# What could a concerted effort to "cure" homosexuality actually accomplish? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 18, 2007, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413 "2007-03-18T05:22:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/21 "2007-03-19T13:38:33Z")
[QUOTE=Leaper] Is it possible that such a research effort, with fundage behind it, COULD come up with some sort of gene-fixing solution? [/QUOTE] I **hope** so! Never mind the original purpose of the research. It would be a breakthrough. If scientists could figure out how to alter the “gay gene” in a person already born and grown – alter it so it actually changes the person’s sexual orientation – then it would be possible to alter all **kinds** of inherited characteristics of adults, including hereditary diseases. Consider the possibilities. Why, you could even . . . turn a male-to-female transsexual into exactly what he would have been if he had been conceived with two X chromosomes; an indisputably real woman, with a functioning uterus and everything. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/22 "2007-03-19T14:29:05Z")
[QUOTE=Sevastopol] Why? It seems to me equally valid to suppose there is a single or a few causative factors in the biology. [/QUOTE] As far as I know, there’s zero evidence for a gay gene or any single factor. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/23 "2007-03-19T15:11:01Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] I **hope** so! Never mind the original purpose of the research. It would be a breakthrough. If scientists could figure out how to alter the “gay gene” in a person already born and grown – alter it so it actually changes the person’s sexual orientation – then it would be possible to alter all **kinds** of inherited characteristics of adults, including hereditary diseases. Consider the possibilities. Why, you could even . . . turn a male-to-female transsexual into exactly what he would have been if he had been conceived with two X chromosomes; an indisputably real woman, with a functioning uterus and everything. [/QUOTE] Dude, genes only work that way in _Star Trek_. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/24 "2007-03-19T16:15:39Z")
[QUOTE=Sevastopol] > [@me](#): > > …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. Why? 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. [/QUOTE] Couple reasons, none of which is proof that there is no simple cause for homosexuality, but I think they’re suggestive. First, if there was a simple cause, say one gene or environmental factor, I imagine someone would’ve identified it already. Second, I’ve never heard the cause of any complex human behavior being reduced to a single biological or environmental cause. Third, a lot of things seem to effect incidence of homosexuality, but none of them do so absolutely. Twin studies tell us that there is a strong biological component, but that it isn’t totally determinant. Ditto for hormones inutero. And different societies appear to have different rates of homosexuality (think ancient Greece, for example), so culture also appears to play a role. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/25 "2007-03-19T16:50:15Z")
I cannot imagine any kind of “treatment” that would change a person’s sexual orientation, except as pure behavior modification, but that would only change outward appearances and actions (for some reason the “masculizing” scene from “The Bird Cage” just came to mind.) I understand why a lot of people think homosexuality is abnormal, and it will just take a very, very long time (here in North America, anyway) for that attitude to go away – if it ever does. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/26 "2007-03-20T01:51:32Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] Dude, genes only work that way in _Star Trek_. :dubious: [/QUOTE] I know. I said “if.” If you can change an adult’s sexual orientation by altering his/her gene code, you can change any other hereditary characteristic in the same way. **If.** ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/27 "2007-03-20T01:56:59Z")
[QUOTE=Leaper] Is it possible that such a research effort, with **fundage** behind it, COULD come up with some sort of gene-fixing solution? [/QUOTE] Funding? ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/28 "2007-03-20T02:03:42Z")
If you could prevent homosexuality, there wouldn’t be any represses homosexuality, therefore no more homophobes. I know, I know, that’s unrealistic. ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/29 "2007-03-20T02:10:26Z")
[QUOTE=Leaper] What could a concerted effort to “cure” homosexuality actually accomplish? [/QUOTE] Genocide. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/30 "2007-03-20T07:49:05Z")
[QUOTE=Malodorous] …And different societies appear to have different rates of homosexuality (think ancient Greece, for example), so culture also appears to play a role. [/QUOTE] Are you sure, I have never heard of this before? In fact I always hear the contrary; similar incidence across cultures. If the incidence is low and even I am lead to consider the causes to be largely biological and highly susceptible to intervention, appearing only when the right combination of factors appears. Suppose then it is possible to synthesise an obstacle to one of the factors. That seems feasible. **Baffle**? I’m baffled. ---
**Author:** ![Anduril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Anduril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduril)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/31 "2007-03-20T19:56:35Z")
[QUOTE=Sevastopol] Why? It seems to me equally valid to suppose there is a single or a few causative factors in the biology. [/QUOTE] In the same way that other personality traits are deemed to be polygenic, i.e. intelligence, extroversion, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/32 "2007-03-20T20:59:12Z")
[QUOTE=Sevastopol] **Baffle**? I’m baffled. [/QUOTE] How else would you define an effort to wipe out gays entirely? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/33 "2007-03-20T21:11:53Z")
> [@Malodorous](#): > > 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.] > [QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] > So there would be an epidemic of exploding brains? 😃 [/quote] Now _that_ would solve some of society’s problems… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/34 "2007-03-20T21:36:43Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] How else would you define an effort to wipe out gays entirely? [/QUOTE] Only applies if the plan is to kill them, not if the plan is to “cure” them. If Hitler had decided to foster all Jewish babies to gentile German families, so as to eliminate the Jewish **culture** and nothing else, that would not have been genocide. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/35 "2007-03-20T21:41:40Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Only applies if the plan is to kill them, not if the plan is to “cure” them. If Hitler had decided to foster all Jewish babies to gentile German families, so as to eliminate the Jewish **culture** and nothing else, that would not have been genocide. [/QUOTE] [Genocide](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/genocide): the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or **cultural** group. Emphasis mine, of course. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/36 "2007-03-20T23:11:23Z")
A highly concentrated amount of concerted foolishness. ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413/37 "2007-03-20T23:17:51Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] [Genocide](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/genocide): the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or **cultural** group. Emphasis mine, of course. [/QUOTE] Not what the OP is talking about. It’s a long step from making a cure available to forcing people to use it inorder to inact their elimination. And even if the cure _was_ forced, I’m not sure it counts. I read “extermination” in your definition as “killing”. I think thats how most people think of genocide. If you convince all the Jews in the world to convert, you haven’t comited genocide, eventhough you’ve effectively destroyed their cultural group. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-a-concerted-effort-to-cure-homosexuality-actually-accomplish/396413.md?page=1)