Francisco Alvarez
Professor Fraad
English 1101

Throughout decades, scientists and the public at large have debated whether homosexuals are born or made, whether their sexual orientation is the result of a genetic role or a combination of formative factors in their composition of their DNA. In the articles entitled “The Last Mile” by Siddhartha Mukherjee and “HOMOSEXUALITY: BORN OR BRED?” by Newsweek Staff, and in “God Made You This Way,’ Pope Is Said to Have Told Gay Man” by Jason Horowitz as well as “The Innate-Immutable Argument Finds No Basis in Science” by A. Dean Byrd, Ph.D., MBA, MPH Shirley E. Cox, DSW Jeffrey W. Robinson, PH.D. Some of the authors claim to what it extends to homosexuality the primary basis is genetic, in other words sexual identity is determined by genes while others claim that homosexuality extends to environment and religion. So, you may ask is homosexuality generic? Or is mostly nature and not nurture? This a very common question when it comes to homosexuality among society today. Genetics is defined as the study of genes, heredity and genetic variation in living things. Therefore, I believe that homosexuality is mostly determined by genes. Identical twin studies, Hamer’s research on genetics and Simon LeVay’s neurological research all demonstrate a biological basis.
When it comes to homosexuality and what it extends to, I have four main categories that I will like to share with you. The primary is based on Dean Hamer and Bailey and Pillard that proposed a generic explanation for homosexuality. “When Michael Bailey, an expert on sexual orientation at Northwestern University looked for concordance of gayness among twins, the results he found were striking. Among the 56 pairs of identical twins, both twins were gay in 52 percent. Of the 54 pairs of none-identical twins 22 percent were both gay, lower that the fraction for identical twins, but significantly higher than the estimate of 10 percent in overall population”. This clearly shows that genes are involved in gay man when it comes to sexual identity. I believe that 52 percentage in identical twins is a very reasonable number to at least consider that genes play a role in homosexuality. In the same way Dean Hamer, a researcher at the National Cancer Center Institute conducted an identical twin study in 1991. Hamer studied 114 gay men, by 1992 Hamer had collected information in nearly one thousand families’ members and he built families trees. What he found was higher concordance in sexual orientation, about 20 percent nearly twice the population rate of about 10 percent. Hamer also found out that maternal cousins through aunts tended to have higher concordance than any other cousins. Gay men tended to have gay uncles but only on maternal side. Due to this Hamer realized that the gay gene had to be carrier on the X chromosome (The Last Mile, p.375-376). This clearly shows that there is genetic base when it comes to homosexuality and we can also see that mothers have something to do with their sons’ sexual identity. Accordingly, to Hamer notably of the 40 gay siblings, he found out that 33 brothers shared a small stretch on the X chromosome called Xq28. The outcome of this study of brothers is that when it comes to homosexuality genes play an important role in a man’s sexual orientation. Furthermore, Hamer believes that homosexuality is somewhere near Xq28 that determines male sexual identity. Now you may say that Hamer’s study was long time ago, and you might be thinking about new technology that can corroborate that information. Well in 2015, in yet another detail analysis of 409 additional sibling’s pairs, the link to Xq28 was validated again and a previously identified link to chromosome 8 was reiterated. This is very important because from here we can see that the study that Hamer did decades ago had fundamentals bases in genes and this recent study in 2015 validated Hamer’s study but not only that it also provides more information about genes, the researchers discover that in gene number 8 there is something that affects a male sexual identity. Following this by “The Bailey-Pillard Twin Study” the study had its own shortcomings in 56 identical twins the 52 percent were both gays as against 22 percent of fraternal twins who have somewhat weaker generics bonds. Although of the adoptive, none genetically related brothers in the study only 11 percent were both gay. As a result, the suggestion of a shared genetic bond is very strong. As we can see on account to identical twin studies, we can conclude that there is definitively a genetic reason behind homosexuality. Therefore, I believe to what it extends to homosexuality, genes are a very important key to determined homosexuality. I say this because if we look at the evidence that influences the propensity of height there is a concordance of about 55 percent. Although homosexuality can also be influence by families, friends, religious beliefs and social culture. However, genes don’t fully prove that homosexuality is 100 percent the truth when it comes to homosexuality. Homosexuality is suggested to other non-biological reasons as I mentioned previously.
The second category is posited by Simon LeVay who proposed a neuroscientific explanation on homosexual’s differences in the hypothalamus of gay men. Simon LeVay a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla in California, had a chance to conduct a study in scanning the brains of 41 cadavers, including those of 19 homosexual males. LeVay found out that a tiny area in believed to control sexual activity in the brain was less than half the side in the gay men than in the heterosexuals. Perhaps this the first direct evidence of what some gay have long contended, that whether they choose to be different, they are born different (Newsweek Staff 2). This clearly implies that LeVay believes homosexuality is not a choice most likely he sees it as something that you are born with. This also indicates that homosexuality is not a simple thing to look at, it is mostly something very complex because it doesn’t involve only genes. But also, homosexuality can be perceived from a neuroscientist point of view. For this reason, it is important to understand that homosexuality is a complex thing even though genes play mostly a dominant role when we talk about homosexuality.
On the other hand, the third category was proposed by Dean Byrd. He proposed a psychological explanation to what it extends to homosexuality. Byrd sees homosexuality more as an attraction and less as biological. He believes that in homosexuality a sexual desire towards another man can be diminished and changes can be made. Regarding to change lesbian activist Camille Peglia said, “homosexuality is not normal.’ On the contrary it is a challenge to the norm. Nature exits whether academics like or not. And in nature, procreation is the single relentless rule… no one is born gay.” This is clearly the antithesis of what it extends to homosexuality according to Hamer, Bailey and Pillard researches that believe homosexuality is in the genes. As a result, Byrd believes homosexuality can be changed because biology doesn’t fully prove that homosexuality is determined only by genes. Therefore, homosexuality can be considered as a sexual preference, and for instance it can be changed. In addition to change in “HOMOSEXUALITY: BORN OR BRED?” we can see a clear example of change if we look at Mike a 49-year-old who was married for 18 years but he had preference towards men as well. After his wife died, he would often visit homosexual’s bars to seek of gay men. Mike took therapy for six months and he said after completing the therapy he has not had any homosexuals’ encounters. This in effect, clearly shows that homosexuality is subject to change. On the contrary, this person claims that he still sometimes has homosexual’s feelings. Because of this I strongly believe that homosexuality is definitively determined by biology. Not necessarily focused on genes but in biology in general.
The last category I will like you to look at is what Jason Horowitz proposed, which is a genetic and religious explanation to what it extends to homosexuality. Horowitz supports the idea that homosexuality has basis with generics, but it also has basis in culture and religion. For example, Juan Carlos Cruz a Chilean survivor of clerical sex abuse in August 2017 in Chile, had a chance to speak with the leader of Roman Catholic Church Pope Francis. During the conversation that last approximately 3 hours Mr. Cruz revealed to pope Francis that he was gay. To Mr. Cruz’s surprised pope Francis told him “you have to be happy with who you are. God made you this way and loves you this way and the pope loves you this way.” This clearly implies that the Vatican Francis believes that a person can be born gay. Moreover, here we can see that my thesis about homosexuality is right because even the pope believes that you can be born gay, which means if we see it from the biological point of view, we can see that genes are involved in what it extends to homosexuality. But you may have asked yourself is homosexuality generics or nurture.? I personally consider that when it comes to homosexuality genes have a very strong role to determine a male sexual identity. Therefore, I think that what it extends to homosexuality genes play a significant role. Otherwise think it this way, do you think the pope would say something like “God made you this way”? what does this implie to you or what can you determine from what he said? At least for me I see it as something that you are born with and that implies genes and biology in general, in other words this a clearly piece of evidence that shows us that when it comes to homosexuality genes and biology have a lot do with sexual identity.

MLA 8 Citation

Byrd, A. (2001). The Innate-Immutable Argument Finds No Basis in Science. [online] Available at: Http://www.narth.com/docs/innate.html [Accessed 16 Jul. 2012].

Horowitz, J. (2018). ‘God Made You This Way,’Pope Is Said to Have Told Gay Man. [online] Available at: Https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/world/europe/pope-francis [Accessed 30 Oct. 2018].

Mukherjee, Siddhartha. The Last Mile. Scribner, 2016

Staff, Newsweek. Homosexuality: Born or Bred?http://www.newsweek.com, 23 Feb. 1992.