Sexual orientation is neurobiological and is set at birth, according to a report delivered by Jerome Goldstein, M.D., a board-certified medical neurologist and Director of the San Francisco Clinical Research Center. ”Sexual orientation is not a matter of choice, it is primarily neurobiological at birth,” Goldstein told the 21st Meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS), in Lisbon, Portugal, adding, “Clearly the basis of sexual orientation is in the brain and differences in brain structure and function and the province of neurology.”
We now have even more evidence that being gay or bisexual is not a choice, despite the fact that 42% of Americans still believe being homosexual is “due to factors such as upbringing and environment.” Only 40% of Americans currently believe that people are born gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.
“There are undeniable links. We want to make them visible to the eye,” Goldstein, who is President of the Headache and Facial Pain Section of the American Academy of Neurology, told ENS members, showing how brains of people of different sexual orientations — gay, straight, and bisexual — work in different ways.
“Using volumetric studies, there have been findings of significant cerebral amygdala size differences between homosexual and heterosexual subjects. Sex dimorphic connections were found among homosexual participants in these studies,” Dr. Goldstein noted, according to a report in Medical News Today, which adds that Goldstein, ”provided current data regarding homosexuality showing differences and/or similarities, between the brains of homosexuals and heterosexuals.”
Today, however, anti-gay organizations, like the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), and anti-gay hate groups, like the American Family Association, continue to push the false narrative that homosexuality is a choice, and support the work of discredited anti-gay “ex-gay” ministries. Increasingly, we see NOM moving toward the so-called religious side of the argument, where they had previously attempted — or so it seemed — to be perceived as secular. Also, this false “choice” concept has been exported to extremely homophobic countries like Uganda, thanks in large part to American Evangelicals.
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Great post on the science! I had a post about this poll up at the new ThinkProgress LGBT this week looking at the problem of how the question was asked and how the poll itself miseducates.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/06/01/233561/n…
Count me in on the 40% that believe in is not a choice.
Ask any straight person when they "chose" to be straight and you will get a puzzled look because they cannot remember a time when they were not attracted to the opposite sex. The same goes for all sexual orientations.
I clicked on the link to the Medical News Today report and wasn't surprised to notice it only mentioned studying the brains of gay men. What about gay women? I say this because these kind of reports always talk about men and women as if they are virtually the same biologically and mentally. I actually do believe that men are gay primarily at birth, may be some exception but they are rare. However, I belileve that most women nowadays are lesbians by choice. Why do I believe that? Simple. THEY SAY SO! Don't believe me? Type in "Why are so many girls lesbian or bi" in Google, or go to Youtube and type in "why I'm a lesbian". A click of the button and you can find innumerable, primarily very young, lesbians quoting all sorts of environmental reasons why they are gay: Men are disgusting: Men don't really know how to please a woman
I object strenuously to the "born this way" argument as a tactic for gaining equality in civil rights. It makes same-sex orientation seem like a disability to be accommodated rather than a variation in human experience to be respected. If – for the sake of argument – one *could* choose one's sexual orientation, why would same-sex orientation be such a deficient choice?
According to available evidence, sexual orientation is most probably determined by a complex of biological, cognitive, and environmental factors, with the prominence of each factor differing among individuals.
Same-sex orientation is surely a departure from the average, but a non-pathological one that requires no satisfactory explanation of its cause in order to be "acceptable."
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