Homosexuality & biological factors
Every year, acceptance for the LGBTQ community girls around the world. While there are only a handful of countries that recognize gay people as equal in the eyes of the law and society, many of these countries allow gay people from other countries to seek safety and shelter. Hopefully, within the next ten to twelve years, there will be even more countries and societies that accept gay people.
But acceptance and understanding are two different concepts and should not be mistaken for each other. While many people accept gay people into their lives, we still do not understand how gay people are different from straight people. What makes a person gay, and what makes them straight? Is there anything a woman can do to influence the sexuality of her child while they are in her womb? Let's find out.
Why are gay people gay?
The scientific community has been asking this question since the 1940s and even before that. Before queer acceptance came about in the 1960s, many therapists and psychologists considered homosexuality to be a form of deviancy, like pedophilia. Gay men were routinely thrown into prison and charged with sodomy. Women who were lesbians or bisexuals were not considered to be gay in some societies.
To some psychologists, lesbianism was a form of female hysteria, so these women were forced to go to mental hospitals and take drugs or under electroshock therapy.
So what makes men or women gay or lesbian? The answer is: we truly do not know yet. Scientists can only conclude that there is a multitude of biological and environmental factors that can turn someone gay or straight. But there is no conclusive concrete evidence yet. All that we know is that great people are the largest sexual population by far.
If there are any biological reasons why a gay person is gay, the best place to start would be in the room. As a fetus forms in the uterus, it is influenced by the food the mother eats, the adjusting toxins in the mother's body, the quality of air the mother breathes, if the mother is an active smoker or drinker, and any other medications or substances that their mother consumes.
But drinking and eating fast food or healthy food is no way to predict if your child is going to be there or not.
Is there a gay gene?
Oh, for fuck's sake, no, no, there is no gay gene. Every five years or so, some stupid news network decides to run the story that a scientist may have found a gay or lesbian gene. The story will also claim that if scientists inspected a gay person's DNA, they would find the gene. This is not true, it has never been true, and it will never be true. Not only is this new story a waste of time, but it is also a harmful myth to perpetuate.
This article's denial of the existence of the gay gene is not due to political correctness. Several scientific studies designed to find genetic markers that influence heterosexuality or homosexuality as an individual have been attempted, and all have failed.
One study, known as the world's largest study to find the genetic factors that influence sexuality, found five areas in the human genome that can cause homosexual behavior.
Still, none of them were common enough or liable enough to accurately predict if a person who had these active genes would be gay or not. This means that while a few genetic factors influence a person's sexuality, there is no underlying single gay gene that will accurately predict when a person is gay, lesbian, or bisexual. The study included the sequenced genomes of over 500,000 people, which is an excellent sample size to conduct a scientific study.
The study leader, whose name is Andrea Donna, found it almost 25% of all sexuality can be explained by genetics, and the rest of the factors can be attributed to culture or environment. But this was not new information as several smaller studies also confirmed the same findings.
Why do some people thinking being gay is a choice?
If they are religious, they view homosexuality as a sin, and sin is always a choice. For example John Pavlovitz, pastor and writer from North Carolina said: Yes, Homosexuality Absolutely Is a Choice. Multiple religious texts condemn homosexuality, especially male homosexuality. When doing this paper, we were surprised to learn that not many old texts condemned lesbianism.
It might be because women having sex is technically not regarded as sex as it is not penetrative. If religious people regard sin as a choice that must be resistant, and their religious text also says that homosexuality is a sin, they can conclude that homosexuality is a choice and gay people should not give in to temptation.
They will also twist the valid sexuality of bisexuality and apply it to gays and lesbians. This is their reasoning: if a bisexual can choose to have sex with people of their same gender or their opposite gender, why can't a gay person sex with a woman or a lesbian have sex with a man?
Some people regard being gay is a choice because they are in denial of their own sexuality or are paranoid about having gay thoughts. Let me explain. If a man who believes that being gay is a choice sees an attractive man and realizes that he is attractive, they may think that they are experiencing what a gay man goes through when they are attracted to another man.
They will then squash that feeling, which then reinforces that being gay is a choice. But just because a straight person sees an attractive person of the opposite gender, it does not mean that they're gay.
Or, it could be that the person is gay and is in denial because They see themselves as straight, and they do not want to change the image of themselves that they have in their mind. While this doesn't happen often, it is possible.
But that does not mean that every person who is a homophobe is secretly in the closet.
There's also very toxic thinking that a gay man or a lesbian has not had the right type of sex with the opposite gender, and that is why they are homosexual. This line of reasoning goes on to surmise that if lesbians had great sex with a man, she would realize that she's not truly a lesbian, and if a gay man had great sex with a woman, then he would not be gay.
This type of thinking is very old and homophobic and fortunately leads to a terrible practice called corrective rape.
Corrective rape is when a gay person is raped by someone of the opposite gender in order to show them the right way to have sex. This is a practice in many countries, and yes, it is absolutely awful.
So what does influence if a child is going to be gay or not?
One study revealed that if a mother has more male children than female children, one of her male children is more likely to be gay than if a mother had more female children than male children. In the largest sexuality study mentioned above, there were only five areas of the genome related to if a person developed non-heterosexual sexuality. So we know that there are some markers in the human genome but no all-encompassing gay gene.
Is there an evolutionary advantage to having gay people?
So why do we say homosexuality can be attributed in some way to evolution? It is because there are over 450 documented species that show some form of homosexuality. This means that either the animal engages in sexual behavior with an animal of their same-sex or forms long-lasting homosexual or lesbian relationships.
Animals that show strong homosexual traits are more likely to only hang out with animals of their own gender. They're also less likely to go into heat, some homosexual animals become heterosexual while they are in heat, but once he is over, they want nothing to do with the opposite gender. Some homosexual animals go into heat and seek out their gender.
So what does this mean? One scientific paper hypothesizes why homosexuality evolved as sexuality was to prevent overpopulation and create unattached adult animals. These gay animals could then help feed newborns.
In regards to preventing overpopulation, this is especially helpful during times of famine when groups or packs of animals cannot find enough food to sustain everyone. If homosexual animals of the group had their own litter, it would put an excessive strain on the group of animals or the mother as they now have more mouths to feed.
But since homosexual animals are likely to have their own offspring, there are fewer mouths to feed. So this means that there's more food to go around.
Also, unattached adult animals that live in groups or packs can assist with finding food. Since they don't have offspring of their own, any food that they find that would have been destined for their offspring is now available for the other newborns in the pack. So not only is there more meat, but now there are fewer mouths to feed. So these circumstances will improve the likelihood that the pack will live.
What is the theory of bisexuality?
There are several theories that hypothesize why some women are bisexual. Why would a woman evolve to want to have sex with both a man and a woman? One of the main theories, which is also the oldest theory, is that since there are more women than men in a group or a tribe of people, a woman's sexuality changed so that a man could have two wives at once.
This way, the man is twice as likely to have offspring that is his, and the women will have no problem sharing the husband because they're also attracted to the other wife.
But this is a very male-centered way of thinking. Speaking of men, what about male bisexuality? For a very long time, scientists did not believe that men could be truly bisexual. After all, what is the evolutionary advantage of a man wanted to have sex with both men and women?
That loaded question has yet to be answered, but a massive study conducted in 2019 finally concluded that bisexual men are truly 100% bisexual. We definitely already knew that but we apparently need a scientist to tell us, or else it doesn't really exist.
According to the high ranking scientist who conducted the study, bisexual men are more aroused at the sight of an attractive man than a straight man is. They are also more aroused at the sight of an attractive woman than a straight woman is. So, that is one way to confirm their bisexuality. According to the same study, a bisexual person will rate on a 3,4, or 5 on the Kinsey scale, which is in the middle of the scale.
Conclusion
Whether we discover the genetic reasons why a person is gay, lesbian, or bisexual or not, the LGBTQ community is here to stay, and they should be treated with the respect they deserve as human beings. They should never be told that their sexuality is wrong or that pollution or a disability caused them to be gay.
Gay people, lesbians, asexual people, transgender people, and non-binary people have existed since the first group of human beings evolved from our ancestors.
They have always been with us, and they have had certain important roles in different cultures and societies. The LGBTQ community deserves all of the civil rights that straight people receive, and they also require anti-discrimination laws to protect them from bigots and uneducated people who see them as lesser because of who they love and have sex with.
Gay men and women have contributed to our modern-day society in many disciplines, fields, and studies.
Remember, when it comes down to it, the biological factors that make us who we are do not matter. It is only the content of your heart that shows who you truly are.