Study finds no 'gay gene' - What that means for Catholic morality

[Minks]

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of sloppy writing out there when it comes to science.

(>text shortened)

The author of this piece, Fr. Paul Sullin, conveniently fails to mention the fact that influences can be environmental and still have nothing to do with upbringing, friends, neighborhood, etc… They can happen before birth in the mother’s womb. A good example of this is the “fraternal birth order effect.”

Research over the years has established several facts. <First, homosexual men do tend to have a higher birth order than heterosexual men, and this higher birth order is attributed to homosexual men having greater number of older brothers…>Secondly, the fraternal birth order effect operates through a biological mechanism during prenatal life, not during childhood or adolescence. Direct evidence for this is the fact that the fraternal birth order effect has been found even in males not raised with their biological brothers – it has been determined that biological brothers increase the odds of homosexuality in later-born males

@Thorolfr
I definitely agree with you. Here is the text, in the article that you quoted that seems especially contradictory (sloppy) to me:

“First, homosexual men do tend to have a higher birth order than heterosexual men, and this higher birth order is attributed to men having a greater number of older brothers.”

 

[Thorolfr]

The science isn’t sloppy, the sentence is just awkwardly written. The meaning is still not difficult to determine, namely that gay men are more likely than straight men to be a younger sibling and have more older brothers and the more older brothers a boy has, the greater his chances of being gay.

 

[Thorolfr]

Epigenetics is definitely an important issue, although in my understanding, epigenetic markers are often the result, at least initially, of environmental circumstances or events. Some traumatic event or circumstances, for example, might lead to an epigenetic marker that causes a gene that regulates a stress hormone to be permanently turned on which in turn might make that person more susceptible to heart disease or obesity, etc. The interesting thing about epigenetic markers is that they can make permanent changes to how genes express themselves and those changes can perhaps be handed down to offspring.

 

[Minks]

My heart breaks for those with that burden. Regardless of reports saying there’s no genetic backup, I can’t totally buy that. I grew up on a farm where we saw a large number of apparently homosexual animals, with both sexes involved, but with far more males involved than females: mice, rats (both of those in classrooms), dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, cattle, sheep, and goats. We had five-gaited mares for riding and Belgium draft horses for working the farm, but I never personally witnessed that behavior among them or our mules. We didn’t have rabbits, ducks or geese, so I don’t know about them.

It would seem logical that the sex lives of animals wouldn’t be influenced by environmental or emotional factors. However, much to our dismay when market day came, we made pets of almost all of our animals. Most wanted recognition and human touch, had their feelings easily hurt, and were jealous of others receiving attention. Some would pout, some would get mad and flounce off, and some would hover closer to us for more attention. Lol! There’s nothing quite like a clinging pig squealing for you to please give it more attention! If you touch one in just the right way, it will almost always flop down on its back for you to rub its stomach with that famous …uh…grin on its face.

So, if animals do interact like that with humans as well as communicate with their own kind, could their sex drives actually be influenced by environment? I don’t know. Animals treated very matter-of-factly, lacking the human interaction of those treated like pets don’t develop any loyalties or affection for the caretakers. Could environment play a part in what appears to be homosexual activity among animals? I don’t know. I don’t know the reasons for their apparent homosexual behavior, only that the behavior existed and that it seemed more prevalent among the animals which were less attached to us.

 

[Minks]

@Thorolfr

My mother taught first through fifth graders. I taught fourth through twelfth graders. Almost never would it be a surprise when we learned that a particular student, after reaching adulthood, was homosexual. It was almost always apparent by first grade. We knew the families of some of these students quite well. Mother, her teacher friends, and I talked about it on occasion.

In only one case that we knew about did a child seem to have an iffy home life. In that case, the father was a fireman—tall, big, muscular—and the boy was frail and delicate, shy and desperate to please, with easily shattered feelings. He was a joy in our classrooms. He was always polite, and had a beautiful heart and personality, but his dad frequently ridiculed his stature and called him a sissy because he didn’t like playing boy-type games or have any interest in athletics or developing muscles. Whether the cause is genetic or environmental or a combination, I am convinced that his sexual proclivity wasn’t a conscious choice.

 

[MamaJewel]

There is a drag child who is quite famous and goes around adults acting as a stripper and they throw money at the boy.

uuuuuggggghhhh

I can only imagine if the mother watched EWTN perhaps the child would have wanted to be a priest.

Probably likely. I’ve read sociology research that suggests our religious ideology is a reflection of the group and geographical location where we are raised.

However, sexual abuse of a child does remove a child’s individuation abilities. It isn’t uncommon to hear non-heterosexual or asexual adults say that sexual harm as a child hindered how they view themselves sexually.

You’ve made some really good points though.