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Interesting that those still demanding studies have completely ignored these posted earlier:
How do you think gay people were able to "choose" the way their brains developed in utero?
Sexual orientation and its basis in brain structure and function.
Current evidence indicates that sexual differentiation of the human brain occurs during fetal and neonatal development and programs our gender identity—our feeling of being male or female and our sexual orientation as hetero-, homo-, or bisexual. This sexual differentiation process is accompanied by many structural and functional brain differences among these groups. http://www.pnas.org/content/105/30/10273.full.pdf
Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex
Brain scans have provided the most compelling evidence yet that being gay or straight is a biologically fixed trait. The scans reveal that in gay people, key structures of the brain governing emotion, mood, anxiety and aggressiveness resemble those in straight people of the opposite sex.
The differences are likely to have been forged in the womb or in early infancy, says Ivanka Savic, who conducted the study at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
"This is the most robust measure so far of cerebral differences between homosexual and heterosexual subjects," she says.
Previous studies have also shown differences in brain architecture and activity between gay and straight people, but most relied on people's responses to sexuality driven cues that could have been learned, such as rating the attractiveness of male or female faces.
Brain symmetry
To get round this, Savic and her colleague, Per Lindström, chose to measure brain parameters likely to have been fixed at birth.
"That was the whole point of the study, to show parameters that differ, but which couldn't be altered by learning or cognitive processes," says Savic.
PET and MRI show differences in cerebral asymmetry and functional connectivity between homo- and heterosexual subjects
The present study shows sex-atypical cerebral asymmetry and functional connections in homosexual subjects. The results cannot be primarily ascribed to learned effects, and they suggest a linkage to neurobiological entities. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/06/13/0801566105.full.pdf+html
During the intrauterine period the human brain develops in the male direction via direct action of a boy's testosterone, and in the female direction through the absence of this hormone in a girl. During this time, gender identity (the feeling of being a man or a woman), sexual orientation, and other behaviors are programmed.
As sexual differentiation of the genitals takes places in the first 2 months of pregnancy, and sexual differentiation of the brain starts during the second half of pregnancy, these two processes may be influenced independently of each other, resulting in transsexuality. This also means that in the case of an ambiguous gender at birth, the degree of masculinization of the genitals may not reflect the same degree of masculinization of the brain.
Even after all of that, do you mean to suggest that we are animals and can't control who we are intimate with? It's the behavior that is immoral--not the desires.
Even after all of that, do you mean to suggest that we are animals and can't control who we are intimate with? It's the behavior that is immoral--not the desires.
Who said anything about "controlling who we are intimate with"?
This thread is about some people calling homosexuality a "lifestyle choice" when it's obvious that sexual orientation is somethimg that is innate and is not a choice.
What's immoral about an adult choosing to be with another adult they fall in love with?
What's immoral about 2 adults falling in love and having a relationship?
Can you say it isn't?
Honestly though...morality aside, the original point of this thread is to question if it's a "trait" or a "choice". It's clearly a choice that people choose to engage in or not.
Honestly though...morality aside, the original point of this thread is to question if it's a "trait" or a "choice". It's clearly a choice that people choose to engage in or not.
there is no 'it' to engage in. a sexual orientation isn't a behavior. yet for some reason only our sexual orientation is discussed in this way by people who don't have it. I rarely ever see people who are homosexual, saying, 'it is clearly a choice that people engage in it or not when talking about heterosexuality.'
Obviously you're one of those people who think homosexuals are hypersexual, when we're no more sexual than you are.
there is no 'it' to engage in. a sexual orientation isn't a behavior. yet for some reason only our sexual orientation is discussed in this way by people who don't have it. I rarely ever see people who are homosexual, saying, 'it is clearly a choice that people engage in it or not when talking about heterosexuality.'
Obviously you're one of those people who think homosexuals are hypersexual, when we're no more sexual than you are.
If you're telling me that you can't control yourself and you're just some animal that hops on the nearest gay person you can find....then yes...it's not a choice and you're hypersexual.
On the other hand, if you're like anyone else, and you can choose whom you're intimate with and who you're not...then it's a choice--just like the choices any hetero man goes through.
I honestly don't care who you're attracted to or what you do behind closed doors.
Why is it immoral? Why is it immoral for me to have sex with the man I love?
As I pointed out above, this is a deviation from the OP's point. Go start a thread and we'll discuss it.
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