Is being Gay a sexual preference? (ritual, homosexual, choice, America)

[Reverend Rick]

Are people born Gay?

Is it a result of a person's environment?

Is this a physical thing, a mental thing or both?

Is there any proof that being Gay is not just a sexual preference, or are we required to just take someones word on this?

[standing_alone]

Originally Posted by American Psychological Association

What Causes a Person To Have a Particular Sexual Orientation?
There are numerous theories about the origins of a person's sexual orientation; most scientists today agree that sexual orientation is most likely the result of a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factors. In most people, sexual orientation is shaped at an early age. There is also considerable recent evidence to suggest that biology, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person's sexuality. In summary, it is important to recognize that there are probably many reasons for a person's sexual orientation and the reasons may be different for different people.
Is Sexual Orientation a Choice? No, human beings can not choose to be either gay or straight. Sexual orientation emerges for most people in early adolescence without any prior sexual experience. Although we can choose whether to act on our feelings, psychologists do not consider sexual orientation to be a conscious choice that can be voluntarily changed.

http://www.apa.org/topics/orientation.html

[Guitar's Cry]

Originally Posted by Reverend Rick

Are people born Gay?

Is it a result of a person's environment?

Is this a physical thing, a mental thing or both?

Is there any proof that being Gay is not just a sexual preference, or are we required to just take someones word on this?

I think in terms of the nature vs. nurture debate it is both.

There is evidence that brain structure and chemical responses to pheromones play an influential role in sexuality--as well they should! But it also makes sense that behavioral psychology will also influence sexuality.

It's not just a sexual preference (though that should be enough), in the same way that religion is not just a spiritual preference. It's a cultural influence.

[Halcyon]

Originally Posted by Reverend Rick

Are people born Gay?

Yes.

Originally Posted by Reverend Rick

Is it a result of a person's environment?

If you mean how they are raised, then no.

Originally Posted by Reverend Rick

Is this a physical thing, a mental thing or both?

It is both physical and mental.

When the brain is developing in the mothers womb it is shaped via the interaction with male and female hormones, the levels of androgens and oestrogens determine the physical construct of two specific areas of the brain.

One area (A) tells us which sex we are, the other (B) informs us which sex we find attractive. Sometimes hormone levels in the womb are different to the norm (i.e. what we would expect for the production of a heterosexual offspring). This could be due to the genetic make-up of the mother or the fetus, or both.
It could also result from a reaction the mother's endocrine system has to the presence of the fetus, and has even been suggested to correlate to the sex of previous offspring (i.e. if a woman has a son, the second son is more likely to be gay due to the mother overcompensating with oestrogen in response to the levels of androgens produced by the fetus).

Homosexual people have area B reversed, that is gay men have an area B that resembles a heterosexual woman's brain, and gay women have an area that resembles a heterosexual man's.
In transexuals area A is reversed, and in some cases both areas may be reversed.

Originally Posted by Reverend Rick

Is there any proof that being Gay is not just a sexual preference, or are we required to just take someones word on this?

http://endo.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/145/2/475#
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/release...activation.pdf
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...b5c7fb81129c0e

[Reverend Rick]

Very interesting reading!

[Victor]

I think it has much to do with coditioning at early age. Everything from how you raise them, enviroment, nuero-associations, etc. Although I question the biological aspect of it. I'm certainly no expert on the topic, but I haven't read anything that impressed me in this area.

[Jaymes]

From what I learned in my psych class last quarter, it's all up in the air. Anything involving nature vs. nurture pretty much is, whether it's in relation to inclination to violence, depression, optimism, sexuality, whatever.

[Reverend Rick]

Originally Posted by Victor

I think it has much to do with coditioning at early age. Everything from how you raise them, enviroment, nuero-associations, etc. Although I question the biological aspect of it. I'm certainly no expert on the topic, but I haven't read anything that impressed me in this area.

If all that was true, we would be able to prove your sexual interest with a single test. You might even be able to change your desires by taking a certain hormone or something. I can see it now, designer sexual preference drugs.