The Brain Studies of Simon LeVay
Researchers have studied that sexual preferences and behavior of homosexuals may be shown by the structure of the brain—particularly if the brains of homosexual men, for example, can be dictated to resemble those of heterosexual women more than they resemble those of heterosexual men.
One highly publicized study that purported to demonstrate this was conducted in 1991 by former Salk Institute researcher Simon LeVay. LeVay studied the brains of cadavers or dead people, including 18 men known to be homosexual and one known to be bisexual. He compared them with the brains of another 16 men and six women whom he presumed to have been heterosexual. This is what LeVay claimed to have found:
• ““INAH 3 was more than twice as large in the heterosexual men as in the women. It was also, however, more than twice as large in the heterosexual men as in the homosexual men. This finding indicates that INAH …show more content…
LeVay made some questionable assumptions concerning the orientation of the “heterosexual” corpses. He presumed that they were all heterosexual, 3 even though a number of the allegedly “heterosexual” subjects had died of AIDS, an infection that stays far more common among homosexual men than among heterosexuals: “”Sixteen subjects were presumed to be heterosexual men: six of these subjects died of AIDS and ten of other causes.”” Ibid.
• All 19 of the homosexual subjects had died because of AIDS, and LeVay noted that another “problem” was ““the probability that AIDS patients form an unreliable division of gay men, characterized, for example, by a tendency to take on in sexual relations with big numbers of different partners or by a strong preference for the receptive role in anal intercourse,”” both of which are big factors in acquiring human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
Researchers have studied that sexual preferences and behavior of homosexuals may be shown by the structure of the brain—particularly if the brains of homosexual men, for example, can be dictated to resemble those of heterosexual women more than they resemble those of heterosexual men.
One highly publicized study that purported to demonstrate this was conducted in 1991 by former Salk Institute researcher Simon LeVay. LeVay studied the brains of cadavers or dead people, including 18 men known to be homosexual and one known to be bisexual. He compared them with the brains of another 16 men and six women whom he presumed to have been heterosexual. This is what LeVay claimed to have found:
• ““INAH 3 was more than twice as large in the heterosexual men as in the women. It was also, however, more than twice as large in the heterosexual men as in the homosexual men. This finding indicates that INAH …show more content…
LeVay made some questionable assumptions concerning the orientation of the “heterosexual” corpses. He presumed that they were all heterosexual, 3 even though a number of the allegedly “heterosexual” subjects had died of AIDS, an infection that stays far more common among homosexual men than among heterosexuals: “”Sixteen subjects were presumed to be heterosexual men: six of these subjects died of AIDS and ten of other causes.”” Ibid.
• All 19 of the homosexual subjects had died because of AIDS, and LeVay noted that another “problem” was ““the probability that AIDS patients form an unreliable division of gay men, characterized, for example, by a tendency to take on in sexual relations with big numbers of different partners or by a strong preference for the receptive role in anal intercourse,”” both of which are big factors in acquiring human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.