Are Straight People Born That Way?

The Atlantic ^ | Mar 22 2012 | Alice Dreger

[Sopater]

Time for a thought experiment: Are straight people born that way? When I put the question to a number of sexology colleagues, they thought it a good question -- indeed, a hard question.

To answer it, we have to start with a more fundamental question: What do we mean when we say someone is "straight"? At the most basic level, we seem to be imagining female bodies that are specifically sexually aroused by male bodies, and vice versa.

Laboratory studies such as those conducted by Michael Bailey of Northwestern University and Meredith Chivers of Queens University suggest that, while such people probably do exist -- at least in North America, where many sexologists have focused their attentions -- it's not uncommon for straight-identified people to be at least a little aroused by the idea of same-sex relations.

The media has tended to broadcast the news that gay-identified men and straight-identified men have quite discernible arousal patterns when they are shown various kinds of sexual stimuli. And that's true. But if you look closely at the data, you'll see that most straight-identified men do tend to show a little bit of arousal across sex categories (as do gay-identified men).

[Talisker]

Laboratory studies such as those conducted by Michael Bailey of Northwestern University and Meredith Chivers of Queens University suggest that, while such people probably do exist -- at least in North America...

Probably?

Is this the Onion?

(Please tell me it's the Onion...)

[IronJack]

Logic has been so inverted by the Left that we’re now being asked to defend the normal, while deviancy gets a bye. Sorry, but that relativist ethic is no ethic at all.

[Cheburashka]

The gay alliance will tell you that everyone is born gay, and that most people have been repressed into straightness by evil social repression. You can trust them, they wouldn’t lie about something like this, would they?

[Category Four]

Keeping kids going through puberty in sexual isolation from opposite sex peers also tends to confuse the issue. It is more difficult for a young man to “imprint” upon females as desired sexual partners if they never SEE female peers.

Just my 0.02$.

I'm guessing that may have been why there was as much homosexuality among the British public schoolboys as there was from about 1860 to 1940 ... but then, it *is* just a guess.

[allmendream]

Also a possibility why homosexuality (as we define it) is so prevalent in many Muslim nations where unrelated females are only viewed as walking gunnysacks.

[Procyon]

Bingo. Keeping women hidden means you only have men to gaze at. Sounds like a plan.

[massmike]

Are heterosexuals
“born that way”?
http://www.mygenes.co.nz/PDFs/Ch3.pdf

[longtermmemmory]

This is junk science thought experiments.

A sexual fetish is not the same as normal adult behavior.

By this fools logic then anything goes (animals, objects, polygamy etc. because all is equal)

No matter how it is politiced, a child has ONE mother and ONE father. Even a childless couple supports the societal paradign.

Society rewards the instutution of marriage NOT the individuals method of popping an orgasm.

If two people want an “alternative lifestyle” that is within the confines of the law then that has nothing to do with marriage.

There is no love test in marriage. There is no individual fetish test in marriage. This article just proves there needs to be maximum protection under the law from left wing deviants.

[wideminded]

Yes. We noticed definite signs that our son was attracted to girls and women at an extremely early age.

I'm sure that there are cases where the opposite happens too. But I agree with you that the question of whether there should be state-sanctioned gay marriage is a separate issue from innateness of sexual preference.

it's not uncommon for straight-identified people to be at least a little aroused by the idea of same-sex relations.

IMHO the amount that people have feelings like this is the extent to which they are gay (or bi-sexual), by definition. A totally straight person would not be aroused by the idea of same-sex relations - again by definition.