What Do You Think Of These Breakthrough Findings By Scientists On What Makes Gay People Gay?

Question

This very interesting documentary that aired recently on 60 Minutes on CBS and you can look at clips from it here http://60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/68/gay_or_straight

When you do give your comments on it in relation to your spiritual beliefs etc.

I'd appreciate serious answers from those who have seen it please.
No rants or cut and pastes.
Thank you.

With paricular reference to the little children who displayed gay tendencies as early as 18 months, have YOU ever come across a kid that young and observed they were unusually masculine for a girl or feminine for a boy?

If your kid displayed those qualities at that age would you let them be themselves or try to force them to act differently?

Do you think it would change their orientation?

Chick-a-dee, you should know that your friends experiences are not typical of the majority of gay people.
Most gay people were never molested and many lesbians had great father-daughter relationships. So scientifically, there has to be a CONTROL, if it is not true of ALL then it cannot be considered a cause.

Esther, I am trying to understand. You say that when science does not agree with the bible, you choose the bible. But if you or your friend or relative had leprosy (Hanson's Disease) would you use the biblical cure in Leviticus or the scientific cure discovered by modern medicine?

The bible was written 2000 years ago by men, don't you think that on MANY levels it reflect the knowledge of THAT age and we have discovered so many new things since then?

Answer 1

I found the part about the hormones fascinating, especially the experiments on rats and making male rats accept mating from other male rats by making them produce less male hormones.

Listen, I am Chrisitan but I am not a fundamentalist or bible worshiper. I follow Christ and really things like this do not bother me or disturb my faith the way it does for some Christians. They will ALWAYS be at odds with science because they are literalists. If tomorrow, we discovered how to travel through time or made some other major breakthrough that shifted our paradigm completely, these narrow minded Christians will have a crisis of faith.

The bible is indeed inspired by God, but it is not infallible and it reflects MANY man-made ideals and the limited knowledge of that age. I do not expect that a book will literally cover EVERYTHING we have discovered in the last 2000 years and will continue to discover about our bodies, minds, planet in the future.

Many Christians use the bible like a perfect rule book and a prediction of God's mind on everything and everyone. I don't. The bible's most important function is to point you to Christ and it is Christ who I follow as the only true WORD. Christ says we must treat our neighbor as we would like to be treated. He says this commandment fulfills EVERYTHING else. So basically, everything else is just commentary really.

Let me tell you, MANY Christians who claim to be pious break this commandment all the time in relation to their gay brothers and sisters.

Answer 2

Dear Pixie Pagan, I did not have to watch this segment to know exactle what you were talking about because my grad. class studied this very topic at my university. (I did watch the segment tho ) :) this is a very controversial subject both scientifically and religiously, which in fact both are passionate subjects for me.
First of all there is scientific evidence it the hypothalamus of the brain that does give us some medical clues on being gay or straight. The hypothalamus is like the chemical control center between the brain and the pituitary gland in the body which controls all chemical and nervous system activity.
In the hypothalamus, there is a distinct difference in size between men and women due to the differences in hormonal activity when sexual differentiation occurs as a fetus. In 1989, during the AIDS controversies, thousand of gay, straight and bisexual victims donated their bodies t to try to understand the disease. In the process, naturally they were interested in sexual orientation as a factor.
What researchers found is that in the straight men, the hypothalamus was smaller in size than in them than in the straight women due to testosterone and progesterone. That led them to look at the same regions of the brain in the gay men and women, and in about 90% of them the gay men had larger, and the gay women had the smaller hypothalamic size.
Now, this all suggests that yes, it is a biological issue and yes, Im sure some do just choose to be, but for me personally it just simplifies the dilema of being gay and explains alot especially in the case of transgender persons and refers directly to your clip.
Our bodies are very complex and there are still so much medically to be explained especially when it comes to hormones and how they affect who we are and how we behave.
Personally, I do not believe God makes mistakes and I do not believe that makes a person a sinner if he/she is gay. What I do believe is that people need to be who they are without a mere fellow human hating them for that.
I have seen enough both under the microscope and in real life to know how perfectly gods work makes us unique and we cannot continue being ignorant to that.
Hope this helps :)

Answer 3

Sadly, it won't make one bit of difference if science is able to completely prove that gay people have no choice in the matter.

Those who wish to see people who happen to be gay as some type of abomination will still do so.

Proving that there is no choice involved will have as much affect on the religious hatred as the facts about evolution have on Creationism.

All we can hope for is that the laws will be changed to reflect fairness instead of hatred and intolerance. The minds of the haters aren't open to change.

Answer 4

What disturbs me is Albert Mossler's column about how if we could detect the gene, he would support gene screening to eliminate the "Gay Gene." Here is someone who refuses to "play God" in terms of cloning or stem-cell research, jumping on the first chance he has to discriminate against gay people, Genetically no less.

At first I thought this might shut people up when they realized it was just a genetic thing, that being gay was not a choice. Then i read that, and got scared all over again.

Answer 5

Most of it is quite logical... the stereotyping "gaydar" clip was a bit tedious from my perspective considering there are a LOT of "femme" identifying lesbians who don't posture like men, etc. so that part was "off" to me, but the science was interesting and something I've been familiar with for YEARS based on studies being done in Europe, etc..

_()_

Answer 6

If by Samurai battle, you mean use your penis's as swords and hit them against each other, it is weird, but not gay. Gay is when you are attracted to other men.

Answer 7

I feel that my spiritual beliefs are not pertinent to my being Gay relative to the information on the 60 Minutes piece.
There are some who will say, "If it's hormonal, there's no way it could be a sin."
There are some who will say, "If it's hormonal, we can change it with drugs, and if they don't want the drugs, then they'll be committing a sin by CHOOSING to be Gay."
And there are others, like me, who say, "Whether or not it's nature or nurture, I'm Gay, and that's the way it is."
Essentially, I have no spiritual problem with being Gay.

Answer 8

Once again science debunks another religious claim.
People do not choose who they are attracted to.

People may choose to come out and live as a gay person, but they do not choose to be gay.

Any straight person who says being gay is a choice is admitting that they can have gay sex and enjoy it.

Answer 9

I would question the scientific method used if they are finding any specific personality traits in an 18 month old baby whether it be homosexuality or ADD or homicidal tendencies. Kids that young are still sponges and "parrots". They repeat what they learn. I too have had many gay friends that say it was a choice they made. The fact that CBS ran the report also makes it suspect.

Answer 10

Homosexuality is no more a disease than Alcohol or drug addiction is.Cancer is a disease.No one chooses to get cancer.People choose to get addictions and act as if they had no morals.Saying it is in the genes is like saying child molesters should be shown compassion and sympathized with.We all have choices to make that go against our flesh.I find it appalling that scientist who claim to have such knowledge would work so hard at finding an excuse for mankind to act in such an immoral ways.This should give us some insight as to their credibility and concern for mankind.And yes, I am a Christian.I am not a hater of anyone.Unlike these scientist,when you care and want the best for those you love,that's when you tell them the truth.

I know Homosexuals do have a choice in what they do.I personally know men and woman who have turned their life around and had the victory over this spirit.

I love getting this many thumbs down it show me just how mad I am making Satan.This morning as I do every morning I lift up my foot to expose the bottom of my foot and wave my Bible at Satan.That's were I like to keep that liar,on the bottom of my foot.Can't you all make it an even 10?

pixie_pa why didn't you just say what you wanted everyone to say.I thought that you were looking for people to give you their honest answers on how they felt about this subject.You have done just what you asked others not to do.Which shows just how open you homosexuals really are to the truth.