If one twin is gay is the other too
Is a person &#x;born gay&#x;, or is being queer a learned behavior?
Being same-sex attracted is not a preference for people. Instead, it appears to be a fundamental part of who someone is. It is not a learned habit. Which also means that people cannot “unlearn” their sexual orientation.
Of course just because we know it isn’t usually a learned behavior, that doesn’t indicate that we have a good explanation for what is going on biologically. We don’t.
What we carry out know is that there isn’t one single gene that explains homosexuality. Something as complicated as sexual orientation is going to involve lots of genes. And not only that, but it will involve the environment too.
Now by the environment I don’t just mean an overprotective mom or a domineering dad. “Environment” is a catchall for everything that isn’t a gene. For instance, what the fetus experienced while in the mother’s womb can change its development and alter behavior later on in life.
So even though you might expect that the environment only causes temporary changes, that’s not always the case. The environment can cause brains to be
Title: Homosexual Orientation in Twins: A Record on 61 Pairs and Three Triplet Sets
REFERENCES
Bailey, J. M., and Pillard R. C. (). A genetic study of male sexual orientation. Arch. Gen. Psychiat.
Bouchard, T. J., Lykken, D. T., McGue, M., Segal, N. L., and Tellegen, A. (). Sources human psychological differences: The Minnesota study of wins reared apart. Science
Davison, K., Brierley, H., and Smith, C. (). A male monozygotic twinship discordant for homosexuality. Br. J. Psychiat.
Diamond, M. (). A critical evaluation of the ontogeny of human sexual behavior. Quart. Rev. Biol.
Diamond, M. (). Human sexual development: Biological Foundation for social training. In Beach, F. A. (ed), Human Sexuality in Four Perspectives, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, MD, pp.
Diamond, M. (). Sexual persona and sex roles. In Bullough, V. (ed), The Frontiers of Sex Research, Prometheus, Buffalo, NY, pp.
Diamond, M. (). Sexual culture, monozygotic twins reared in discordant sex roles and a BBC follow-up. Arch. Sex. Behav.
Diamond, M. (). Homosexuality and bisexuality
Nature vs. Nurture: The Biology of Sexuality
MED prof speaks tonight on whether sexual orientation has genetic basis
Homosexuality was considered a mental illness when Richard Pillard was in medical school. It was the s and the Educational facility of Medicine professor of psychiatry was at the University of Rochester. At the time, the American Psychological Association still listed homosexuality as a disorder and psychologists and psychiatrists were trained on ways to treat it.
The first psychological test undertaken to determine whether there was a biological explanation for homosexuality was in With a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, Karen Hooker studied the relationship between homosexuality and psychological development and illness. Hooker studied both homosexuals and heterosexuals—matched for age, intelligence, and education level. The subjects were then given three psychological tests: the Rorschach, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), and the Make-a-Picture-Story Test (MAPS). Hooker found no major differences in the answers given by the two groups. Because of
Why Do Some Identical Twins Have Different Sexual Orientations?
by Justin Lehmiller
A growing amount of research suggests that sexual orientation has a genetic basis. In reality, scientists recently identified two specific genes that materialize to differ between male lover and straight men [1].
If sexual orientation is indeed genetically determined, it would be tempting to consider that identical twins would always have the matching orientation, right? If they have the exact alike genes and our genes control our sexuality, this would seem like a pretty logical conclusion. As it turns out, however, it’s not accurate.
Identical twins sometimes have different orientations. For example, one may be straight while the other is gay. So why is that?
In cases like this, some might argue that perhaps both twins are actually homosexual, but one just hasn’t come out yet. In other words, maybe there isn’t a true discrepancy. But this idea has been refuted scientifically.
In a study where scientists looked at the sexual arousal patterns of identical twins with different sexualities—specifically, where one was