What Determines Sexual Orientation?


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The Essentials of Same-Sex Relationships





What makes a person homosexual? Some heterosexuals (straight people) find it hard to understand: Why would someone choose to have sexual relations with members of their own sex? And if they didn’t choose it, then how can we understand why someone is gay? The answer is . . . well, there is no definitive answer.


Many people believe that homosexuals choose the homosexual lifestyle over heterosexuality. They think that a gay person makes a conscious choice at some point in his or her life to be gay, and so they also believe that gay people can just as easily change their minds and switch to heterosexuality. Of course, the implication is that they should change back to the more “normal” sexual orientation.


The truth, no one knows for sure the scientific cause of homosexuality — the reasons that some people are gay while most others are not. However, current scientific research leans toward the idea that people are born with the capacity to be either gay or straight and that the environment may have some influence as well. In spite of the research done on the subject, scientists have not found any conclusive results.


For many years, homosexuality was defined as a mental illness, and treatment was aimed at restoring “normal” sexuality. It wasn’t until 1973 that the American Psychiatric Association recognized that homosexuality wasn’t a mental illness.


Here's what modern science has to say about homosexuality:



  • Research with twins has demonstrated that a genetic component to homosexuality exists, but genetics isn’t thought to account for all cases.



  • Anatomical studies of the brain have shown some apparent structural differences between homosexuals and heterosexuals, but to date this research, while continuing, is still speculative.




Although humans have been contemplating the issue for eons, we still can come to no conclusion about what determines sexual orientation. All we know is that homosexuality among men and women has existed for as long as history has been recorded, that homosexual lifestyles are no more likely to disappear than heterosexual ones. With that in mind, it’s best to remember that homosexuals should be treated with the same respect as every other human being.




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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-determines-sexual-orientation.html

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