I think I'm Gay

I posted the scientific evidence in my first reply that you said was too much to read. Take some time and check it out.

The Viking wrote:

Science Chic wrote: I posted the scientific evidence in my first reply that you said was too much to read. Take some time and check it out.

But you said there was not specific genetic evidence. Just a bunch of genes that could maybe add up to something different that could possibly if the environment led them a certain dierction could have a chance of somehow allowing a person to maybe decide he or she was gay. Does that about sum it up?

I said it wasn't narrowed down to an identified set of genes. There are chromosomal regions that absolutely, with sufficient statistical probability, correlate with homosexuality - and they are each thousands of base pairs long containing hundreds or thousands of genes - it takes time to isolate the specific ones of interest. This is the first step in identifying genes of interest - you find a big region, then narrow down specific candidates on each, then see if specific genes sort with specific behaviors, and determine what those gene candidates do - if they are going to affect behavior then you'd expect that they'd be expressed in the brain (many gene products are tissue specific, meaning the protein they code for is produced in only one type of tissue), and then you'd need to determine if they can affect behavior somehow - are those protein products participants in memory pathways, pain pathways, sensory pathways, etc. If you knock out those genes in mice, does it correlate with a significant reduction in homosexual behaviors (that'd be a difficult experiment to do, for many reasons)? Just because the genes haven't been specifically identified, doesn't mean that there isn't evidence for genetic influence.

Saying that homosexuality is a choice only opens up those who say they are to the notion that they can choose differently and that they are wrong to choose as they have. As many say it is not a choice, who are we to disregard how they feel since we aren't in their shoes? It makes no sense to me that so many would consciously choose a lifestyle that opens them to contemptible and demeaning treatment by those who do not try to understand. If it is a behavior that is chosen, why has it persisted throughout our history despite efforts against it, and why does it exist in many other species in the animal kingdom, if it isn't there for survivability and adaptability, meaning that it must be coded for, and carried throughout the history of, our genome?