The Gay Brain and The War Against It.
I wrote previously about a recent study that found differences between the brains of straight and gay individuals. There’s a Slate piece on the same study that goes beyond the Time article I quoted.
So, what’s the common factor? If the study’s design rules out learned influences, and if the results in women rule out genetics, that leaves what the authors call “hormonal influences” or noncognitive differences in the infant environment. According to the Guardian, the same research team has “begun another study to investigate brain symmetry in newborn babies, to see if it can be used to predict their future sexual orientation.” If it can, that will scratch postnatal factors off the list, and the search will narrow to hormones in the womb. Already, the authors point to evidence that homosexuality may be caused by “under-exposure to prenatal androgens” in males and “over-exposure” in females.
There’s the “more research” I was hoping for. It would be wonderful if we could determine whether the brain differences are present at birth or if they form later in life.
But here comes the part that broaches the concern many LGBT people have even in their quest for proof that being gay is innate; the fact that our opponents will do all they can to eradicate it medically, even if it means doing so in the womb. They continue to see us as a flaw, a defect, and still wish to wipe us out at any cost.
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Would hormonal intervention work in humans? Should we try it? Some thinkers are intrigued. Last year, the Rev. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote: “If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use.” Mohler told the Associated Press that morally, this would be no different from curing fetal blindness or any other “medical problem.” The Rev. Joseph Fessio, editor of the press that publishes the pope’s work, agreed: “Same-sex activity is considered disordered. If there are ways of detecting diseases or disorders of children in the womb … that respected the dignity of the child and mother, it would be a wonderful advancement of science.”If the idea of chemically suppressing homosexuality in the womb horrifies you, I have bad news: You won’t be in the room when it happens. Parents control medical decisions, and surveys indicate that the vast majority of them would be upset to learn that their child was gay. Already, millions are screening embryos and fetuses to eliminate those of the “wrong” sex. Do you think they won’t screen for the “wrong” sexual orientation, too?
Liberals are slow to see what’s coming. They’re still fighting the culture war. The Toronto Star, like other papers, finds a neuroscientist who thinks the new study “should erode the moral judgments often made against homosexual preferences and rebut any argument that it is a mere a lifestyle choice.” Well, yes. But then what? The reduction of homosexuality to neurobiology doesn’t mean your sexual orientation can’t be controlled. It just means the person controlling it won’t be you.
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I’ve seen it coming for some time now. What, with the “ex-gay” movement’s ferocity I knew in a heartbeat that if a biological cause were found for homosexuality the first thing the RRRW would do would be to work on a scientific “cure” for it. If they embraced science for one reason only it would be to rid the world of gay people. I daresay some of them, the most extreme ones, might even give up their anti-abortion stance if it was predicted a fetus was to be born gay. Radical thoughts, yes, but after what I’ve heard and read from some of the more virulent anti-gay contingent I don’t think I’m that far off base.
Addendum. A comment has arrived. Ebon said:
This stuff always pisses me off. if there’s one reason above all others that I hate the Religious Reich, it’s the perversion of science. If we do find a biological basis for homosexuality and if that biological basis can be manipulated (lot of “if”s there), it still doesn’t mean that we should do it.
All the things that could be done with that kind of technology and they’re fixated on eliminating something that doesn’t even cause any harm? WTF? All the applications research like that could have and the idiots are fixated on narrowing the wondrous variety of humanity down to a dull little box of vanilla. How limited, how insulting, how small a world.
Indeed. It just proves once again that they don’t, as they say, “love the sinner but hate the sin”. They truly hate gay people, for why else would they seek to completely eradicate us by any means possible? (If the language and propaganda they use to demonize us wasn’t enough to convince skeptics this certainly should.)
I can’t help but wonder why I’m always reminded of the eugenics movement when it comes to these people…
Kevin said:
Long ago when arguing with some fundie that people were born gay or straight he cameback and said that violent criminals are said to be born that way, does that mean society should let them rampage and hurt whoever they want?
That’s when I realized it just doesn’t matter if science finds an answer to this, politically and socially people have a right to be gay no matter where it came from.
And I agree that those so inflamed over gayness will stop at nothing to stop it if they can, including manipulating the fetus in the womb or even abortion of a gay fetus though they find abortion abhorrent.
Over the years I’ve found there is no logic with these people, just pure, raw emotion, and they can find a way to justify any kind of action. Lying for Jesus is a noble thing to them.
If I had a dollar for every time homosexuality had been compared to murder, rape, theft and the like I’d be rich. Filthy rich. I’m disgusted the way we get likened to literal criminals who commit harmful acts against others, but then look who’s doing the comparisons. It’s not as if they’re a font of compassion or integrity. Then after they spew lies about us they turn around and plot to harm us. Par for the course, really.
The Radical Realist said:
I f***ing love the hypocrisy of that baptist fool. Despite the horror of the possibility of eliminating gay people via the womb, I’m practically rolling on the floor laughing at the hypocrisy. According to his twisted logic, it’s not okay to f*** with god’s will when a poor meth head with 4 kids becomes pregnant with another one, or when a person has been a vegetable for 12 years; yet it is okay to f*** with his will to eradicate homosexuals when it satisfies your irrational fear and hatred of gays. Nice.
Pure comedy.
All life is sacred from the moment of conception, don’t you know, unless that life is L,G,B or T. Then it needs to be “fixed”. Paging Dr. Mengele.
