldn't other siblings be gay as well? And how do you explain gay children from strictly conservative religious families?

 

[Green Gaia]

Are people born Gay?

Is it a result of a person's environment?

Is this a physical thing, a mental thing or both?

Is there any proof that being Gay is not just a sexual preference, or are we required to just take someones word on this?

Are people born Heterosexual?

Is it a result of a person's environment?

Is this a physical thing, a mental thing or both?

Is there any proof that being Heterosexual is not just a sexual preference, or are we required to just take someones word on this?

 

[Reverend Rick]

Are people born Heterosexual?

Is it a result of a person's environment?

Is this a physical thing, a mental thing or both?

Is there any proof that being Heterosexual is not just a sexual preference, or are we required to just take someones word on this?

Good point Green. I hope you realize that I intended for this to be educational and not insulting thread, so if I insulted you, I apologise.

 

[Quiddity]

How do you know that and why do you assume it's that way for every glbt and straight person? How do you know that if he's father's ways were different, he wouldn't be exactly the same.

I don't. Nor does anyone else. I do think certain things trigger it, but all the pieces must be in place in order for it to result into it.

Look, families are a somewhat controlled environment. If you say it's how a person is raised, then shouldn't other siblings be gay as well? And how do you explain gay children from strictly conservative religious families?

People react different to the same conditions. Take for example me and my cousins. I know how they were raised, because they lived with me for most of their childhood and into the teens. We all came from broken homes where the men beat our moms. My female cousins now do everything in there power to not fall prey to men. This has had negative affects on their relationships with other men. The men of course view women a certain way and they are both have deeply seated psychological states. I see this working the same with homosexuality. They don't have to be necessarily negative things either. A parent can be real lenient on discipline for example and it could have bad affects on the child.

 

[Green Gaia]

Good point Green. I hope you realize that I intended for this to be educational and not insulting thread, so if I insulted you, I apologise.

No, not insulted, just frustrated as to why gblt people are always being demanded upon to justify and explain our existence when the same inquistion is not directed at heterosexuals.

 

[Moey]

It is a choice, follow your true nature or be as society wants you to be.

I can't help who i fall in love with anymore than anyone else can.

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

Are people born Gay?

Is it a result of a person's environment?

Is this a physical thing, a mental thing or both?

Is there any proof that being Gay is not just a sexual preference, or are we required to just take someones word on this?

AFAIK, sexual orientation is innate, unchangeable, lifelong, and unrelated to any sort of social ill other than those triggered by intolerance.

If anyone has any unbiased scientific evidence to counter this, I would be interested in seeing it.