Are people truly born Gay?

I’ve covered the Biblical side of Homosexuality (Get your Facts StRaiGhT on Homosexuality.) and ( The Gay Issue, exposing LIES.) ,

now I want to cover the scientific side of homosexuality. Since I’ve been witnessing to “christian homosexuals”, the answer I get is the same no matter who I speak to “well God made me this way”. Did he really? Does biology equal destiny?

People in general want us to believe people are “born gay” and that sexual orientation is an unchangeable characteristic like race or eye color, nothing could be further from the truth . The evidence for a genetic and/or biological basis to homosexual orientation has never been found.  We would think that by now being able to map out our genes and all (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_microarray), someone would be very interested in proving that the is “a gay gene” wouldn’t you think? In fact, since the early 90s, several studies attempting to establish a genetic cause for homosexuality have not proven to be valid or repeatable – these two important requirements for study results to become accepted as fact in the scientific community. Therefore,  the scientific community believes that homosexuality is likely caused by a complex interaction of psychosocial, environmental and possible biological factors. And the two leading national psychiatric and psychological professional groups agree that, so far, there are no conclusive studies supporting ANY specific biological or genetic cause for homosexuality. There is no scientific or DNA test to tell us if a person is homosexual, bisexual or even heterosexual for that matter. There is male and female (x and y) there is no such “in-between or gay gene” in ANY human DNA makeup. And since nobody is “born gay,” (those who are gay would have a different genetic makeup, like the gene that dictates if we are female or male, they would have a mutated gene or altered somehow and studies say they don’t),it’s clear that sexual orientation is, at its core, a matter of how one defines oneself – not a matter of biology or genes.

Now I would like to point to research done throughout the years on this matter. These are all scientists. This has nothing to do with Christianity.

Examples:

1. From the 1991 Hypothalamus (Brain) Study, Simon LeVay, who self-identifies as gay, said: “It’s important to stress what I didn’t find. I did not prove that homosexuality is genetic, or find a genetic cause for being gay. I didn’t show that gay men are born that way, the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work. Nor did I locate a gay center in the brain.”

2. And from the 1991 Twins Study, Richard Pillard – also a gay man – admits: “Although male and female homosexuality appear to be at least somewhat heritable, environment must also be of considerable importance in their origins.”

3. And from the 1993 X Chromosome Study, Dean Hamer – also a gay man – said: “…environmental factors play a role. There is not a single master gene that makes people gay…I don’t think we will ever be able to predict who will be gay.”

4. From the 2005 Fruit Fly Study, Barry Dickson, the lead researcher, admitted that the understanding of how innate behaviors are genetically determined is “rudimentary at best.” He also admitted that the male-male courtship behaviors they observed probably involved “environmental and social stimuli” and that the female-female courtship behavior was abnormal – missing some key steps.

5. And what about the 2005 male and 2006 female pheromone studies from Sweden that gay activists claimed were more evidence of a biological basis to homosexuality? (Pheromones are chemicals that can be smelled and are known to influence animal behavior. However, their role in humans is unknown.) Here, it is significant that Ivanka Savic, the lead researcher, said that the 2005 study had nothing to do with proving homosexuality to be biological. And regarding the 2006 study, she said “it is very important to make clear that the study has no implications for possible dynamics in sexual orientation.”

6. Dr. Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, summed up the research on homosexuality saying that “sexual orientation is genetically influenced but not hardwired by DNA, and that whatever genes are involved represent predispositions, not predeterminations” .  As a comparison, Collins indicates that the potential genetic component for homosexuality is much less than the genetic contribution that has been found for common personality traits such as general cognitive ability, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness, aggression and traditionalism.

In conclusion,  after scientists embarked in research to discover  a “gay gene”, such research has not proven that such gene exists, that finding has not been made.

Is sexual orientation fixed therefore unchangeable? Many homosexuals  believe that people are “born gay” and cannot change.  There is a minority of gays and lesbians who recognize that sexual orientation is, in fact, flexible.  For example, Kate Kendell, director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, argued in the gay magazine Frontiers that sexual orientation is not fixed.  And lesbian columnist and psychotherapist Jackie Black has said that sexuality is not static.  Further, lesbian author Camille Paglia argues that homosexuality is not normal and that it is an adaptation, not an inborn trait.Last but not least, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force spokesperson Roberta Sklar admitted in an ABC news story that today’s young lesbians and bisexuals have a “more flexible view” about sexuality and see it as “a fluid thing.” No one knows for sure what causes a homosexual identity to develop, but recent research confirms that permanent change is, indeed, possible.  Pro-gay, Dr. Robert Spitzer of Columbia University is now convinced that many homosexuals have successfully changed their sexual orientation.  In 01,  a study he did of 200 gay men and lesbians who had sought “re-orientation” therapy concluded that most have been able to have fulfilling heterosexual relationships. Such change often involves a long and difficult journey, but it is possible for those individuals who really want to change their lives. In 2007, a landmark study was published by Drs. Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse which concluded that it is possible for homosexuals to change their physical attractions and that such efforts to bring about change do not appear to be psychologically harmful. Entitled  Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation, this ground breaking research has been hailed by experts from both sides of the debate as being the most methodologically rigorous to date. And as more evidence of the fact that people can and do change their sexual orientation, Exodus International, a group of more than 150 Protestant Christian ministries in the United States and around the world, represents literally tens of thousands of people who have made the choice to walk out of their homosexual and bisexual identities. Other organizations exist for Roman Catholics (Courage), Mormons (Evergreen), Jews (JONAH) and Muslims (StraightWay).

Even in the secular cultural arena we see evidence of well-known people who have clearly changed their sexual orientation. Examples of formerly gay-identified celebrities who reportedly have become involved in relationships with people of the opposite gender include actors Anne Heche and Julie Cypher. Apparently, the reality that people can change their sexual identity isn’t just a right-wing Christian thing. Even after all this evidence in research studies piling up, pro-homosexual advocates aren’t dealing with all the evidence in their insistence that people are “born gay” and cannot change. Which is a misconception.

So from the genetic standpoint homosexuals are not born gay and from a biblical standpoint it states the same.

Some inserts taken from an article by Celeb Price.