• Question: Do you believe that people are born homosexual or that it is a life choice. There is a lot more choice in todays society and so i'm not sure what to believe!

    Asked by allismae to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 20 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by 29905340hw.
    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      That is a good question, and not an easy one to answer. In all honesty I do not know, but it is perhaps a bit of both. I think one of the best things is that there is so much choice about the matter today!

    • Photo: Vera Weisbecker

      Vera Weisbecker answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      People are often (mostly?) born homosexual indeed, like some people are born with talents for music or maths. Many people don’t work out that they are homosexual until very late, others work it out early (lucky them!). In that case, choice just doesn’t come into it.

      There is also “situational homosexuality”, which appears in certain situations when there are only members of one gender available. In that case, otherwise non-homosexual people may choose to have homosexual sex. So under some circumstances, there is an element of choice. I’d like to stress that the decision to have homosexual intercourse, for whichever reason, does not represent a bad choice. As long as everyone involved is happy, whatever works is fine!

    • Photo: Katie Marriott

      Katie Marriott answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      I am really not sure about this one. There has been a lot of research in this area and from what I remember there is evidence for it both being and also not being genetic. A very good question but I am not sure!

    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      This is a complex question, and scientists don’t have all the answers yet. THere is quite strong evidence that genes play a role in homosexuality, although we don’t know the specific genes yet. THat doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t a life choice though – someone might have genes that make them good at music but they can still choose whether to play an instrument or not.

      Ideas about homosexuality have also been quite variable over history, frmo being completely banned and punishable by death in many countries (many today too), to being quite widely practised. So culture certainly plays a big role.

    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Culture plays a huge role in sexuality. However, since there is homosexuality in some form or another in a huge variety of animals I expect that it must be at least partly genetic. As Ed says, mind you, this doesn’t mean that there will be a “gay gene” any more than there is a gene for being great at football, or painting.

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