22 May 2006
The Origins of Homosexuality
Some of my proto-thoughts posted in a comment to this post over at my buddy TRJ's blog.
Quoting what I wrote there:
Regardless of why and how -- and why and how are interesting questions, no? -- aren't what and how interesting, too? Maybe more interesting, in some ways.
I'm gay, what do I do?
I'm not gay, how do I act regarding people who are gay?
There are gay people in this world, what do we do? How do we do it?
Quoting what I wrote there:
(1) There's a genetic component to both male and female homosexuality. Almost certainly.Like I said: Proto-thoughts.
(2) There's an in-utero environmental component, too. Effects of masculinizing hormones probably, almost certainly?, have a role in all this.
(3) There's a cultural developmental component. You ever read those studies about tamed foxes, and how they exhibited all kinds of external and behavioral traits -- color schemes, sounds -- that aren't observed in foxes in the wild. The thinking is that the lack of stress allows certain genetic components to get expressed that ordinarily wouldn't get expressed under the more stressful conditions of the wild.
Tie those three together into one knot, and you get gayness that's genetically predispostioned, brought into play by certain interuterine conditions (birth order can have an impact here, but it's statistical, not deterministic), with certain cultural developmental levels necessary for the genetic predisposition [enabled by the exposure to masculinizing hormones -- just added this here] to occur.
Regardless of why and how -- and why and how are interesting questions, no? -- aren't what and how interesting, too? Maybe more interesting, in some ways.
I'm gay, what do I do?
I'm not gay, how do I act regarding people who are gay?
There are gay people in this world, what do we do? How do we do it?
