"As a result, I can't help but speculate that there's more than one source for the behavior."
I agree with you.
Neither this article, nor the often passionate posts, sway my view: homosexuality is a pathology with different causes. For some, it might be a genetic predisposition; others a hormonal imbalance or a form of brain damage; others a victim of abuse or dysfunctional family.
Maybe the reason why homosexuality is so complicated is that all the causes can be intertwined. Someone might be born genetically predisposed, but these kind of people often have awful parents, who can exacerbate the situation by abusing or neglecting them. The result is a lethal combination.
The fact, however, that I've seen effeminate men who are heterosexually married or "normal"-looking men who profess to be gay indicates that some free choice, and not just biology, is involved. Maybe these effeminate types were lucky to have good fathers or male role models. Maybe the other types are just copping out from marriage. I don't know. I know of some people who, though not exactly "cured," sort of drifted away from homosexuality once other problems were resolved.
I still feel, though, that hetersexuality is the norm, just like right-handedness. (I am left-handed, by the way.) The real issue is this: how do we treat people who are different? My answer: leave them alone. But in no way should their behavior be sanctioned.
How Might Homosexuality Develop? Putting the Pieces Together
The article starts with:
It may be difficult to grasp how genes, environment, and other influences interrelate to one another, how a certain factor may "influence" an outcome but not cause it, and how faith enters in. The scenario below is condensed and hypothetical, but is drawn from the lives of actual people, illustrating how many different factors influence behavior.And I think the conclusion to Satinover's The Gay Gene? is excellent. Just scroll down to the bottom of the article and read the summary. The reference to BBP in the conclusion may seem odd without reading the entire article, but it's a reference to Basket Ball Players.Note that the following is just one of the many developmental pathways that can lead to homosexuality, but a common one. In reality, every person's "road" to sexual expression is individual, however many common lengths it may share with those of others.
"My answer: leave them alone. But in no way should their behavior be sanctioned."
The conservative libertarian approach. I agree, by the way.
THERE IS NO 'GENETIC PREDISPOSITION' to homosexuality.
It is beyond reason here that after the thread itself is presented for purposes of discussing this status of medical and biological research -- that determines and confirms that there is no "gay gene" that has been found, nor no genetic component to homosexuality accordingly -- people here continue on to formulate other discussions BASED UPON AN UNTRUTH and that is that there is some "genetic predisposition" to homosexuality, some cause that compels or predetermines some humans to be homosexuals.
It's established that it's behavioral in origin. It's a tough reality to face that people have a choice in this matter, that homosexuality is an aberrant behavioral choice when compared with the "mean", the average, the usual and "normal" of humanity, which is heterosexuality, that there is no "o.k., normal" as to homosexuality behavior when compared with sexuality as reproduction and function.
But, it's the "truth" as biologically established. Homosexuality is behavioral. It represents a chosen behavior.
Some people may be compulsive to such an extent that they really do feel that there exists no choice, no actual moment of possible change or option to and for them, as to how they use and apply thier bodies, but it's not "SEXUAL" in the normal sense nor in the biological sense to attempt to engage in certain acts with the other persons of the same gender.
There is undoubtedly some who confuse friendship and familial-type needs for affection with homosexuality, but again, this represents behavioral variance not some predisposition or predetermined something that eradicates the responsibility of personal choice.
A lot of what is culturally and popularly decided by lay people today as to being "homosexual" includes a lot of different causes and behaviors. But it's entirely misleading if not downright deceitful to attempt to continue to proliferate a "predisposition" nature, an immutable aspect, to homosexual behavior.
Just as it is to attempt to mislead people into accepting "homosexuality" as some peer-similar or equivalency-opposite behavior to heterosexuality.