I heard there was a news article on homosexuality being a brain defect. Anyone know which newspaper this was in?
Try Google.
www.google.com
Or GoogleNews.
I don’t know if you’re referring to the article I’m thinking of, but it didn’t say that homosexuality was a brain defect per se. There was a study on about a dozen dead homosexual men and about a dozen dead heterosexual men, and it found that a certain area of the brain was enlarged in the homosexual men. Because of the low number of test subjects, and since homosexuality wasn’t the only thing linking these men (all had died of AIDS), the only conclusion was that more research was needed. Tell me something else I didn’t know.
Most newspapers wouldn’t run a story saying outright that the cause of homosexuality was a brain defect, I think.
I know I’d like to see the cite. It’s not the old hypothalamus study again, is it? :rolleyes:
Esprix
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- Hardly answering any questions, but what happens when researchers find out what does cause homosexuality? What chemicals in the brain switch it off and on? Certainly there must be some chemical/physical cause…
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- Hardly answering any questions, but what happens when researchers find out what does cause homosexuality? What chemicals in the brain switch it off and on? Certainly there must be some chemical/physical cause…
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Why must there? Do you think there’s an identifiable chemical/physical reason for being a “tit-man” or “ass-man”? Liking long hair or short hair, muscles? I don’t think homosexuality is any different.
Take me for example. If I were to fall in love with a man (which has happened), I would be able to live my life with that man, no problem. Sex with him, sure. But if I imagine my dream partner, she is a woman. Because I’m straight? No, because I find women more physically attractive. And that’s IT.
My girlfriend is probably an even better example. She is a lesbian, had never been (or wanted to be) with a man before me, and yet she is in a committed relationship with me now, and we have a fully functional, rewarding sex life. Because I’m this super macho man who “cured” her homosexuality? No. Because she fell in love.
If you ask me, sexual orientation towards one gender or another is either simply an aesthetic preference, a self-deceiving illusion created by social constraints, or the ultimate proof that love does not exist.
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- First of all, you think wrong: if not in the chemistry of the brain, then where do our thoughts come from? Are they borne on the wings of faeries?
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Secondly, my general direction was, “What will become of homosexuality when there are drugs that can alter it?”
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- First of all, you think wrong: if not in the chemistry of the brain, then where do our thoughts come from? Are they borne on the wings of faeries?
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Well, to be fair, I don’t think you can say she’s 100 percent a Lesbian…
Since my point was that no-one is, I don’t think I have to.
That’s not your call to make, nor is it Priceguy’s. It’s her call.
Of course our thoughts originate in the chemistry in the brain. What I’m saying is that homosexuality is no different from any other sexual preference like preferring blondes to brunettes, and finding the cause is about as interesting.
If they were developed right now, I think a fair number of homosexuals would take them, but many, many others would not. Homosexuality as a phenomenon would continue. Sure, there are many young gays who would like nothing better than being straight and not have this thing to worry about, but there are also loads and loads of homosexuals who would change nothing if they could.
There’s chemicals, and there’s experience living in the environment. Both are likely factors in most human experience.
You may be referring to Simon LeVay’s book Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality. It’s been pretty roundly critiqued. If I remember correctly, he was describing differences in the locus coeruleus. This region of the brain is apparently structurally sensitive to fear, so one might imagine that if he measuired anything having to do with being gay, it might have been brain changes in response to hate crimes. Looks like NIMH is doing some studies on the locus coeruleus in LGB youth.
Research has thus far concluded that the “causes” of homosexuality are such a complex combination of chemistry, biology, psychology, environment, experience, sociology, and so many other areas of science that end in “y” that it is impossible to determine a single origin.
So why bother?
Esprix
Since no one has mentioned it, I just have to add a bit from an unknow comic on the subject (maybe it was Kate Clinton, I’m not sure).
If homosexuality was a disease, I would tak advantage of it.
ring ring
“Hi boss. I can’t make it in today, I’m feeling a bit queer. Tomorrow, I don’t know. I’m gonna take a couple of cheerleaders and go to bed, but I expect I’ll still be feeling queer tomorrow”.
I’ve always been told this is exactly what happened in Sweden in 1979, which is why homosexuality is not legally a disease here anymore. A bunch of homosexuals stayed home from work, some degree of chaos ensued (there were quite a few of them), and the legislators caved.
I cannot find any confirmation for this story on the internet, though, so I’m starting to doubt it.
I agree with what you’re saying Priceguy. I definately do not believe that homosexuality is any kind of brain defect. But if by some chance it turned out to be then I would hope the public would be allowed to know about it.
DougC wrote:
But what Priceguy [and Esprix] is trying to say is that finding out what causes homosexuality would be every bit as complex as trying to find out why you like birds more than you like tigers, or why you like Elvis more than you like the Beatles.
I’m not gay so I can’t answer this with 100% accuracy but I would imagine that there would be no market for this drug. Would you want to take a drug that made you like Corn Flakes better than Cheerios? Of course not, Cheerios is your favorite cereal!
Some scientist (or was it a sci-fi writer? Asimov?) said that, at some point in the future, most people will be bisexual and it will be the exclusively straight and exclusively gay people that will be thought of as different. I wouldn’t be surprised if this happened long before any drug was developed to ‘cure’ homosexuality.
Well, let’s say you live in a culture where it is a social stigma to like Cheerios. Let’s say you don’t dare tell anyone of your “shameful” desire for Cheerios. Wouldn’t you take a drug that would make you want Corn Flakes instead?
Amen to that, brother.
An interesting question is not so much how many gays would take this drug if it could make them straight, but how many straight men would take the antidote (or whatever) to make themselves gay. I’d say few to none.
[grittingmyteethbecauseitshardtosaythiswithouthavingexperiencedit]…
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No.
And I think that with every passing day less and less people would want to take the Corn Flakes drug too. America has come a long way in the last few decades. We’re really just a few baby steps away from everyone being to eat whatever cereal they want.
Replace “America” with “Europe and Northern America” and I’m with you, but with all respect I still think you’re wrong about the drug. Sure, there are many Cheerios aficionados who wouldn’t take the Corn Flakes drug to save their lives, but many (although probably not most) would feel that switching happily to Corn Flakes would be very liberating.