Socializing Children About Family Structure: Perspectives of Lesbian and Gay Adoptive Parents
Ask this question, and you volition probably receive one of two responses:
Yeah. People choose to be gay. They are making an immoral choice, which authorities should discourage.
Or
No. Sexual preference is biologically determined. Government should protect gay people from discrimination considering homosexuality is an unalterable aspect of their identity.
These two answers have something in common: With both of them, the science conveniently supports the moral decision.
"Being gay is bad. How wonderful it is that nobody has to be gay!"
"Homosexual behavior should be allowed to take place. Isn't it fantastic that, by an astonishing coincidence, there is no manner to stop it?"
What if neither answer is right?
Perhaps sexual preference can exist changed – and people have the correct to engage in gay sex and have homosexual relationships if they choose to exercise so. (The 4th selection, that gay people have no choice but to be gay, simply should exist punished for it anyway, is morally unthinkable.)
What does science tell usa about sexual preference?
Genes
Nosotros know, from many twin and adoption studies, that sexual preference has a genetic component.
A gay man is more likely than a straight human to accept a (biological) gay blood brother; lesbians are more likely than direct women to have gay sisters.
In 1993, a study published in the journal Science showed that families with 2 homosexual brothers were very probable to have certain genetic markers on a region of the 10 chromosome known as Xq28. This led to media headlines well-nigh the possibility of the existence of a "gay gene" and discussions about the ethics of aborting a "gay" fetus.
There have as well been headlines most an "alcoholism factor", which makes people become alcoholics, and a "warrior gene", which makes people unusually aggressive.
Genes can't command behavior completely, though. Genes regulate the production of amino acids, which combine to grade proteins. The being or absenteeism of a protein can have an effect on things like alcohol tolerance or mood.
Affecting something is non the same every bit having complete control over it.
Environment, like genetics, plays an important part in how our behavior develops.
Alcoholism runs in families not only because there is a genetic component to alcoholism, simply too because children larn how to cope with stress by watching how their parents and their older siblings behave in stressful situations.
If you come from a culture where alcohol consumption is forbidden, it volition exist difficult for yous to get an alcoholic, no matter how your body metabolizes booze.
There are factors likewise a "warrior gene" that contribute to aggression. Children larn to comport aggressively when they witness aggression being rewarded.
If you grew up in a family unit or every bit role of a civilization where aggression was non well accustomed, you lot would exist less probable to be ambitious. Yous would learn, from an early on age, how to command your aggressive tendencies.
Your environment affects your sexual and romantic relationships.
Throughout history, marriages have been influenced by family relations and by economic needs.
People adhere to cultural constraints of monogamy despite beingness attracted to people other than their spouses.
Your culture affects your views on homosexuality.
In some societies, homosexuality is accepted, in others, it is frowned upon but tolerated, in yet others, information technology is a serious law-breaking, possibly punishable by decease.
Male person homosexual behavior was expected in ancient Athens. Today, ritual male homosexuality plays an important role in some cultures in New Guinea.
Your upbringing can influence what you detect desirable and what yous find repulsive. Most Americans would be probably be nauseated if they learned that, when they thought they had been eating beef, they were, in fact, eating dog, even though there is nothing inherently unhealthy about dog meat.
What you have learned about homosexuality as you were growing upwardly will affect whether yous consider engaging in homosexual acts to be desirable or disgusting.
Some people might contend that if yous are "genetically gay" but the thought of homosexuality nauseates you, and so you lot just haven't accustomed the fact that yous really are gay. That argument is based on the assumption that sexual preference is purely biological; therefore, it has no place in a discussion most the possible causes of homosexuality.
The Encephalon
The construction of the brain might influence sexual preference.
In 1991, a study published in the journal Science seemed to testify that the hypothalamus, which controls the release of sex hormones from the pituitary gland, in gay men differs from the hypothalamus in straight men. The third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus (INAH3) was constitute to exist more twice as large in heterosexual men as in homosexual men
This study was criticized because it used brain tissue obtained at autopsies, and all of the homosexual subjects in the study were believed to have died of AIDS.
A later study, which was performed in 2001, showed that HIV status has no significant consequence on the INAH3. This written report, which also used brain tissue from autopsies, did not reveal any significant deviation between the size of the INAH3 in gay men and straight men. It did, however, testify that in gay men, neurons in the INAH3 are packed more closely together than in direct men.
PET and MRI studies performed in 2008 have shown that the two halves of the brain are more symmetrical in homosexual men and heterosexual women than in heterosexual men and homosexual women. These studies have also revealed that connections in the amygdalas of gay men resemble those of straight women; in gay women, connections in the amygdala resemble those of straight men. The amygdala has many receptors for sex activity hormones and is associated with the processing of emotions.
Some studies accept shown that the corpus callosum – the chief connection between the two halves of the brain- has a different structure in gay men than in directly men. Notwithstanding, other studies have found no deviation.
Gay women and gay men are more probable to be left-handed or ambidextrous than direct women and direct men, co-ordinate to a number of different studies. Some researchers have suggested that this departure in handedness – preference for one mitt over the other can exist observed in fetuses - is related to differences in the corpus callosum.
A 1992 report showed that the anterior commissure, a smaller connexion between the brain'due south two hemispheres, is larger in homosexual men than in direct men. Yet, according to a study that was performed ten years afterward, the size of the anterior commissure is not afflicted by sexual orientation.
We know from studying rats that exposure to sex hormones in the womb during a disquisitional period in brain development affects future sexual orientation. By manipulating hormone levels during this time, scientists can make rats appoint in homosexual beliefs after on.
So your brain was influencing your sexual preference fifty-fifty before y'all were born.
This tin explain why many gay people feel that they accept always been gay.
Encephalon development does non stop at birth, though.
A large amount of brain evolution takes place during childhood, when you are learning many new things – including how your family and the adults around you lot believe you should experience virtually things and what they believe is adequate beliefs.
The education you lot receive as a kid strongly affects how your encephalon volition develop as yous grow. For example, children who are given musical training experience changes to areas of the encephalon associated with hearing and motor control.
With the correct experiences, your brain tin can change even afterwards yous have reached machismo.
Both London taxi drivers and professional piano tuners show increases in gray matter in areas of the encephalon associated with the skills needed for their professions. The size of the increase in gray matter correlates with the numbers of years of experience.
In one experiment, elderly subjects showed increases in gray matter in certain parts of their brains subsequently they were taught to juggle.
With proper rehabilitation, people who have suffered brain damage from strokes tin can develop new neural connections and regain some of their onetime skills.
It's important to point out that the regions of the brain that take been shown to change because of training and experience are not the parts of the brain that have been associated with sexual preference.
Withal, women do experience changes to the structure of the hypothalamus – which is idea to be associated with sexual orientation - throughout the menstrual cycle.
So far, attempts to "cure" homosexuality past operating on the brain – homosexuals were once given lobotomies - have never worked.
(Attempts to eliminate homosexuality via hormone therapy haven't been constructive either. While changes in hormone levels in the womb during a very specific fourth dimension tin have an outcome on hereafter sexual preference, hormone levels take no effect on sexual preference later on. Gay men and straight men have the same levels of sexual activity hormones; sexual practice hormone levels are the aforementioned in gay women and direct women.)
Today, nevertheless, nosotros know much more about the encephalon than we did when homosexuality was considered a illness that required handling, and the amount of noesis that we accept about the brain is increasing.
Maybe one 24-hour interval we will be able to adjust sexual preference via surgery - focusing on the item regions of the brain that are associated with sexual preference – or via neural implants or training.
If Sexual Preference Tin can Be Changed
Even if gay people can never cease being attracted to members of the same sexual practice, they can learn not to deed on their desires.
People already learn to terminate smoking, to give up certain foods, and not cheat on their husbands or wives.
If we ascertain being gay every bit engaging in homosexual behavior (the concept of "gay" every bit an identity is a Western cultural concept – people who accept sex with both men and women may telephone call themselves gay, straight or bisexual, depending on the rules of their civilisation or subculture), and then people stop being gay as soon equally they stop engaging in this behavior.
Should they stop?
If they could, should they change their brains (or have their brains changed) in order to make themselves straight?
I believe that people accept the correct to engage in any behavior that they cull, as long as their actions practice non harm others, and I believe that gay sexual practice and gay relationships do not cause harm to anyone. Therefore, people who are gay past choice take the right to remain that way
(Of grade, there are abusive and unhealthy gay relationships that should not exist tolerated, simply as there are unhealthy heterosexual relationships that should not be tolerated.)
If sexual preference can exist altered, then people who support gay rights can't rely on the argument that gay people should be protected from discrimination because gay people have no pick merely to exist gay – an argument that seems like an apology for homosexuality, every bit if homosexuality is a disease for which in that location is no cure.
There is an element of homophobia in that statement– the implication that gay people would become directly, if merely they could. Supporting gay wedlock becomes equivalent to supporting the structure of wheelchair ramps. The "gays can't help being that way" approach is reminiscent of the quondam view of homosexuality as a psychiatric illness.
In a blog post for Slate, J. Bryan Lowder comments on Cynthia Nixon's claim that her lesbianism is a selection. Lowder agrees with Nixon that blaming biology "cedes a great bargain of command to bigoted people."
You don't have to defend a controversial activity by arguing that you lot have no control over your behavior. In fact, when we you do then, you reinforce the belief that your behavior is undesirable.
Nobody has to bear witness that biological science forces them to vote for a particular political political party, practice a certain religion or follow a particular diet.
Just as gay people who are happy as they are should not exist forced to modify their sexual orientation, gay people who want to be directly should have the right to change if they can – and the correct word is "change" – not "cure".
In his blog mail, Lowder states, "Many critics volition argue that appealing to biology is the but style to protect against the attacks of the religious right."
Information technology might make these critics unhappy to hear this, merely that's not how science works.
Science doesn't change in order to back up political opinions.
Scientific beliefs change as we gain new information, and sometimes science tells the states things that we would rather not hear.
Get used to information technology.
References:
Bailey, J.Chiliad. & Pillard, R.C. (1991). A genetic study of male sexual orientation. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48(12): 1089–1096.
Balthazart, J. (2012). Encephalon evolution and sexual orientation. Colloquium Series on the Developing Brain, Morgan & Claypool Publishers.
Baroncini, M. et al. (2010). Sex activity steroid hormones-related structural plasticity in the human hypothalamus, NeuroImage, l(ii): 428-43.
Boyke, J., Driemeyer, J., Gaser, C., Büchel, C. & May, A. (2008). Training induced brain construction changes in the elderly. Periodical of Neuroscience, 28(28): 7031-7035.
Burri, A., Cherkas, L., Spector, T. & Rahman, Q. (2011). Genetic and ecology influences on female sexual orientation, babyhood gender typicality and adult gender identity, PLOS ONE half dozen(7): e21982.
Hamer, D.H., Hu, S., Magnuson, V.L., Hu, Northward. & Pattatucci, A.M. (1993). A linkage between Dna markers on the X chromosome and male sexual orientation. Science, 261(5119): 321-327.
Hyde, K.L. et al. (2009). The effects of musical preparation on structural encephalon development: a longitudinal report. Annals of the New York University of Sciences, 1169: 182-186.
Johannson, B.B. (2011). Current trends in stroke rehabilitation: A review with focus on brain plasticity. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, 123(3): 147-159.
LeVay, S. (1991). A difference in hypothalamic structure betwixt heterosexual and homosexual men. Science, 253(5023): 1034-1037.
Maguire, E.A. et al. (2000). Navigational-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.s., 97(8): 4398–4403.
Prinz, J. (2012). Beyond human nature: how culture and feel shape our lives New York: Penguin Group U.s.a..
Teki, S. et al. (2012). Navigating the auditory scene: an adept function for the hippocampus. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(35): 12251-12257.
Whitam, F.L., Diamond, Grand. & Martin J. (1993). Homosexual orientation in twins: A report on 61 pairs and 3 triplet sets. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 22(3): 187-206.
Photograph credits: Vancouver Gay Pride Parade 2008 by ecodallaluna on Wikimedia Commons; DNA by ynse on Wikimedia Commons; Encephalon fMRI by NASA.
The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
Source: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/is-homosexuality-a-choice/
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