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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8099
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 08:27 am: | 
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I've been watching this show called My Two Cents on BET J. Interesting talk show that focuses on the views and experiences of African American. There are 2 outted homosexuals on the show: Keith Boykin (the show's main host and one of Kola's homies) and Stacyann Chinn.
On different occassions, both Keith and Stacyann alluded to their originally being straight (dating & boning foks of the opposite sex) but then later evolving into homosexuality at some point in their adulthood. And I think Keith mentioned something about his becoming gay after he "got to KNOW himself better".
What I find interesting about what Keith and Stacyann admit to experiencing is that APPEARS to flauts these ubiquitious arguments of foks being BORN gay. I wish some of their co-hosts had asked them to discuss the apparent disparity between what they've experienced and what others assert.
So. Is one BORN gay/lesbian? Does one CHOOSE to be gay/lesbian? Or does one (perhaps involuntarily EVOLVE) into being gay/lesbian?
Btw: That Stacyann is SOMETHING. Let's just say she might be able to give Rosie O'Donnell a run for her (hellraisin' lesbian) money. |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4171
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 10:28 am: |
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ABM,
I was wondering the same thing after watching a show on Court TV the other night. The guy being scrutinized..and interrogated..recalled how it was that he became a cross dresser. He said his father was emotionally & verbally abusive when he was growing up and the one thing that made him feel safe during his father's rampages was going to his room, dressing up in his sister’s clothes and pretending to be a woman. He never said whether his sister was abused the same way but for some reason he believed that if he were a woman his life would be easier, perhaps as he perceived his sister's life to be. Whatever the case...it was clear that this guy developed his tendencies early on as a coping mechanism. So, as controversial as the following might be, I was left wondering if being gay/lesbian/transgendered is more of a psychological disorder (as stated before) than we're willing to explore because of the pain & controversy. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8107
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 10:41 am: |
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Tonya,
I should avoid my futile attempts at pop psychology. Though I guess since the crossdresser felt so helpless during his childhood, maybe it was easier for him to accept his abuse in what's traditionally the more vulnerable guise of womanhood than it would be as men are typically expected and permitted to endure.
I don't know whether ALL GLBT'ers are such via mental, emotional or psychological injury, though I imaging many are.
I guess it is possible that one might be naturally gay. There are myriad examples of homosexuality amongst non-human animals. If such occurs naturally amongst them, why wouldn't it manifest amongst humans?
No. It's not so much the overall existence and legitimacy of GLBT activity I question as much as I do HOW/WHEN such doth occur.
Simply: HOW does only live +25 years as heterosexual man BEFORE he discovers he likes to suhk other menzes DYCKS??? |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4175
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 11:03 am: |
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Maybe his traumatic experience led him to believe early on that it was easier to be "a man" and repress certain desires. That makes sense considering how homosexuality is viewed by the black community, presumably by his father and others. Btw, all animals respond to some kind of stimulant or another.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8111
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 11:11 am: |
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Tonya,
You know, I'm really getting sick/tired of hearing and reading about how homophobic Black foks are. I think that's one of the biggest lies going.
I've been around for nearly a half century. I recall growing up where there were many men who were openly gay in our communities, churches, schools, etc. And while they might have initially been leered and laughed at, MOST times they were eventually accepted and loved by Black foks I know.
Now, obviously, the (largely unproven) spectre of gay/DL men recklessly spreading HIV complicates and aggravates the prejudices amongst us. But, still, those are as much born of (rationa/irrational) fear of becoming sick as they are some wholesale, baseless Black hatred of gays/lesbians. |
Jackie
Regular Poster
Username: Jackie
Post Number: 370
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 01:08 pm: |
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ABM: So. Is one BORN gay/lesbian? Does one CHOOSE to be gay/lesbian? Or does one (perhaps involuntarily EVOLVE) into being gay/lesbian?
All of the above. Simple as that. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 6950
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 01:38 pm: |
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IMO, a late-blooming gay person through a series of circumstances has an awakening, or an epiphany, if you will. He or she puts 2 and 2 together and realizes that he or she is gay and just didn't realize it. Gayness is inherent in a homosexual, not acquired. A hetereosexual person can't be turned into a gay one, or can a gay person change their natural inclination; they can just repress it. BTW, cross-dressers are not necesssarily gay. They are dysfunctional; many of them are married and have normal sex lives and their wives are often enablers who help these weirdos pick out the girlie outfits they want to sit around the house wearing. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3460
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 01:44 pm: |
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One has to be born gay/lesbian. Who, after seeing how they are treated would choose to be that?
By the way, ABM, when did you decide you were heterosexual? |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 6951
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 01:49 pm: |
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Ask a gay man if the males in the black community accept them or are contemptuously homophobic. The younger generation of black males seems particularly hostile toward them, and are the ones who commit hate crimes against them. Black gay men have started to gather in secret gay "safe" houses where they meet and socialize in secret because they are so fearful of being harassed in public. This according to a special I recently saw on a TV news segment. |
Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 340
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 01:52 pm: |
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I remember years ago watching some show about "lipstick lesbians": those lesbos who appear girlie girlie, but like to eat other p-ssy. Anyhowway, one of the people in the audience asked the lipstick lesbian panel did a bad experience with a man make you gay? The reply was did a bad experience with a woman make you straight? I thought that was funny, hostile and nonresponsive, but funny.
I personally believe people are born gay, and I believe it's a birth defect. |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4182
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 02:11 pm: |
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Aren't some people BORN with chemical imbalances?
People are often born with psychological disorders...so it could be something they’re born with AND a psychological disorder. Of course I'm just speculating.
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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 3217
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 02:12 pm: |
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All men are really women. Therein lies the problem. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3462
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 02:17 pm: |
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Ask a gay man if the males in the black community accept them or are contemptuously homophobic.
(How are gay males--white and black, received in Mayberry?)
The younger generation of black males seems particularly hostile toward them, and are the ones who commit hate crimes against them.
(Did they have gay people when you were growing up back in the 30's 40's 50's etc? How were they treated? What did you call them in Mayberry? Did you have any over your house for dinner?)
Black gay men have started to gather in secret gay "safe" houses where they meet and socialize in secret because they are so fearful of being harassed in public.
(I suppose they stride down Main Street in Mayberry at high noon holding hands, eh)
This according to a special I recently saw on a TV news segment.
(Why did you even add this? Is it because you are afraid that we might suspect you are picking up your info first hand from participating in Mayberry's --and Chicago's--notoriously hardcore Gay underground?
You need help, Cynique. You are the disease and I'm the cure--
Call me Dr. Feelgood) |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3466
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 02:35 pm: |
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All men are really women. Therein lies the problem.
(Sounds like somebody is trying to come out of the closet. Let's be supportive of her lifestyle choice fellow AALBCers!) |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 6954
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 02:54 pm: |
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You aren't the cure for anything, chrishayden. You are a festering, seeping, wound, dripping with the pus of self-righteous obnoxiousness. A diseased oaf whose infection is further complicated by chronic stupidity. ugh. |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4183
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 03:06 pm: |
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Press Release Source: BET Networks, Wednesday January 24, 3:12 pm ET
BET Offers a Fresh Lineup of HIV-Related Programming to Coincide With National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
Network Debuts Winning Short Films and Ground-Breaking News Special That Tackles HIV/AIDS Issues
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070124/aqw057.html?.v=1
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8116
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 03:44 pm: |
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Chris: "By the way, ABM, when did you decide you were heterosexual?"
There you go fantasizing...AGAIN.
Urban_scribe: " one of the people in the audience asked the lipstick lesbian panel did a bad experience with a man make you gay? The reply was did a bad experience with a woman make you straight?"
I guess that was her way of asserting that her being lesbian means she's no different from those women who are not.
Interesting position to assert. Kinda flies in the face of our plumbing and reproduction, though. |
Enchanted
Veteran Poster
Username: Enchanted
Post Number: 678
Registered: 11-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 04:12 pm: |
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I dont think people are born that way tbh.
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Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 1634
Registered: 10-2005
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 06:25 pm: |
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"I dont think people are born that way tbh."
Yeah, that's right. They just decide to be gay because its more fun and it gets attention (you know -like getting tattoos on your face or piercing your nostrils). And when they're done playing or become bored, they go back to being straight! Happens all the time. Some days you decide to wear your Barn jacket and the next day you decide to wear your leather jacket. Depends on how you feel. One month your heterosexual, the next two months you're gay then you go back to being heterosexual. Whatever strikes your mood. Yep...that's what I think.
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Libralind2
Veteran Poster
Username: Libralind2
Post Number: 522
Registered: 09-2004
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 07:24 pm: |
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Born gay? How biology may drive orientation
By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times science reporter
As the culture wars rage over gay rights, a flock of sheep at Oregon State University may help answer a key question behind the controversy: Is homosexuality a matter of choice or biology?
The Corvallis herd includes a group of rams that scientists delicately refer to as "male-oriented." These animals consistently ignore females and bestow all their amorous attentions on members of their own sex.
Researcher Charles Roselli says a decade of study suggests sexual orientation is largely hard-wired into the sheep's brains before birth. Now, he's trying to figure out how that happens, zeroing in on genes and hormones. In a bold test of his ideas, he hopes to engineer the birth of gay rams by altering conditions in the womb.
Sheep aren't people, but the Oregon work adds to a growing body of research that bolsters biological explanations for sexual orientation across species — including humans.
Despite those scientific findings, some religious groups say homosexuality is a lifestyle that can be treated, if not prevented. One such group, the conservative Christian organization Focus on the Family, is sponsoring a one-day conference in Bothell Saturday.
The social and political implications of the research are impossible to ignore, leading to unease on both sides of the gay-rights debate. If science proves homosexuality is innate, is there any basis to deny gays equal treatment — including the right to marry? But if scientists unravel the roots of sexual orientation, will it some day be possible to "fix" people who don't fit the norms or abort fetuses likely to be born gay?
More information on the five-year study is available at www.gaybros.com
Much of the cutting-edge research is being conducted in other countries, because the political pressure cooker in the United States makes it difficult for scientists to get money, said Brian Mustanski, who juggles studies of the genetics of homosexuality with his main work on HIV prevention at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
But controversy can't obscure the facts, he said.
"It's pretty definitive that biological factors play a role in determining a person's sexual orientation."
Austrian scientists reported this month that switching a single gene was enough to make female fruit flies rebuff males and attempt to mate with other females. Swedish researchers recently found the sexual center of gay men's brains lit up when they sniffed a pheromone-like chemical from men's sweat, but didn't respond to a chemical from women.
And last fall, Italian scientists offered a possible explanation for the persistence of gay genes — even though evolution tends to weed out traits that discourage reproduction. The team from the University of Padua found that mothers and aunts of gay men had more offspring than female relatives of heterosexuals, suggesting genes that influence homosexuality in men may increase fertility in females.
That the evidence comes from such disparate directions leads scientists to suspect several different biological pathways may lead to homosexuality. Both genes and hormones appear to be important. Nor do researchers discount the possibility that social factors may play a role.
"I tend not to be a nature-versus-nurture kind of dichotomist," said Roselli, of the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine in Portland. "I think there's probably a very complex interaction that's going on between both biology and the environment that is involved in determining these types of behaviors."
"Shy breeders"
Gay sheep may show
whether neurohormones
fix sexual identity
Though they don't talk about it much, ranchers have long known that about 8 percent of rams never father offspring because they only have eyes for other males. Australian sheepherders call them "shy breeders," Roselli said.
Upbringing doesn't seem to make a difference. Domestication and captivity aren't responsible, because rams with same-sex proclivities occur in the wild.
Roselli's rams come from the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in eastern Idaho, where federal researchers keep a herd of 3,000 to study genetics, breeding and grazing impacts.
They've also been quietly looking into sexual orientation, a subject so touchy the lab's U.S. Department of Agriculture boss won't allow his staff to discuss it with the press.
Roselli and his colleagues at OSU are using the gay rams to test what is called the neurohormonal theory of sexual development: that hormones from a developing fetus fix its sexual identity by orchestrating brain organization. Too much or too little of these powerful chemicals, or shifts in timing, may lead to homosexuality, the theory predicts.
Last year, Roselli found that a brain region linked with sexual behavior was twice as big in heterosexual as homosexual rams. The difference seems to exist even before birth, he said. The gay rams also had lower brain levels of an enzyme that activates testosterone and promotes typical male sexual behavior.
A 1991 study reported similar differences in the brains of gay and heterosexual men, but the findings haven't been confirmed. Human brain studies are problematic for another reason: Brain structures can guide behavior, but behavior also can cause brain structures to enlarge or shrink, making it difficult to say which comes first.
So in addition to brain studies, Roselli is waiting for a group of lambs born last spring to reach sexual maturity. Their mothers were dosed with drugs to block the action of male hormones in the fetuses. If Roselli's hypothesis is correct, rams born of this experiment will be disproportionately gay.
"I just knew"
Studies indicate
sexual orientation is
set very early in life
Hormones have long been suspect in homosexuality. Doctors used to treat gay men with testosterone injections, until it became clear adult homosexuals don't have blood hormone levels that differ significantly from heterosexuals.
But rats, hamsters, ferrets and other lab animals flip-flop their sexual behavior when scientists manipulate the hormones they're exposed to before birth. Such experiments would be unethical in people, but some rare medical conditions offer human parallels.
A high proportion of girls with a disorder that causes them to secrete male hormones before birth grow up to be lesbian. About 40 case studies have shown boys who are surgically altered and raised as girls because of genital deformities are overwhelmingly attracted to females once they reach puberty — indicating sexual orientation is determined very early in life and is difficult to alter.
That view is supported by a series of studies in the 1980s that found nearly 75 percent of young boys who dress up like girls, play with dolls and consistently choose stereotypical female pursuits will grow up to be gay. A similar, though less pronounced, pattern is found in girls who prefer trucks over tea sets.
Still, most gay people don't have gender-bending childhoods. As in heterosexuals, the majority say they became aware of their orientation at puberty.
"I just knew," said Seattle attorney Andrew Kamins, who is gay. "It's as simple as that."
Those who argue homosexuality is a choice haven't been able to dispute that fundamental point, said Michigan State University neuroscientist Marc Breedlove.
"If you're going to say people choose a sexual orientation when they reach puberty, you're going to have to find some people who remember making that choice, and there aren't any," he said. "The evidence is starting to look pretty good that hormones early in life influence the probability of who you will be attracted to 10 years later, when people start to get their first crushes," he said.
The hand test
Can the length of
one's fingers suggest
sexual orientation?
Breedlove found support for the neurohormonal theory by photocopying hands at gay street fairs.
In heterosexual women, the index and ring fingers are usually about the same length. In heterosexual men, the index finger is shorter, on average, than the ring finger. It's one of several differences between the sexes that seem to be set before birth, based on testosterone exposure.
Breedlove found lesbians' finger lengths were, on average, more like men's. The same holds true for other traits, like eye-blink patterns and inner-ear function.
"Every time you find a body marker that gives an indication of prenatal testosterone exposure, lesbians on average are more masculine than straight women," Breedlove said. "This can't be a fluke."
Patterns aren't as clear in gay men, with some hints they may be exposed to either less or more testosterone before birth.
All of the neurohormonal studies also leave a major puzzle unanswered: If hormones shape the brain and the brain directs behavior, what is controlling the hormone levels in the first place?
Slam-dunk proof?
Twin studies provide evidence that homosexuality runs in the family
When Vince Healy finally came out as gay, his disapproving Catholic family was familiar with the story. His older brother had been living with a man for several years. It didn't make things any easier, the 45-year-old Ballard man recalled.
"I was very unhappy at the prospect of being gay," he said. "I kept thinking: I must be a late bloomer."
As the youngest of three brothers, one of whom is straight, Healy illustrates the two most robust findings in the science of homosexuality: It runs in families, and the number of older brothers a man has can increase his chances of being gay.
About 3 percent of American men and 1.5 percent of women describe themselves as gay or bisexual, according to the National Institutes of Health. Those percentages are three to five times higher among people who have a gay brother or sister.
Of course, family dynamics might be the reason, not biology.
What scientists call slam-dunk proof that genes are part of the equation comes from twin studies.
Genetically influenced traits are more likely to be shared among the closest relatives, and that pattern holds for homosexuality.
For fraternal male twins, the gay-gay concordance rate is about 22 percent. For identical twins, it's 52 percent.
Based on those results, scientists conservatively estimate homosexuality is about 40 percent due to genes, said Alan Sanders, director of behavior genetics at Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute in Illinois.
But genes clearly are not the only factor, or identical twins would always share the same sexual orientation.
"That means there's a significant environmental contribution," said Sanders, who is leading a five-year, $2.5 million project for the National Institutes of Health to try to identify the genes involved.
Earlier research has pointed to several possible gene regions, but those studies were small and not definitive. With DNA from 1,000 pairs of gay brothers, Sanders' project will be much more powerful.
It's very unlikely to uncover a single "gay" gene, he said. As in most complex traits, multiple genes and environmental factors probably work together.
So far, scientists can only speculate how genes linked with sexual orientation might work. Perhaps they dictate the size of brain structures, which in turn regulate hormones before birth. Perhaps genes directly adjust prenatal hormone levels, or merely predispose people to a gay orientation.
Environmental factors could be exclusively biological, like chemical exposure or infection. One theory, backed by some evidence in rats, is that the chemical and hormonal milieu of the developing fetus can be disrupted when pregnant mothers are stressed.
Social factors may ultimately prove to play a role as well, Sanders said.
None of the psychosocial theories for homosexuality have panned out so far, including Freud's distant-father/domineering-mother dynamic.
"There have been psychological and social explanations for homosexuality for 100 years, and they haven't come up with anything concrete," said Ray Blanchard, head of Clinical Sexology Services at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
A few studies suggest a higher rate of childhood sexual abuse in gays and lesbians, though there's no evidence such experiences trigger homosexuality, said Mustanski, the University of Illinois geneticist.
Fraternal birth order
The number of older
brothers may affect your
chances of being gay
Blanchard's work on gay brothers offers an alternative explanation so odd he originally dismissed it as "obviously bogus."
But when he looked into scattered reports that many gay men have older brothers, he was astounded. The findings now have been confirmed by more than a dozen studies, including several of his own: Every older brother a man has increases his chances of being gay. A man with four older brothers is three times more likely to be gay than a man with none. Blanchard estimates one out of every seven gay men owes his orientation to this "fraternal birth order" effect.
It's possible to argue for social explanations — bullying by big brothers, indulgent mothers. But Blanchard believes it's biology. Gay males with older brothers weigh less at birth than heterosexual males with older brothers, hinting that something different is happening to them in the womb.
A possible explanation lies in the mother's immune system, which can be activated by cells from a male fetus.
For first sons, the effect would be slight. But subsequent boys could cause the immune response to ramp up until it somehow affects a baby's sexual orientation.
The idea is feasible, Blanchard cautioned, but still unproven.
Not all gay men have older brothers. Not all lesbians have short ring fingers. For some people, genes may be the dominant factor in sexual orientation. For others, it could be hormones. Just as sexual orientation spans a spectrum, scientists suspect there may be a range of mechanisms to explain it.
Over the next few years, scientists will begin to fit the divergent lines of evidence into a comprehensive picture of the way sexual orientation arises in both gays and heterosexuals, Mustanski predicts.
"We have these converging lines of evidence that are pointing to the importance of biology. Now we have to connect the dots."
Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com
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Libralind2
Veteran Poster
Username: Libralind2
Post Number: 523
Registered: 09-2004
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 07:26 pm: |
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New Study Seen to Support 'Born Gay' Theory
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
June 27, 2006
(CNSNews.com) - A new study on homosexuality is being used to back up the contention that sexual orientation is determined in the womb and not by sociological factors.
North American researchers say a study of almost 1,000 Canadian men found a link between homosexuality and the number of older brothers a man has. Such an association has been reported before, but in the past left open the possibility that both biological or sociological factors may play a role.
This time, however, the researchers say the link appears to exist irrespective of whether the man was brought up with the brothers.
It was not, therefore, the result of environmental factors in place while the man was growing up, but rather linked to whether the man's mother had previously given birth to boys - a purely biological factor.
Of the participants in the study, roughly one-third were deemed "heterosexual" - the researchers determined this from their responses to questions about sexual attraction and sexual behavior - a little under half were "homosexual," and the rest were "bisexual."
For every male baby the mother had carried in the womb before the subject was born, the chances of the subject growing up homosexual increased by about one-third, said the researchers. They stressed that the starting point was very low, and that even with older brothers, the chances of men being heterosexual was 95 percent.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is being reported widely around the world, under such headlines as "Gay men may be born, not made," "Being gay starts in the womb" and "Sexual orientation of men determined before birth."
One British report declared that the study "provides the strongest evidence yet of a biological basis for male homosexuality."
The research was carried out by a team led by psychologist Anthony Bogaert at Canada's Brock University, who said the homosexuality-older brother effect was not affected by social or psychological factors like family structure, styles of child-rearing or education.
The link was also not found in cases where there were younger brothers, sisters of any age, older step-brothers, or older adopted male siblings.
"Only biological older brothers, and not any other sibling characteristic, including nonbiological older brothers, predicted men's sexual orientation, regardless of the amount of time reared with these siblings," Bogaert said.
"These results provide evidence that a prenatal mechanism, and not social and/or rearing factors, affects men's sexual orientation development."
One possible explanation, he said, was that the mother's immune system builds up antibodies in response to carrying male babies, thus affecting the developing brain of a later male baby and having a bearing on his sexuality.
Many conservatives dispute the notion that homosexuality is an orientation that is hardwired in a child's genes before birth.
In a 1995 publication on the research on homosexuality and biology, the U.S. group Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) stated: "No human behavior, let alone sexual behavior, has been connected to genetic markers to date ... sexuality, like every other behavior, is undoubtedly influenced by both biological and societal factors."
An organization of mental-health professionals called the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is promoting a petition urging the American Psychological Association (APA) to support a person's right either to "claim a homosexual identity or to pursue change in sexual adaptation."
The APA contends that sexual orientation is shaped by interactions of "biological, psychological and social factors."
NARTH agrees with that, but says it places more emphasis on the psychological influences, while the APA stresses biological influences.
NARTH also says there is no such thing as a "gay gene," although it says genetic factors may play a role in some people.
"But none of these factors mean that homosexuality is normal and a part of human design, or that it is inevitable in such people, or that it is unchangeable."
See also:
Scientists Caution Against Political Interpretation of Sex Research (Oct. 21, 2003)
Subscribe to the free CNSNews.com daily E-Brief.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
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Schakspir
Veteran Poster
Username: Schakspir
Post Number: 836
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 4 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 08:58 pm: |
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Identical studies were done nearly twenty years ago. Nothing new at all. |
Brownbeauty123
Veteran Poster
Username: Brownbeauty123
Post Number: 1652
Registered: 03-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 11:10 pm: |
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"Yeah, that's right. They just decide to be gay because its more fun and it gets attention (you know -like getting tattoos on your face or piercing your nostrils). And when they're done playing or become bored, they go back to being straight! Happens all the time. Some days you decide to wear your Barn jacket and the next day you decide to wear your leather jacket. Depends on how you feel. One month your heterosexual, the next two months you're gay then you go back to being heterosexual. Whatever strikes your mood. Yep...that's what I think."
I guess you're being sarcastic.
But for women, it's much more acceptable for them to go through a phase by experimenting with bisexuality. A lot of females actually do, do it for "fun" and to get "attention".
Just go to a club, & you'll notice the women who play like they are "lesbians" by kissing and grinding up on each other, do attract more attention from the males. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 1636
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 - 12:08 am: |
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"But for women, it's much more acceptable for them to go through a phase by experimenting with bisexuality. A lot of females actually do, do it for "fun" and to get "attention"."
BB123, you are so right!! Society is very tolerant of female bisexuality and much more accepting of female homosexuality. In fact, they seem to encourage and celebrate two chicks Frenching and fondling one another. And I have never met a woman that did not believe every man wishes and hopes to stumble upon two women getting it on. I have to be honest about this and dispel that. Personally, as a man, it really does nothing for me to see two women getting it on. Now, I'm not opposed to it though -but it doesn't really turn me on. But if she has shapely large legs, hips and a big protuberant ass....well, it's on!!! Ha! Ha! Ha! But seriously though, it seems to be trendy to see two women in some form of physical erotica. But if two males even come close to holding hands -standby for some very harsh and heavy rolls!!! Although it is more tolerated now than 30 years ago, the American public at large is still openly very hostile to gay men.
"Just go to a club, & you'll notice the women who play like they are "lesbians" by kissing and grinding up on each other, do attract more attention from the males."
True. I remember many years ago when I was in Los Angeles, I met this young black woman and we hit it off. Sometime during our conversation, she started haranguing about gay men. She told me how disgusting and repulsive the idea of two men being emotionally or sexually together was. Ok. About ten minutes after her anti-gay diatribe, she then began telling me how sensual and erotic it was for women to physically and sexually explore one another! She seemed to become visibly aroused as she rambled on and on about women. Now, this was happening as we were walking down the street. Well, being in LA, it doesn't take long to come across two gay guys. As soon as she saw them -blam! She went right back into her "I hate fags" mode. Explain that!
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8122
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 - 01:14 pm: |
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The duplicity we have about queer men versus queer women is based on a not-so-subtle notion that while manhood is achieved via male's ability to please women womanhood is NOT necessarily achieved via a female's ability to please men.
Take mating and sex: Generally, the onus is on the MALE to pursue, claim and then sexually satisfy women. Women have not generally had these responsibilities, at least not to degree/extent that men have had.
Also, the penis and the act of penetration has come to be the focal point of all human masculinity while the vagina and the act of being penetrated figuratively represents feminity.
In light of the above, how CAN a man who has been or is being penetrated (be it anally or orally) by other men be considered a man?
Conversely, the sexual activity between lesbians is still generally quite feminine. Yes. Vibrators and dildos can effect some more manly forms of penetration. But because they are not REAL living/breathing parts of the bodies and feelings of the human female body, there's always some distance between what they do and those who utilize such.
I do believe, though, as we get more of a handle on HIV/AIDS, open male homosexuality will grow in pervasiveness and acceptance.
Because, like most everything else...things change.
PS: I think our society considers whether or not a woman has CHILDREN to be MORE a determinant of her degree of womanhood. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 1643
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 - 01:41 pm: |
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Brillant post bro....... |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 6964
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 - 03:30 pm: |
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Males think with their pensises and females with their hearts. Lesbians are in love with their womanhood. Gay men reject their manhood. And having expressed that opinion, I would venture to further say that one trods on a slippery slope in trying to condense the dynamics of homosexuality into words. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 1645
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 - 04:17 pm: |
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"Gay men reject their manhood."
Reject their manhood? How so? Just curious....... |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 3236
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 - 04:54 pm: |
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Why are you always defending gay men??? Just curious....... |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 6968
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 - 05:11 pm: |
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I think your question is a legitimate one, NTFS. While "treading on the slippery slope of defining homosexuality" I should have qualified my observations more. To me, in preferring men to women, gay men reject the traditional role of coupling with the opposite sex. Lesbians somehow to me, don't seem to turn away from men so much as they just seem to prefer a duplication of themselves. Just a little psycho-babbo. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 1647
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 - 05:11 pm: |
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"Why are you always defending gay men??? Just curious......."
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! That's funny. Gay men don't need me to defend them nor is that my job or ambition. But I was curious as to why Cynique stated they rejected their manhood. That's the last thing gay men want to do. Their world is consumed by maleness. I was just asking for clarification. That's all.
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Schakspir
Veteran Poster
Username: Schakspir
Post Number: 838
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 - 09:07 pm: |
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Abm: You know, I'm really getting sick/tired of hearing and reading about how homophobic Black foks are. I think that's one of the biggest lies going.
Schakspir: Yeah, absolutely. I've seen completely flaming, cross-dressing gays in the ghettoes of D.C. who were not hookers and NOT getting mocked/insulted/clubbed up side the head. Though it can and does happen. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 6972
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 - 09:14 pm: |
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Well, black gays are the main ones circulating and perpetuating the idea that the black community is homophobic. Maybe they have a hidden agenda. |
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