Is homosexual behavior learned or is it genetics?
It has been an ongoing debate whether homosexuality is genetics or a learned behavior. Sexual orientation is usually explained as a characteristic of the individual, such as biological sex, gender identity, or age. This is only partially true because sexual orientation must have something to do with relationships with other individuals. There are three main sexual orientations: heterosexual, bisexual and homosexual. Heterosexuality means that the individual is sexually attracted to and aroused by members of the opposite sex. Bisexuality means that the individual is aroused and sexually attracted to members of both sexes and homosexuality is when an individual is aroused and sexually attracted by the same sex. The feelings of sexual desire and arousal can began as young as early childhood. Homosexuality not only affects the individual, but everyone around them as well. Homosexuality has been around for many years but has never been socially accepted.
Homosexuality is a sexual orientation that affects about 10% of our society today (Kranz and Cusick). It has been around for centuries and is surfacing more now than ever before. Research on homosexuality and the foundations for it, whether it is biological or environmental, continue to be done. Though many people believe to know the answer to this age old debate there still is much speculation, but not much research being done to further clarify the issue of whether homosexuality is a born characteristic or is it a decision being made by the individual.
Psychologists were one of the first to study homosexuality as a sexual orientation. In the late 19th century European sexologists attempted to label homosexuality as a disease. T...
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The topic of homosexuality and whether or not an individual’s sexual preference is decided by genetics before the person is even born is one that will remain in discussion for the foreseeable future. Psychologists and other experts in the field of psychology have done research, tests and twin studies to try and find out if homosexuality is a choice, or maybe if it’s something that’s learned and/or decided during the younger years of one’s life. I disagree with the speculation that homosexuality is something that a person has no control over. I do believe that certain genes may contribute to homosexuality and may make the probability of a person being attracted to the same sex more likely. The research I’ve done on this topic has changed my opinion about homosexual behavior, but I am still not convinced that it is completely a matter of choice.
Homosexuality is a product of biology because according to research, the hormones of the females are stronger. Dr. Hamer states that sexual orientation, male homosexuality is genetically influenced. This is passed down through their mothers to the hormone of their offspring. Sexual identity is wired into the genes, which discounts the concept that homosexuality and transgender sexuality are a choice. Since sexual differentiation occurs within the womb, as a result of hormonal influences, it has been hypothesized that homosexuality may result from differential hormone balance in the wombs of those who eventually exhibit a homosexual orientation. According to a study, the question is whether homosexual practice changes the brain or whether the brain results in homosexual practice. According to Dr. Hamer, male homosexuality might be linked to a set of five DNA sequences located on the Xq28 region of the X chromosome. Therefore, if homosexual orientAtion were completely genetic, one would expect that it would not change over the course of one's life.
Sexual orientation is a term used to describe a person’s physical, sexual, and romantic attraction to another person, whether they be Male or Female. The term is relatively new and the idea of having a homosexual identity has only been around for one-hundred years at the most (APA).
I chose this topic because there is an issue of homophobia around the world. I find it interesting as to why people are homosexual, and if there is a gene responsible for this or if it can be developed later in life. This area of research directly relates to the age old question of “nature Vs. nurture”.
In most cultures, lesbianism occurs prior to heterosexual marriages. These facts were gathered by Faderman in 1981. Female-female romantic relationships were found in European communities since the 17th century through the early 20th century after studying the fiction and poetry written during this period (Burn, 2004). Today, many societies view bisexuality and homosexuality as a sickness. The societies deny their existence entirely. However, biologists and psychologists believe that both are mere instances of many human variations. After successful lobbying by gay and lesbian political organizations in 1974, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) eliminated homosexuality from its list of mental disorder. The APA now takes the position that homos...
Sexual orientation is a topic scientists spend a great deal of time researching, however it is unclear what factors really have an effect on one’s sexual orientation. The role of biology, culture, socialization, and age contribute to the influences of sexual orientation.
What controls a human's sexual orientation? The long-standing debate of nature versus nurture can be extended to explaining human sexual orientation. Is it biological or environmental? The biological explanation has been gaining popularity amongst the scientific community although it is only based on speculations. It is argued that sexual orientation is linked to factors that occur during sexual differentiation. The prenatal exposure to androgens and their affect on the development of the human brain play a pivotal role in sexual orientation (2). Heredity is also part of the debate. Does biology merely provide the slate of neural circuitry upon which sexual orientation is inscribed? Do biological factors directly wire the brain so that it will support a particular orientation? Or do biological factors influence sexual orientation only indirectly?
The first possible cause of homosexuality is genetic factors. Homosexuality is a trait from birth (Buchanan, 2000). Studies found that identical twins share many common traits. A study found that identical twins normally share homosexual behavior if one of them is homosexual. This proved that genes are likely to cause homosexuality. In addition, according to (Santinover, 2002), homosexuality is a heritable behavior. Based on heritability studies, almost any human trait is heritable including the homosexual behavior. He stated that behavioral genes are found in specific chromosome. Thus, the behavior is obviously heritable. Moreover, Italian University of Padova (2004) believes that homosexual trait is passed from mother to male offspring by natural ...
Though many researchers will agree that homosexuality is not genetic, still, others beg to differ. HRC.org published an article entitled “Guide to Coming Out,” the article states ‘sexuality and gender identity are not choices any more than being left-handed or having brown eyes or being heterosexual are choices…The choice is in deciding how to live your life.’ With society always shoving their view into the minds of Americans second of everyday, it is not that hard to see where the confusion arises.
”There are numerous theories about the origins of a person's sexual orientation…orientation is most likely the result of a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factor …there are probably many reasons for a person's sexual orientation and the reasons may be different for different people.” (“Sexual Orientation & Homosexuality”)
Somerville, Siobhan. "Scientific Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 284-99. Print.
“All men are created equal, No matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words,” Harvey Milk. A homosexual, as defined by the dictionary, is someone of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex. Homosexuality is ethical, and I will provide rational arguments for, and irrational arguments against the topic. A few objections are as follows: It is forbidden in the Bible and frowned upon by God; It is unnatural; Men and women are needed to reproduce; There are no known examples in nature; and the most common argument that concerns homosexuality is whether it is a choice or human biology.
Even though it is against nature, some individuals are born with complete desire to same sex. Abraham Verghese in his article A fresh look at homosexuality said, “While welcoming and agreeing with a positive perception of homosexuality, it is difficult to accept the position that homosexuality is a normal psychosexual development. A normal variant cannot be considered completely normal. It is, in fact, an aberration in the psychosexual development, caused by genetic and psychosocial factors for which the person is not responsible. There are research findings, which suggest that there are structural differences in the brains of people with homosexual orientation.”(qdt pg 1) This quote proves the claim of having a different biological format for homosexuals from any normal heterosexual. These cases are completely helpless and have nothing to do with being homosexuals; it is a natural stimulus that they were born with. Therefore in such cases, it is critical to understand that they have no control over their unnatural
Listed as nothing more than a footnote in Kinsey's 1948 path breaking volume Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, category X represents the sexual minority known as asexuals, who, according to Kinsey's original description, are people who experience "no socio-sexual response” (Kinsey 658). In the time since Kinsey published this work, however, the asexual community has come to describe themselves as pe...
In order to discuss the biology of gender identity and sexual orientation, it is necessary to first examine the differences between multiple definitions that are often mistakenly interchanged: sex, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Sexual orientation is defined by LeVay (2011) as “the trait that predisposes us to experience sexual attraction to people of the same sex as ourselves, to persons of the other sex, or to both sexes” (p. 1). The typical categories of sexual orientation are homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual. Vrangalova and Savin-Williams (2012) found that most people identify as heterosexual, but there are also groups of people that identify as mostly heterosexual and mostly gay within the three traditional categories (p. 89). This is to say that there are not three concrete groups, but sexual orientation is a continuum and one can even fluctuate on it over time. LeVay (2011) also defines gender as “the ...
The sexual orientation of a person has been a critical debate over the past several centuries. For several...