For over a century, the question of what “causes” homosexuality has been preoccupying the minds of scientists and scholars alike. Those whose occupations range from medicine to neuroscience to cultural to cultural and behavioral studies. Is sexual orientation a factor we can determine before birth? Or is it something that is influenced your environment and surrounding factors in your life? Do people in the LGBTQIA+ community choose their identity or are they born with it?
Many scientists, psychologists and others have attempted to find the answer to this question. Thus creating the nature vs. nurture debate. In lieu of doing so, many biological and social theories started to develop. Such as: the mother’s smoking habits during pregnancy, absent …show more content…
Such as the “gay gene.” In 1993, a study that was published in the journal Science showed that families with two homosexual brothers were more than likely to have certain genetic markers on a region of the X chromosome. (Servick, 2014) This lead to the popular belief that a “gay gene” may actually exist. Genes cannot always control behavior, what they can do is create a tendency to develop or display certain traits or behavior. Another theory I found was the size of the brain may be a factor in which a individual is homosexual or not. Studies that have been conducted show that there may a slight difference in size of the brain depending on sexuality. In 1991, a study also published in the journal Science that the hypothalamus in a gay man differs from those in a straight man. Also, the third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus was found to be twice as large as those in a straight man. (Levay, 1991) PET and MRI studies that were conducted in 2008, show that the two halves of the male brain are more symmetrical in homosexual men and women than in heterosexual men and women. These studies also revealed that connections in the amygdalae of gay men resemble those of straight women, and in heterosexual men and homosexual women. (Oria, 2014) Also, other studies have shown that the corpus callosum has a different structure in gay men and straight men. One last theory I found was that the mother’s hormone imbalance during pregnancy may cause a child’s homosexual tendencies later in life. This was the thesis of Glenn Wilson who wrote the book Born Gay. He concluded that during pregnancy testosterone makes the fetus a masculine, but also the fetus’s brain. Without testosterone, the fetus will remain female. It is said that it may be the brains of gay men that don’t receive the full amounts of testosterone at the right time during fetal development. Thus, insufficiently masculine. (Oria,
Many scientists, psychologists and others have attempted to find the answer to this question. Thus creating the nature vs. nurture debate. In lieu of doing so, many biological and social theories started to develop. Such as: the mother’s smoking habits during pregnancy, absent …show more content…
Such as the “gay gene.” In 1993, a study that was published in the journal Science showed that families with two homosexual brothers were more than likely to have certain genetic markers on a region of the X chromosome. (Servick, 2014) This lead to the popular belief that a “gay gene” may actually exist. Genes cannot always control behavior, what they can do is create a tendency to develop or display certain traits or behavior. Another theory I found was the size of the brain may be a factor in which a individual is homosexual or not. Studies that have been conducted show that there may a slight difference in size of the brain depending on sexuality. In 1991, a study also published in the journal Science that the hypothalamus in a gay man differs from those in a straight man. Also, the third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus was found to be twice as large as those in a straight man. (Levay, 1991) PET and MRI studies that were conducted in 2008, show that the two halves of the male brain are more symmetrical in homosexual men and women than in heterosexual men and women. These studies also revealed that connections in the amygdalae of gay men resemble those of straight women, and in heterosexual men and homosexual women. (Oria, 2014) Also, other studies have shown that the corpus callosum has a different structure in gay men and straight men. One last theory I found was that the mother’s hormone imbalance during pregnancy may cause a child’s homosexual tendencies later in life. This was the thesis of Glenn Wilson who wrote the book Born Gay. He concluded that during pregnancy testosterone makes the fetus a masculine, but also the fetus’s brain. Without testosterone, the fetus will remain female. It is said that it may be the brains of gay men that don’t receive the full amounts of testosterone at the right time during fetal development. Thus, insufficiently masculine. (Oria,