 GO BACK   Born For Love
02.28.05 Joseph Epstein, noted essayist and author, once wrote, "All men and women are born, live suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live." He's right, of course. Life is all about choices. Every day we make myriad choices, from the mundane (What will I eat for breakfast?), to the momentous (Should I come out?). In 1970, Epstein caused a firestorm of controversy when he wrote a cover story for Harper's magazine titled: "Homo/Hetero: The Struggle For Sexual Identity." In the article, Epstein wrote: "If I had the power to do so, I would wish homosexuality off the face of this earth." He went on to say, "I do think homosexuality an anathema, and hence homosexuals cursed, and thus the importance, for me if for no one else, of my defining a homosexual as someone who has physical relations, for it leaves room for my admiration for the man who is pulled toward homosexuality and resists, at what psychic price I cannot hope even to begin to imagine." In other words, if you "give in" to the pull of homosexuality, you are cursed, but if you resist that choice then you're okay. Despite the fact that Epstein is a proud Jewish man, this is a common belief held by many in the Religious Right. They believe that homosexuality is a choice. This belief is at the core of the debate over gay rights. Should gays be allowed to marry? Should gays be protected from discrimination? Is being gay a sin? It all boils down to one question: Is being gay a choice? There is no definitive answer to this, but a growing body of scientific evidence may be pointing to a genetic or, at the very least, biological basis for sexual orientation. According to the American Psychological Association's website, "There are numerous theories about the origins of a person's sexual orientation; most scientists today agree that sexual orientation is most likely the result of a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factors. In most people, sexual orientation is shaped at an early age. There is also considerable recent evidence to suggest that biology, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person's sexuality. In summary, it is important to recognize that there are probably many reasons for a person's sexual orientation and the reasons may be different for different people." As reported in New Scientist, a study from Oregon Health and Science University in 2002 found that the brains of gay sheep (and apparently as many as one in ten sheep express exclusively gay sexual preferences) showed small but distinct differences in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus when compared with rams that preferred to mate with ewes. The difference was in a particular region of the hypothalamus - the preoptic nucleus. The region is generally almost twice as large in rams as in ewes, but in gay rams, its size was almost identical to that in "straight" females. These findings matched those of the neuroscientist Simon LeVay in his studies of the brains of gay men. His work has always been considered controversial, partly because the brains he studied were mostly from men who had died of AIDS. So it was not clear whether the differences were related to the disease or to sexual orientation. The results of the sheep study would indicate that the differences in fact were related to orientation. In a separate study released in 2004, a group of Italian geneticists led by Andrea Camperio-Ciani of the University of Padua may have provided the answer to one of the greatest paradoxes of homosexuality: the Darwinian dead-end. How can homosexuality be genetic when gay men don't have children? The researchers' findings suggest that the same genetic factors--as yet unidentified--linked to homosexuality in men may also be linked to increased fertility in women. “This is a novel finding," Dr. LeVay said. “We think of it as genes for ‘male homosexuality’, but it might really be genes for sexual attraction to men. These could predispose men towards homosexuality and women towards ‘hyper-heterosexuality’, causing women to have more sex with men and thus have more offspring.” Twin studies have also revealed some strong evidence for a biological basis. J. Michael Bailey and Richard Pillard studied the gayness between monozygotic (or identical) twins, dizygotic (or fraternal) twins, and non-related adopted brothers. They found that 52% of identical twins were both self-identified homosexuals, 22% of fraternal twins were gay, and only 5% of non-related adopted brothers were so. Bailey and Pillard repeated the study with the same results and later experiments found similar evidence in females. These studies seem to conclusively demonstrate that there is at least some genetic component that leads to the development of homosexuality. However, it is important to note that none of these studies suggests that there is a single "gay gene." In fact, they all seem to indicate a more likely scenario of numerous genetic and environmental influences. It's also important to realize that none of these studies can be considered conclusive. Much more research needs to be done, but science seems to be pointing towards biological factors in determining our sexuality. Is being gay a choice? Only in the sense that, while we may not make the choice to be attracted to the same sex, we do make choices about whether we act on those attractions or not. We choose whether we will live our lives honestly or in the closet. We choose whether to love as our hearts desire or to deny an integral part of who we are. Are we born gay? Maybe a better question would be are we born to love? Benjamin Disraeli once said, "We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end." If we don’t have a choice in who we love, is it really a choice at all? Ellen Buzz | | News / Misc Page 5 | News / Misc Page 4 | News / Misc page 3 | News / Misc page 2 | | Return Home | Klick N Read | Monthly Calendar | SYM Calendar | Venue Photos | SYM Photos | News/ Misc | Great Links | Valentino's | FAQ Page | Contact Us | |
||