Conservatives: Homosexuality is Not a "Choice" (But Restrained Sexuality Is)

The brains of gay men and women look like those found in heterosexual people of the opposite sex, research suggests.

The Swedish study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, compared the size of the brain's halves in 90 adults.

Gay men and heterosexual women had halves of a similar size, while the right side was bigger in lesbian women and heterosexual men.

A UK scientist said this was evidence sexual orientation was set in the womb.

BBC

One of the ongoing themes of this blog is science versus symbolism. Some people like to believe in a symbolic order to reality; others like to impose a symbolic order on science. Those are the delusional anti-science trends among Conservatives and Liberals, respectively.

As the evidence cited above suggests, homosexuality is innate. There is an exception, but we have to wonder how many homosexuals fit this exception, and how many more are "biological homosexuals" as described above.

The exception, of course, is molestation; anecdotal evidence suggests that molestation at a young age "imprints" the individual to practice a similar sexual activity in their adult life, as if trying to recapitulate the events that traumatized them. This seems consistent with behavior in the face of other traumas.

In research with 942 nonclinical adult participants, gay men and lesbian women reported a significantly higher rate of childhood molestation than did heterosexual men and women. Forty-six percent of the homosexual men in contrast to 7% of the heterosexual men reported homosexual molestation. Twenty-two percent of lesbian women in contrast to 1% of heterosexual women reported homosexual molestation. This research is apparently the first survey that has reported substantial homosexual molestation of girls.

NIH

So we have two groups:

(a) Biological homosexuals, who are born gay;
(b) Molestation victims who "act out" same gender sexual activity.

In the former case, there is zero choice about sexual orientation. They are literally wired to be a third sex. Their only choice is one conservatives should champion: responsible, healthy sexual behavior that does not manifest itself in public lewdness. Since homosexuality does not imply family orientation, a live and let live policy makes sense; those who are family-oriented can argue for the ability to normalize their children to heterosexual behavior, barring a child manifestating innate homosexuality. In turn, it is not unfair to ask gays in a conservative community to behave with decorum.

In the latter case, we face a troubling moral issue. They have a choice, or at least a partial one, but it's unlikely molested children will reach a self-actualized state regarding their molestation for many years. Morality becomes useless; the issue then becomes treatment for those who can be treated, and incarceration for those who will become lifelong pedophiles.

Mainstream conservatism has wrecked its public reputation by taking unscientific positions (as has liberalism, but that's another article). It makes more sense for conservatives to accept what science offers, and respond with a choice that conserves traditional values, than to try to force people to change their biology or live double lives.

All of us have only one real choice in life, and that's to accept reality, no matter what our emotions or desires tell us.