The naturalness of homosexuality Sexual Identity Hard-Wired by Genetics,

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The naturalness of homosexuality
Sexual Identity Hard-Wired by Genetics, Study Says October 20, 2003
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1HT4Z12QMVHU2CRBAEOCFFA?type=healthNews&storyID=3647262

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sexual identity is wired into the genes, which discounts the concept that homosexuality and transgender sexuality are a choice,
"Our findings may help answer an important question -- why do we feel male or female?" Dr. Eric Vilain, a genetics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, said in a statement. "Sexual identity is rooted in every person's biology before birth and springs from a variation in our individual genome." His team has identified 54 genes in mice that may explain why male and female brains look and function differently.

Since the 1970s, scientists have believed that estrogen and testosterone were wholly responsible for sexually organizing the brain. Recent evidence, however, indicates that hormones cannot explain everything about the sexual differences between male and female brains.

Published in the latest edition of the journal Molecular Brain Research, the UCLA discovery may also offer physicians an improved tool for gender assignment of babies born with ambiguous genitalia. Mild cases of malformed genitalia occur in 1 percent of all births -- about 3 million cases. More severe cases -- where doctors can't inform parents whether they had a boy or girl -- occur in one in 3,000 births.

"If physicians could predict the gender of newborns with ambiguous genitalia at birth, we would make less mistakes in gender assignment," Vilain said. Using two genetic testing methods, the researchers compared the production of genes in male and female brains in embryonic mice -- long before the animals developed sex organs. They found 54 genes produced in different amounts in male and female mouse brains, prior to hormonal influence. Eighteen of the genes were produced at higher levels in the male brains; 36 were produced at higher levels in the female brains. "We discovered that the male and female brains differed in many measurable ways, including anatomy and function." Vilain said.

For example, the two hemispheres of the brain appeared more symmetrical in females than in males. According to Vilain, the symmetry may improve communication between both sides of the brain, leading to enhanced verbal expressiveness in females. "This anatomical difference may explain why women can sometimes articulate their feelings more easily than men," he said.

The scientists plan to conduct further studies to determine the specific role for each of the 54 genes they identified. "Our findings may explain why we feel male or female, regardless of our actual anatomy," said Vilain. "These discoveries lend credence to the idea that being transgender --- feeling that one has been born into the body of the wrong sex -- is a state of mind.
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Even Ann Landers has it right saying, "Dear Readers: Same-sex relationships are not a 'lifestyle,' it's the way some people are born. Such individuals should not need to hide or pretend. They should be accepted as they are, with no apologies."

With the threat of overpopulation and its impact on our environment, a genetic adaptation that prevents some of us from reproducing seems beneficial to our collective survival.

Homosexuality Is Very Natural
Lets Stop The Lies That Hurt So Many
God Loves All Just As HE Created Them
Why Can't Christians ?

The naturalness of homosexuality completely verifies scripture that says absolutely nothing about what we know as homosexuality today.

Homosexuality is more like the issue of race which should have legal protection from discrimination. But while being black is never a choice it doesn't stop people still hating them and homosexuality is likely to be just as difficult. Such an opportunity for Christians to show Christ's love and acceptance, yet many will still rely on their false biblical scripts they have been indoctrinated to for so many years.

But even without genetics, lets look at logic. It is rationally inconceivable that any sane human would choose a sexual orientation that brings upon them so much hate, discrimination and condemnation of a homophobic society. Most gays/lesbians knew they were gay from a very young age - they didn't need science to prove its natural. Most didn't get dropped on their heads or not bond with their fathers. Most came from very normal happy families. Atlantic Monthly March 93 issue did an excellent in-depth article about the Psychological research fully documented and quoted. It gets rid of the lack of emotional bonding as a legitimate excuse for most homosexuals. They have been found just as normal in their upbringing and psychological profiles as the rest of society. Yes in a few cases of terrible experiences it can be emotional homosexuality - but these cases are rare and very much the exception to the rule.

Now science is starting to understand the whys of homosexuality which is natural in humans and mammals. But those with a religious agenda based on questionable translations of scriptures prefer to condemn and try and change what God has created rather than use Christ's love of acceptance as there example for love, compassion and outreach - without forcing one to change their natural orientation which is impossible, or repress their natural sexual actions - which is cruel, unneeded, and shows more the sickness of the culture and false religious doctrine than homosexuality. The abomination is not homosexuality but the Church's false teachings. Just like Christians of the past condemned epilepsy as being demon possessed, someday scientist may show the error of Christian teaching on homosexuality. Or how scriptures were used to prove blacks were inferior, or the earth was flat, or was the center of the universe.

Thankfully, more and more Christian congregations, ministers, theologians and scholars are showing the false biblical teaching concerning homosexuality and showing Christ's love. But some will hang on and get their self-righteous kicks condemning some of Gods children, unless they change their natural orientation - which is impossible.

It seems clear that homosexuals would never choose such a behavior that generated so much hate and discrimination. Genetic research, studies of brain chemistry and studies of identical twins raised apart, strongly support statistically its not choice but nature. It seems clear that homosexuality is just as natural in humans as it is with other animals and plant life.

Most compelling is the many personal accounts of those that have tried so hard to change out of the fear of God, but fail since you can not change natural sexual orientation. Many commit suicide, or leave Christianity feeling they can't respect a God that would make them gay and then condemn them. How can one believe that God condemns people who love each other tenderly and unselfishly just because they were born homosexual. It seems abnormal only because the predisposition is a recessive tenancy just as is left-handedness.

Homosexual Sheep
Since 1988, the Department of Agriculture has been doing similar studies in Idaho on hormonal and genetic differences in rams. The reason for its importance is not only to find human applications, but no sheepherder wants to pay $4000 for a breeding ram that isn't interested in ewes. In an extensive study they found the "Dud Stud Phenomenon" in some and other rams were judged to be homosexual. The study showed that about 8.5% of rams studied were homosexual - close to the estimate of 7-10% human homosexuals in the U.S.

March 2000 "Finger Length" study
A new study from the University of California at Berkeley has found that differences in the length of one's fingers might yield clues about sexual orientation for women. No differences were found between male heterosexual and gay men. The findings of Berkeley psychologist S. Marc Breedlove and undergraduates Terrance J. Williams and Michelle E. Pepitone appeared March 29, 2000 in the Journal "Nature."

But, for women, differences between the length of the index finger and ring finger (especially on the right hand) are greater in lesbian women, compared to heterosexual women. For most women their index finger and ring fingers are more identical in length. More men have a shorter index finger.

Previous studies have shown certain differences in brain structures as well as other anatomical distinctions between gays and heterosexuals.

Scientists suspect that finger length of fingers might be a marker of how much a fetus was exposed to masculinizing sex hormones. Androgen levels -- testosterone and other male hormones in the womb probably have some early affects on fetus development. The same prenatal influences might affect behavior and sexual indentity throughout life.

So, ladies, are you checking the length of your fingers, LOL.

Test For Heterosexuals
What if the Bible said that heterosexual activity was immoral, sinful, and to be despised and avoided, while homosexual relations were the norm the homosexuals were following the will of God. Now try saying to God: "I realize I am a sinner. My heterosexual life cannot be tolerated any more. I must break off my "wonderful" intimate relationships with my companion/spouse of the opposite sex, and make an attempt to live a normal life loving only those of my gender." Such a shift would be anything but a simple act of recognizing one's "sinful ways."

Internet Public Post from a Gay discussing genetics
There is mounting evidence that sexual orientation has a major genetic/biological cause.

In terms of traits, surely you are aware of recessive genes. Some traits skip generations. Someone could indeed have the genes for being gay without it being expressed. In addition, there is the complication of those who may not be aware of their own innate sexual orientation.

My family has a fairly large amount of gay folks on both sides. I am gay. I have at least one cousin on each side who is gay. My father was and apparently an uncle on my father's side is bisexual. My mother's mother's brother (my great uncle) is gay. His father (my great grandfather) was gay. There are some other family members who seem like they may be gay, but are not aware/expressing it. (Think of what it would be like to have the genes for dyslexia, if you were never exposed to writing, what would that mean?)

There have been several studies done which find a higher concordance rate of being gay between identical twins than between fraternal twins, even when raised apart (and in different environments.) We could also point out that same-sex behavior is observed across time, culture and species. Every person I have ever heard from has described coming out as a recognition of an already existing state, rather than an alternative chosen from a number of equally likely possibilities.

I have to admit growing increasingly tired of straight people speaking so authoritatively about a subject that don't seem to know anything about. if Physslis Schlafley, founder of the conservative women's group the Eagle Forum, wasn't aware her own son John was gay; if Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were not aware that Mel White, the man who was a speech-writer and ghost wrote their autobiographies for them, was gay; if the contemporaries of Liberace, Walt Whitman, Gertrude Stein, J. Edgar Hoover, Rock Hudson, Ellen DeGeneres (and I could go on....) were clueless; why in heaven's name should lesbigay folks accept the judgment of people who can't identify us until we practically drop a boat anchor on their head? If straight folks know so much, why is it we always seem to have to come out to you? If you fail identification, why are other opinions more accurate than our own experience?

In short, prove you have good gaydar, and we'll talk. Otherwise, please don't say that you know more about being me than I do.