|
|
|
|
Cold in here
New Member
Canada
48 Posts |
 Posted - 10/21/2003 : 04:58:56
|
(Los Angeles, California) Evidence continues to mount that sexuality is genetically controlled. The latest findings were reported today by researchers from the University of California.
The scientists, in a statement, said that sexual identity is "hard-wired" into the genes.
"Sexual identity is rooted in every person's biology before birth and springs from a variation in our individual genome," said Dr. Eric Vilain, a genetics professor at the UCLA School of Medicine.
Vilain and his team of researchers have identified 54 genes in mice that may explain why male and female brains look and function differently. They used two separate genetic testing methods to compare the production of genes in male and female brains in embryonic mice -- long before the animals developed sex organs.
They discovered 54 genes produced in different amounts in male and female mouse brains. Eighteen of the genes were produced at higher levels in the male brains; 36 were produced at higher levels in the female brains.
"We discovered that the male and female brains differed in many measurable ways, including anatomy and function." Vilain said. Among the differences, the two hemispheres of the brain appeared more symmetrical in females than in males. According to Vilain, the symmetry may improve communication between both sides of the brain, leading to enhanced verbal expressiveness in females.
Vilian warns though that finding the exact gene that results in homosexuality will require considerable more research. He said that if future research does determine conclusively that homosexuality is genetic and not a choice, the implications would be huge.
"If it's not a choice, you can't have the typical conservative argument that says you choose this lifestyle so you have to bear the consequences and society has no reason to basically give you any rights because you choose to be an outcast," Vilain said.
"If you can't do anything about it, therefore you should have all the rights to be integrated into society and have the same rights as heterosexuals in terms of marriage and the rights to inheritance."
Vilain said the initial emphasis will be on determining the origin of transgenderism. He says the research may help doctors determine the proper gender assignment of babies born with ambiguous genitalia.
"If physicians could predict the gender of newborns with ambiguous genitalia at birth, we would make less mistakes in gender assignment," Vilain said.
Typically such a baby is assigned a gender and in many places in North America genital surgery is performed to make the genitals appear to conform to the gender selected.
But many grow up very unhappy, feeling the surgery was harmful by assigning them a gender they didn't feel was appropriate.
The Human Rights Campaign welcomed the results but said that laws should protect all Americans equally, regardless of the genetic basis for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
"This study is part of a growing body of evidence showing that it is likely that sexual orientation and gender identity are genetically based," said Elizabeth Birch, HRC's executive director.
"Although further research will be conducted by this team, at the end of the day, the question of nature versus nurture shouldn't matter. Laws in America should protect everybody equally, regardless of what causes differences of sexual orientation or gender identity."
Last week, British psychologists also said they have found strong evidence to support the theory that a person's sexuality is "hard-wired" into the brain before birth.
http://www.365gay.com/newscontent/102003gayGene.htm
So what would this mean for the "Gay is a choice" argument if God himself designed homosexuals?
|
Toronto is the capital of Canada, and I live in a giant igloo. Blubber anyone? |
|
|
Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2003 : 05:56:23 [Permalink]
|
| Given the arguements I've seen, I would say it would turn into "study buckled to pressure from Gay Rights groups". Either that or "Gay as punishment". |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
 |
|
|
Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2003 : 09:35:48 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Originally posted by Cold in here
"If physicians could predict the gender of newborns with ambiguous genitalia at birth, we would make less mistakes in gender assignment," Vilain said.
UCLA, figures!
What a load of crap.
Why are people so obsessed with gender, anyway?
Why do they have to assingn anything?
Leave them the way they are.
Why can't a person just be a person, they way they were born.
Talk about Hitler wanting to make everyone with blue eyes.....well, why is this any different than fooling around with what someone was born with? |
|
|
|
Computer Org
Skeptic Friend
392 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2003 : 11:09:24 [Permalink]
|
Having once foamed at the mouth and posted a scathing comment to a thread titled I have become more cautious, more slow to spew acidic comments. This thread was clearly one to avoid. I read too quickly and missed the crap until Snake posted.
Looking more carefully, I found the offending sentence, followed by the ghastly, abominablequote:
Typically such a baby is assigned a gender and in many places in North America genital surgery is performed to make the genitals appear to conform to the gender selected.
I consider myself a fairly tolerant person but the torture of babies is about as hideous an act as humanity has evolved.
(I, too, was tortured as a baby: Yanked from cozy, warm, quiet, dark comfort into an icy glare; dangled by my feet like a witch in Inquisition; my naked body beaten mercilessly by a huge man; needles shoved into my body; wraped in 'cloth' that felt like the coarsest burlap; and deposited in near-BEDLAM---a room filled with my fellow screaming babies. HIDEOUS!! I still remember it all, as if it were just last week. HORRIBLE! Yet: "All things are relative": No one pulled out a knife and hacked away at my crotch---for no better reason than to satisfy someone's aesthetic conclusion that my genetalia were "ambiguous".
If I still clearly remember the torture of the first 15 minutes of my life (--and those memories are bringing shivers to me right now--), what must it be like for someone having their urinary tract (--Is a baby's urine acidic? Would it BURN as it passed through the butchered crotch?--) hacked, sliced, diced and "remodeled" into a more pleasant appearance?
But enough of my mauderings about the Mengelists in the Pediatric Ward and on to the subject of this thread.
Cold in here asks an interesting question withquote:
So what would this mean for the "Gay is a choice" argument if God himself designed homosexuals?
I, of course, utterly, totally believe in the Supreme God. While I believe in the processes of 'evolution', I also believe that on occasion there is an active modification of a genetic structure to produce what is effectively a new species. (Yes, yes. At the risk of Atheistic Obliteration, I am willing to use the word "Angel" and even "ArchAngel" and "ArchArchAngel" --- someone has to do the design-work and implement the genetic modifications.)
I know little of Biology, having never completed a course in it---even the fundamentals from high-school; but when I first ran across the notion of "ambiguous genetalia" and the rather sizable number of such births, it occurred to me that perhaps we were witnessing either- genetic throwbacks to when humanity only had one gender, or
- one of these "redesign" efforts, sending humanity from 2 genders to just one gender.
It has been some years since I thought about the second possibility but there appeared to be sound reasons; that such a species-wide modification would be evolutionarily valuable for humanity.
Either way --- a throwback to the past or the waves toward the future --- it would make TREMENDOUS sense that humans with the same sexual appearance would be mutually attractive.
So it seems to me, anyway.
What is ABSOLUTELY clear is that even the most barbarous human society should be prohibited from torturing its new-born babies in the name of aesthetics. A society that allows or even perpetrates such ghastliness must surely be considered DAMNED BEYOND REDEMPTION: Sodom and/or Gamorah revisited --- but worse: MUCH, MUCH worse.
(Sorry for the rant.)
(Edited to finish post: Keyboard went dead.) |
Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life. --Falstaff |
| Edited by - Computer Org on 10/21/2003 11:43:37 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Topic Locked
