M O N D A Y , A U G U S T 1 5 , 2 0 0 5What Makes People Gay?by Michael in New York on 8/15/2005 11:53:00 AMA lengthy, interesting Boston Globe article about why peopleare gay.</p><p> It looks at all the recent studies and concludes thatpeople are "born" that way, though well-funded studies areneeded and there's a lot more to learn.</p><p> Basically asympathetic, friendly article for gays.</p><p> But, hey, this is a blogand blogs were born to nitpick, so here goes. (Thanks tothreader Gypsy Queen for pointing us to this.)What makes the case of Patrick and Thomas so fascinatingis that it calls into question both of the dominant theories inthe long-running debate over what makes people gay:nature or nurture, genes or learned behavior.Actually, only the MSM would describe the debate that way.</p><p> It's beenpretty clear to researchers (and obvious to queers) that sexualorientation is typically due to some combination of genetics and"environment," with environment typically referring to in uteroexposure to certain amounts of hormones, etc.</p><p> People are geneticallydisposed to being gay and that orientation is "locked in" by the timewe're three at most, and most of the factors that lead to it are inutero. (A gross generalization, of course.) But no one serious in thefield has argued for many years that dad refusing to play catch withhis eight year old son is a contributing factor.</p><p> Of course, this doesn'taccount for rare and unusual cases where children are raised inextreme or oppressive environments that lead to sexual confusion ormessed-up psychology, nor does it deal with frat boys who are reallydrunk and really horny.Proving people are born gay would give them wider socialacceptance and better protection against discrimination,many gay rights advocates argue.</p><p> In the last decade, asthis "biological" argument has gained momentum, polls findAmericans - especially young adults - increasingly tolerantof gays and lesbians.No, young people are "tolerant" -- a better word might be"indifferent" or even "gay positive" -- not because of any biologicalargument but because quite simply they've grown up with gayclassmates who've come out at earlier and earlier ages, they'vegrown up with TV and movies and cable shows where gay charactersare common and unnoteworthy (everything from "The Real World" to"Will & Grace" and "Survivor") and thanks to gay civil rightsmovements many have gay relatives out there in the world.</p><p> That'swhy young people think being gay is normal and a part of life -- it isnormal and it's always been a part of their life.Most women, whether they identified as straight, lesbian, orbisexual, were significantly aroused by straight, gay, andlesbian sex. "I'm not suggesting that most women arebisexual," says Michael Bailey, the psychology professorwhose lab conducted the studies. "I'm suggesting thatwhatever a woman's sexual arousal pattern is, it has littleto do with her sexual orientation."Yes, it's the return of J.</p><p> Michael Bailey, a researcher who is quotedseveral times in this article, even though the simplest of Googlesearches would show Bailey is at the very least a controversial figurewho shouldn't be quoted without some serious caveats.</p><p> AsAmericablog readers know, Bailey lost his prominent post as head ofdepartment at Northwestern because of a lengthy year-longinvestigation that examined credible charges of unethical behaviorincluding lying to subjects he used for studies, sleeping with subjectsand more.</p><p> Bailey has also been linked by the Southern Poverty LawCenter to extremist fringe hate groups and pro-eugenics groups, withBailey seeing no ethical dilemma if people want to abort babies theybelieve will be gay.(In fairness, there aren't many leaders of groupsrepresenting social and religious conservatives who still HuffPost PoliticsMichael J.</p><p> O'Neil: The Gates/Crowley RorschachTest - Was this an instance of racial profiling? 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