When talking to someone that thinks Homosexuality is something someone is born with and the intersexed is the same thing because they are born that way, is there a distinction?
What little science there is shows with certainty that for some people at least, homosexuality is something they’re born with, due to cross-sexed neurology.
The children who show marked cross-gendered (note the difference between sex and gender) behaviour at an early age may not in fact be transsexual. Only 1 in 3 are. But the rest, with almost no exceptions, are homosexual or bisexual as adults. Anti-Gay Therapists have given up on trying to prevent this, nothing worked. They just now try to decrease the odds that they’ll be TS, but appear to have no success there either, they just produce damaged adults from damaged children.
Such people though are a minority within the Gay population. The situation for others is less clear. Instead of being able to say with a great degree of certainty, we can only say the evidence strongly suggests a biological cause in the majority of cases. On the balance of probabilities, yes, in the majority of cases the causation is biological. But we can’t be utterly certain of that, and definitely can’t be certain it’s always biologically caused. It probably isn’t, not in absolutely every case.
image.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/06/16/Brai_Scan_460X276.jpg
You can see the differences between Homosexual Men, Homosexual Women, Heterossexual Men, and Heterosexual Women on MRI images. Whether this is causal or not is another matter - though as it’s in the non-plastic area of the brain, it’s very likely not caused by behaviour. Rather than causing homosexual orientation though, these differences may be purely symptomatic of them. Experimentation on animals shows that homosexuality can be reliably induced by hormonal manipulation during foetal development. It appears that although some genetic sequences may make a foetus more susceptible to minor hormonal anomalies - so increasing the odds - there is no “gay gene” as such. It’s a matter of hormonal environment in the womb, congenital yes, genetic, no.
Now all this is entirely separate from the moral and theological concept of homosexual
behaviour being sinful. My interpretation of scripture says that it is. But then, my interpretation of scripture (Timothy etc) also says that female teachers or managers should be forbidden too, and thus that I should not be allowed to post here or anywhere else, but should be silent. Oh yes, and the Earth is flat too, scripturally. Those are just some of the reasons why I don’t consider scripture inerrant.
For far more detail, please see Dr Veronica Drantz’
extensive work on neuroanatomy. She has some excellent presentations on the subject of sexual orientation in the human brain, including some testable hypotheses.
Some people look upon the Intersexed as being inherently Homosexual regardless of who they’re attracted to (even if they’re attracted to no-one), and Homosexual desire as being inherently sinful (even if behaviour is celibate), thus condemning those born with particular body configurations as not just sinful but evil by definition. This is quite in accordance with Calvinist and other doctrines of pre-destination. It’s not in accordance with Church teaching though.
Hope this helps - and thanks so much for your prayers. May any blessings you send to others, no matter who, be returned a thousandfold.
Zoe
p.s. The evidence is also that a substantial number of people who say they are either hetero- or homo- sexual are actually bi-sexual. Those “heterosexual” people who think that homosexuality is a choice are by and large bisexual. For them it is, so they think it is for everyone. Those “ex-Gay” who are sexually active are also bisexual rather than hetero, as their sexual attractions don’t change, they just suppress them in order to live a life less sinful.
p.p.s I’m probably bisexual myself, even though I consider myself straight. It’s just that I have a female body, and my upbringing and instincts tell me that homosexuality is wrong. I’m homophobic. I just don’t consider my irrational feelings a justification for denying others human rights. A psychotherapist could probably allow me to feel attraction to other women - but I’d rather stay as I am, thanks!
