We all know that attempts to “cure” gay people through various physical and emotional “therapies” have gotten nowhere (caused harm, yes, but certainly precious little success in actually accomplishing its stated goal). Given that, and the GD thread mentioned above, I began considering: what if those who thought homosexuality was wrong also decided that homosexuality had a genetic component, but still thought it something that needed to be cured? They might fund something like NARTH (and many of the people who believe this way have deep pockets, and can encourage many many other people with some money to give to such a thing).
Is it possible that such a research effort, with fundage behind it, COULD come up with some sort of gene-fixing solution? Is that the only way such a thing would come about? If it did, what sort of reaction would it get from the public at large?
In short, you know all those threads that have appeared here occasionally asking what you would do if homosexuality could be cured, or prevented? I’d like to pose the question of whether such a thing is even possible, and if so, if this is a possible way for it to come about.
NARTH will never come up with a real answer. That’s Socarides’ and Cameron’s baby, and those two wouldn’t recognize the truth if it bit their noses off. It’s pseudoscience giving a veneer of scientific respectability to homophobia and hate.
I thought the latest idea was that homosexuality is caused by hormones in the womb. At least, it can’t be purely genetics because indentical twins can have one member be gay and the other straight whether raised together or apart (as in adopted twin studies).
So if we can cure homosexuality then we’ll know a lot about and be able to tinker with the inner workings of a developing fetus and the hormonal process of the mother. I’m sure that would be more useful in other ways, though, like preventing certain types of birth defects or ambiguous sex problems.
It would introduce a bunch of gay guys who would also want to stay closeted.
OTOH, assuming bisexuality were as genetically defined as homosexuality, some might decide, as a gay friend found when in a threesome, that when someone is stimulating “it,” it’s not picky.
I’m not a biologist, but lack of expertise has never stopped me from giving an opinion before so…
I’m skeptical that even a concentrated effort would yield much. I imagine that sex, gender and sexuality (both in straights and gays) depend on a huge and complex set of interactions between genetics, environment and culture. I’d seriously doubt that anyone will isolate a single gene or environmental factor that can be changed to make all children straight.
Maybe, though at least in the States, the people most likely to be paranoid about having a gay kid are also the most likely to disapprove of having abortions.
I expect most of them would give up their “pro-life principles” in a moment if they could prevent a gay from being born. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot would turn right around and try to browbeat other people into aborting gay offspring. The “pro life” movement and the anti-gay movement are all about hatred; the hatred of anyone who isn’t a straight white male Christian, and they will do whatever is necessary to inflict that hatred on others.
I haven’t heard that but something close: IIRC hormones in the womb has been shown to cause XX males and XY females, along with transgendering where you get a man trapped in the body a woman and the opposite. If we take homosexuality as fully one gender and preferring that gender for sexual relations neither of the above really fit.
As far as I know, that might be the big difference-maker, but it’s still believed to be a combination of that with genes and environment. If that’s the case, maybe a research effort would reduce the number of “potential” gays, but it’d really be impossible to eliminate.
It seems to me equally valid to suppose there is a single or a few causative factors in the biology.
Evidently some people do however. I’d be surprised if there weren’t large numbers of people ready to leap all over any such technology. Even if just for curiosity’s sake.
On a practical note, it’s possible that doing such could create crime. One theory of criminology is that people with more testosterone are more likely to commit violent crimes (on the other side is the argument that people in prison have higher testosterone because prison is a dangerous environment.)
Now, given as most biological tinkering tends to vary across the board in it’s effect, the end result will be anything from “no change” to “that boy’s a raging gorilla!” But overall the “maleness” of ~5% of the male population could be getting a boost.
Interestingly, I suspect that some of the raging gorillas would end up just as gay since horneyness might be a suppressor of choosiness.
Actually, I’ve read that excess testosterone tends to be converted to estradiol, a female hormone. Men with overly high testosterone tend to end up with slightly more feminized brains. If more testosterone makes people criminals ( not that I buy it ), making men more “masculine” might lower crime.
Also possible. Doing a quick look at Google Scholar doesn’t seem to be very conclusive on anything. I think I’ll post a GQ to see if anything interesting turns up.
