Origin of homosexuality unresolved despite study

Washington Times ^ | Sunday, November 28, 2004 | By Cheryl Wetzstein

[JohnHuang2]

The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com

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Origin of homosexuality unresolved despite study

By Cheryl Wetzstein
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published November 28, 2004

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Even presidents don't have an answer to questions about the origin of homosexuality.
    And it's no wonder. Science doesn't have a clear answer either.
    During the third presidential debate, moderator and CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer asked the candidates, "Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?"
    "You know, Bob, I don't know. I just don't know," said President Bush, who then urged tolerance, respect and dignity for homosexuals.
    "We're all God's children," answered Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee. Referring to Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, Mr. Kerry said, "She would tell you that she's being... who she was born as. I think if you talk to anybody, it's not choice."
    So what does science say?
    Is homosexuality inborn? Is it caused by outside influences? And, regardless of where it comes from, can it be changed? The answer to all three questions is: yes and no.
    If lawmakers, judges, educators and the public are frustrated by such answers, it's because they've been bombarded all year by supporters and opponents of same-sex "marriage," who have boiled research down to their favorite sound bites.
    "Decades of research all point to the fact that sexual orientation is not a choice and that a person's sexual orientation cannot be changed," say homosexual rights groups such as Human Rights Campaign, which are flanked by the nation's premier medical, mental-health and therapy professional groups.

[ljswisc]

Romans 1:24-27 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.

25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,

27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons (ie: personalities) the due penalty of their error.

[wai-ming]

I sense you are trying to "trap" me into implying Adam and/or Eve was queer.

Not at all. Just trying to show you the absurdity of your logic.

I still don't see how "all sin came into being" in the Garden of Eden. If the "devil" tempted Adam and Eve, is he/she responsible for all sin? If so, why did God allow him/her into the Garden of Eden in the first place?

Or did Adam and Eve succumb to the devil's temptation, opening up some sort of Pandora's box that unleased sin onto mankind?

If so, are they to blame for all the evils of today's society?

[wtc911]

If it is born (which it's not) look for the entitlements to be demanded. It's the key to hand outs and perceved respect.

___________________________

Number one, no one knows this, including you and me. Number two, if it turns out to be genetic and identifiable in utero it will spell the end of Roe v. Wade and the democratic party. When lib women start aborting because they don't want a gay kid the gay and feminist wings of the left will destroy each other over the "rights of the unborn".

[melsec]

Good questions wai -ming.

Most expositors of Scripture would answer that before the fall of man into Sin (which is a state not just on particular sin) that man was perfect and so able to be in God's Presence and communicate with Him. Once humans disobeyed God they fell from that perfect state. Now being imperfect they corrupted themselves and continued to fall into a state of sin. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was to take the consequences of sin from us and the ressurection and ascension into heaven was to restore us (through Jesus Christ)to communion with God. When Christ comes again (or when we get to heaven) that communion will be complete and we will be with the Lord forever in perfect communion with Him. I hope this ansers some of your questions.

Bless You

Mel

[DirtyHarryY2K]

If homosexuality is a choice, do you recall the moment that you made the choice NOT to be a homosexual?

Yes, Exactly 2/1000 of a second after the concept was brought to my attention! (Classmates at school were discussing the topic.)

[DirtyHarryY2K]

Then something weird happened--I still don't understand it--but it sure as hell didn't involve any "choice." The very suggestion is preposterous: I sat down one afternoon and decided to develop overwhelming urges to engage in heretofore unfathomable behavior with them? I challenge anyone to tell me that they chose to be heterosexual!

Unlike homosexuality, heterosexuality is "immutable". To define heterosexuality as merely sexual conduct between people of compatible genders is to suppress a fundamental truth about what it means to be human. All human beings with the exception of hermaphrodites (people with genital deformities) are born with a reproductive system that is heterosexual by nature. We are either male or female. We have sexual feelings only because of chemical and other processes that are rooted in our procreative heterosexual design. Thus, a male sexual orientation toward a female (or vise versa) is self-evidently normal and natural.

By contrast, a male-to-male or female-to-female orientation is self-evidently abnormal and unnatural. For homosexuality to be equivalent to heterosexuality, it would need to be rooted in its own homosexual physiology.

[Caipirabob]

You're never going to convince me that there's some kind of gene that causes one to go va-va-voom when eyeing that special someone. Once you go that route, then you have to say the same for other sexual deviancies. Do you believe that a pedophile has a gene that causes him/her to be attracted to children?

Sexual deviancy is a chosen behavior BUMP!

Then again, as posted above, perhaps they are angling to promote it as a "genetic issue" and request entitlements. I'd suggest it may surprise them when they learn what society feels they are truly entitled to...

And also, as posted above, if someone can fool society into believing that homosexuality is genetic, will they demand protection for the "unborn homosexual"? Will it then be perceived as persecution? Will such an abortion then become a "Hate Crime"?

Elect more Democrats and perhaps we'll find out.

[Luis Gonzalez]

You know tens of thousands of former homosexuals?

There aren't tens of thousands of former homosexuals.

[Luis Gonzalez]

You actually just made my point for me. You had an immediate reaction, that wasn't a choice.

In order for it to have been a choice you made, it would have taken time for you to arrive at a decision.

You didn't need time because you already knew that you could not be attracted to the same sex.

There's a second part to the debunking of the "homosexuality is a choice" myth.

If homosexuality is a choice, then it is a choice that you can make or unmake at any time during your lifetime. So then, you could actually make the choice to be a homosexual right now.

Try it...try deciding that you are now attracted to someone with similar rather than dissimilar gear from yours.

[wai-ming]

Thanks for your kind words.

I'll need some time to ponder on what you have said. It still seems quite confusing, but I trust that there is a simple (and logical) answer.

[Luis Gonzalez]

There was no choice involved, and that's the point.

Neither one of (I assume) had to sit one day and ask ourselves "am I sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex, or am I sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex?"

I did not, and I am assuming that neither did you.

If homosexuality is a choice, then I could choose to be attracted to men...I can't.

If I can't make the choice, then I must not have a choice, and if I don't have the choice of finding men attractive, then the whole "homosexuality is a choice" theory is crap.

[nightdriver]

I find it interesting and frustrating that these high-powered psychologists seem to ignore the phenomenon of "imprinting."

This happens in many cases before the child is six years old and can occur in an instant.

One of the more bizzare examples is that of the people in London who were very young when the London blitz was on in 1940 and observed the adults donning gas masks to protect against potential attacks. Ever since, they get sexual arousal from seeing someone in a gas mask.

This is the effect of "imprinting."

[DirtyHarryY2K]

"then the whole "homosexuality is a choice" theory is crap".

On the question of choice, it must be noted that all sex but rape is voluntary and thus every sexual act involves a conscious choice. A person's inclination toward a form of sexual conduct may not, for any number of reasons, be consciously chosen, but the mere existence of desire does not justify the act. To accept otherwise would be to validate adultery and pedophilia.

Nevertheless, there is plenty of evidence that homosexuality is not innate. There is a very considerable body of testimony from tens of thousands of men and women who once lived as homosexuals. These ex-"gays" have renounced their former lifestyles and many have become heterosexual in self-identification and desire.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"But it's always a choice to engage in homosexuality (behavior)."

Here you are mixing two arguments.

One can decide to either engage or not engage in any action that's not involuntary (can't decide to not breathe). So rather than discussing what the tens of thousands of former homosexuals say, the more accurate thing would be discussing the fact that tens of thousands of homosexuals have decided not to engage in the homosexual act any longer.

Monks make a similar decision.

One more thing.

People are debating the ONE factor which decides whether you are a homosexual or not...I don't think anyone will ever come up with ONE factor.

[longtermmemmory]

Look at the long term prison population in custody and when they are released. A choice of behavior regarding homosexual sex.

Remember, Feminists consider ALL heterosexual sex to be rape.

[Mamzelle]

My own theory, worth less than 2 cents, is that male homosexuality is a sexual fixation/fetish not far removed in basis and origins from things like shoe fetishes and obsessions with pornography. Once an object becomes necessary for arousal, it doesn't seem to matter how weird or absurd it is, it remains necessary.

[Radix]

"It came into being with evil in the Garden of Eden."

The knowledge of good and evil came after the partaking of the fruit of that tree.

Evil did not come into being in the Garden of Eden. Clearly and logically it existed before, according to Genesis.

[Mamzelle]

See my post, 56. I think this may at least explain some male homosexuality. The obsession with porn, I believe, is what you call imprinting. Arousal from two-dimensional images.

[longtermmemmory]

A penis is made to complement a vagina. There is no choice there. Babies are produced by finding a member of the opposite sex, no choice there. (even if artificial insemination it is still seeking out a member of the opposite sex)

However a person CHOOSES to utilize the identical genitals in a recreational sex partner.


=excerpt from the article=

Meanwhile, Cornell University psychology professor Daryl J. Bem has theorized that biologically inherited temperament, played out through life experiences, determine sexual attraction. His "Exotic Becomes Erotic" theory says that people become "erotically attached" to those "from whom they felt different during childhood."

Most boys find girls to be different, novel or "exotic," as Mr. Bem calls it. In a typical heterosexual scenario, girls' exotic stimuli produces nonsexual physical arousal in boys. If a boy thinks he is with a potential sexual partner, the physical arousal he feels can become an erotic attraction.

However, if a boy grows up feeling "different" from other boys — which might happen to a boy with a gentle or artistic temperament — he may come to view other boys as different, novel or "exotic." This may explain how men develop erotic attachments to other men, says Mr. Bem, who invites more research into his theory.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"There is a very considerable body of testimony from tens of thousands of men and women who once lived as homosexuals."

And a more sizable body of evidence from the tens of millions who say that it was not a conscious choice that you will not considerer because you choose not to.

Funny thing about choice, isn't it?

You continue to discuss the choice of engaging in an act, while I discuss the existence of the attraction.

If the existence of the attraction is not a choice, then homosexuality is not a choice.