Is homosexuality just genetic?

[fallingblood]

The question is quite simple. Is homosexuality simply decided by genetics, or is their a choice involved to some extent? Basically, we are talking about nature vs. nurture here. Or, is one born homosexual or is it decided later on in life. This can go with heterosexuality to. I'm interested in the responses.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I don't think anything behavioral is "just genetic." I tend to picture it as each person having a potential range within various attributes and behaviors, based on their genetics. Environmental influences then determine where that person ends up within each range of each attribute.

I assume that some people could not be straight, some could not be gay, and some could be either straight or gay depending on how they are shaped by their environment.

 

[Midnight Pete]

I think it's both nature and nurture. I don't think homosexuality is purely genetic nor do I think we are all slaves to our genes.

 

[Engyo]

If homosexuality were purely genetic, then over time it should have bred out, no?

 

[Smoke]

I don't think anything behavioral is "just genetic."

I don't either. But I don't think homosexuality is really behavioral. That is, one is homosexual whether or not one chooses to have sex with members of the same sex. My sexual attraction to my own sex goes back as far as I can remember, which is the age of two. Actual sexual activity began much later, but I didn't get any gayer as I got older. I was gay to begin with.

I don't know, and I don't think anybody knows, the extent to which homosexuality is genetic, but the "behavioral" argument doesn't apply, because sexual orientation isn't behavioral. What you do about it is.

All I can say for sure is that if it isn't genetic, it might as well be, because I was sexually attracted to members of my own sex at an extremely early age, and I would think even earlier. It's just that I can't remember any earlier.

 

[sandandfoam]

I reckon that most fellas given an extended spell on a desert island with only another fella for company might find they're less attached to their 'genetic hetro preferences' than they thought.

 

[Smoke]

If homosexuality were purely genetic, then over time it should have bred out, no?

Why?

The idea that homosexuality should be bred out of the species relies on the assumptions that there is no evolutionary benefit related to homosexuality -- that, in fact, homosexuality is detrimental, and that homosexuals never breed.

We know for sure that homosexuals do quite often breed, and there is reason to think there are evolutionary benefits related to homosexuality. Homosexuality may tend to benefit the children of one's siblings, so that there is an evolutionary advantage in producing a minority of offspring who are homosexual. It may also be that women who are more reproductively successful may tend to produce more homosexual children.

So we may be a sort of by-product of the overall genetic success of our families, we may help encourage the reproductive success of our families, and regardless of whether either of those applies, we quite often reproduce. So why would we die out?

 

[Engyo]

Sorry, Smoke et al - My post was a tongue-in-cheek poke at the OP. Maybe the sardonicity wasn't made clear enough.

 

[Smoke]

Sorry, Smoke et al - My post was a tongue-in-cheek poke at the OP. Maybe the sardonicity wasn't made clear enough.

I kind of figured, but in these threads it's usually necessary to make the same damned points over and over again, so I thought I might as well take the first opening.

 

[Midnight Pete]

Homosexuality (non-breeders) is a very subtle form of population-control built right into us by God/Nature.

 

[Duck]

The question is quite simple. Is homosexuality simply decided by genetics, or is their a choice involved to some extent? Basically, we are talking about nature vs. nurture here. Or, is one born homosexual or is it decided later on in life. This can go with heterosexuality to. I'm interested in the responses.

Sexual orientation is, from my understanding, determined (fully formed whatever) by the age of 4 or 5. I am not sure how one would come to the conclusion that a "choice" was involved.

Regardless of genetics or not (there are some very interesting studies indicating that brain structures and the like are similar in gay men/hetero women and hetero men/gay women) one's environment growing up likely plays a part in one's sexual orientation. Whether purely genetic/womb environment/pre natal hormonal exposure/family environment is the causation (individually or in some combination) of one's sexual orientation doesn't matter, because ultimately any one (or all) of these causes results in one fact - your sexual orientation was NOT chosen by you in any appreciable manner.

Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that genetics and/or prenatal environment play no part in your sexual orientation. So now we are down to essentially one of two causes: your environment growing up (purely nurture, yes?) or a choice on your part. If sexual orientation is not chosen actively -- in other words you didn't wake up one day and say "I am going to be attracted to women" {don't know about anyone else, but I definitely did not make a choice like this}; then sexual orientation is due to environment growing up which is under whose control? the child's? So, how much "choice" did you have regarding the environment you grew up in? I for one certainly wish that I had had some choice there, perhaps then I wouldn't have been raised by an emotionally abusive drunk.

Really, the "choice" of sexual orientation argument is only used by people looking for justification for their bigotry against LGBT people. When confronted with the demand that they identify the decade in which they made the choice to be attracted to the opposite sex they cannot do so, and resort to "god hates ****" level of arguments.

 

[Duck]

Homosexuality (non-breeders) is a very subtle form of population-control built right into us by God/Nature.

If this is true (that goddidit) then why do christians work so ******* hard to make the lives of LGBT people miserable?

 

[Engyo]

Homosexuality (non-breeders) is a very subtle form of population-control built right into us by God/Nature.

Are you implying that anyone who chooses not to procreate can be classed as homosexual? That doesn't make any sense at all.

If you mean that homosexuality is a natural response to overpopulation, then we should see significant increases in homosexuality anywhere that we find famine, shouldn't we? I'm not aware of homosexuality appearing in direct response to environmental or societal cues that might indicate overpopulation in a given area.....this should be an observable phenomenon, and I am not aware of any observation of such to date. Are you?

 

[Autodidact]

There is no reason to suppose the answer would be the same for women as men, and does not appear to be.

 

[Smoke]

There is no reason to suppose the answer would be the same for women as men, and does not appear to be.

That's true. There seem to be different things at work. It's debatable whether women even have a sexual orientation in the sense that men do. Your sexuality seems to be more fluid, and one researcher (I forget who) came to the conclusion that women have a sexual preference but not a sexual orientation.

But in men, it's pretty clear that sexual orientation is fixed at a very early age, and maybe even before birth.

 

[Autodidact]

The reason this is seldom mentioned except by me, is that no one cares about women or considers them separate from men. Lesbians by definition are therefore a subject of profound disinterest, except when men manage to imagine they exist to titillate them.

 

[Smoke]

The reason this is seldom mentioned except by me, is that no one cares about women or considers them separate from men. Lesbians by definition are therefore a subject of profound disinterest, except when men manage to imagine they exist to titillate them.

It's not just lesbians. Female sexuality in general has been researched less -- and less carefully -- than male sexuality. On the bright side, female homosexuality has less often been the target of legal and religious proscription. Attention is a two-edged sword.

 

[Penumbra]

The question is quite simple. Is homosexuality simply decided by genetics, or is their a choice involved to some extent? Basically, we are talking about nature vs. nurture here. Or, is one born homosexual or is it decided later on in life. This can go with heterosexuality to. I'm interested in the responses.

I don't think most heterosexuals choose to be heterosexual. They just kind of are that way. So why do people ask whether homosexuals choose to be homosexual?

I don't know if it's just genetic or if it's some combination of genes, hormones in the womb, and experiences as a baby, but either way it seems to be separated from choice. And as others have noted, sexual orientation seems to differ somewhat between the sexes.

 

[Meow Mix]

The question is quite simple. Is homosexuality simply decided by genetics, or is their a choice involved to some extent? Basically, we are talking about nature vs. nurture here. Or, is one born homosexual or is it decided later on in life. This can go with heterosexuality to. I'm interested in the responses.

Tough question. I started dating boys in high school but had an interest in girls that I kept just shoving under the rug (no pun intended).

It just got worse and worse until I caught myself thinking about girls when I was making out, when I "took care of my own business," and finally when I lost my virginity.

Then I tried dating a girl and have never since looked back. So it can be said that I've "always" been attracted to girls -- is that my genes or my environment? I dunno, I grew up pretty much the same way several of my straight girl friends did.

 

[john r]

for believers nature or nuture is a moot point. their concern is what is the spirit are those who are gay are given over are to because they are gay, which is no different from those who are heterosexual. physicalities of gender pairing and choices of errogenous zones to express sexual intimacy have nothing to with issues of the spirit such as love, kindness, lust, compassion, affection, devotion, etc. the lives of those who are gay function in the same way as those who are heterosexual. homosexuals have never been found wanting in any sector of society compared to heterosexuals. they are not less a friend, father, doctor, lawyer, pastor, soldier,brother, neighbor.