<p>I just turned 20, and now I realized nothing, with the current scientific technology, can change one's sexual orientation yet. So I gave up wanting and trying to be straight, and I just accepted myself. But the sad part is, my family is keep insisting on me to act masculine, make a girlfriend, play sports, etc. when I'm just being myself (being feminine, not interested in girls at all but only boys, being indifferent of sports,...) I haven't come out, and I will never do that, because I'm well aware of the consequences that come with it. I'm especially scared of people who think gays are "gross" and "disgusting" and treat gays accordingly. How should you live this world if you're a gay? Life is hard, but I think it is even harder for gays like me. How unfortunate.. Why did I have to be born like this? Why? By just random chance? Wow, I'm feeling really sad. I just wish I was born like most people (heterosexuals), so that I could live naturally, be myself and express myself freely without any fear.</p>
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make a girlfriend
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<p>just wanted to point that out</p>
<p>otherwise i'm not going to touch this thread</p>
<p>I think we're better off finding a cure for homophobia than for homosexuality. Plus, homosexuality is most probably incurable since it's not an illness.</p>
<p>Homosexuality is "curable" to the exent that there exists potential for the identification of genetic predisposition in a person's genome, and the possible subsequent genetic engineering that would replace the 'gay' allele with a 'straight' allele. </p>
<p>However, it is not understood exactly to what degree the sexual orientation a person identifies with is affected by the a theoretical 'gay' nucleotide sequence. </p>
<p>It might be that a certain allele only moderately increases the likelihood of a person being a homosexual, or on the other hand there may exist an allele that makes someone wholly gay from the get-go. Time will tell, I guess.</p>
<p>How would the gene for homosexuality continue to exist at such a high level? I guess maybe if it's linked to something else. Otherwise, it seems very unlikely that all gays had the same mutation.</p>
<p>bkiersted - my best friend is gay; he came out to me just before we both left for college. My older brother officially came out last year (I had walked in on him when I was in HS, and that was awkward). I have so many gay friends - I practically invented gay men, and I can, with absolute certainty, tell you that there's NOTHING wrong with it; sexuality is as natural as skin color, eye color, etc. Don't believe me? There are over 1500+ species that exhibit homosexual behavior in the wild (bonobos, fish, penguins (Wendell & Cass), owls, dolphins, etc) and those behaviors are even advantageous in some cases.</p>
<p>Everyone's different, even animals. Unfortunately, humans still have to learn to totally respect these differences -- the animals seem to be OK with them.</p>
<p>BE YOURSELF. WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO CHANGE WHO YOU ARE? REMEMBER, YOU'RE LIVING YOUR LIFE. NO ONE ELSE HAS THAT PRIVILEGE.</p>
<p>Have you heard of the Kinsey Scale? Most people do not consider themselves "completely heterosexual" or "completely homosexual;" instead there exists a complex continuum of sexualities, suggesting that, if genetic, homosexuality is due to more than simply "one gene." Do some research on homosexuality; my parents did, and it helped them immensely with my brother. Remember, no matter how liberal parents can be, a child coming out to them might still sting.</p>
<p>Good luck, and please PM me if you have any more questions or concerns!</p>
<p>thats WUT i said - honey, are you SERIOUSLY asking why the gay "gene" has continued to exist? Are you forgetting shared genes and inclusive fitness? For example, because my brother is gay and, say, he never has children doesn't mean that I won't have children. Because we're sibs, we share some genes, right? NOT only will his genes be passed on, but, as another example, he might help me babysit when I'm a resident, increasing the fitness of my own children, who might be at an increased "risk" of being homosexual themselves.</p>
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But the sad part is, my family is keep insisting on me to act masculine, make a girlfriend, play sports, etc. when I'm just being myself (being feminine, not interested in girls at all but only boys, being indifferent of sports,...)
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<p>Don't conflate "gay" with "being feminine, not interested in girls at all but only boys, being indifferent of sports,..." There are plenty of gay men who act like macho men and scream at the TV when the football game's on. The last thing the queer community needs is more reinforcement of stereotypes. You may describe yourself in such a way, but not every gay man is like you.</p>
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I haven't come out, and I will never do that, because I'm well aware of the consequences that come with it. I'm especially scared of people who think gays are "gross" and "disgusting" and treat gays accordingly. How should you live this world if you're a gay? Life is hard, but I think it is even harder for gays like me. How unfortunate.. Why did I have to be born like this? Why? By just random chance? Wow, I'm feeling really sad. I just wish I was born like most people (heterosexuals), so that I could live naturally, be myself and express myself freely without any fear.
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<p>Sounds like you're still angsting about being gay. Where do you live? In my experience, the culture of the place you live in or where you grew up makes a big difference in how one perceives one's sexual orientation.</p>
<p>What's the point of finding a cause or cure for homosexuality? Should we find causes and cures for feminism or veganism? I'd prefer the medical community to spend our limited resources on things that really matter, like HIV/AIDS.</p>
<p>1) There is a significant genetic component. It's been a couple of years since I read anything about it, but there is pretty significant correlation to believe that homosexual orientation is mostly from mother's genes (homosexual men are much more likely to have a homosexual uncle).</p>
<p>2) It's definitely not tied to a single gene - and I have full confidence in saying that. Definitely the confluence of interaction of several different genes. I've read at least one book on human sexuality that suggested there are likely as many as 10-12 genes which impact it. </p>
<p>3) Same book suggested that because of the variety on the Kinsey Scale, and because so few men are exclusively homosexual, that each gene causes a slight movement along the spectrum. Therefore it's technically possible to say that someone with 8 "homosexual genes" is more gay than someone with only 4 of those genes.</p>
<p>4) There's plenty of data out there that shows that homosexual men tend to have their first sexual experience at a younger age than heterosexual men, tend to have more lifetime partners (often including more female partners) than the average hetero, and more 'one-night stands' than the average hetero. Simply put, because most homosexual men do not have sex exclusively with men, homosexuality is simply a mating strategy, one that does have some success because they give themselves more opportunities with more women.</p>
<p>5) Any time you have competing behavioral strategies in a large enough population, they will eventually reach an equilibrium which is stable. It's an interesting confluence between Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in genetics and game theory in math/econ. The homosexual component of our population will remain constant because any deviation away from the equilibrium will result in forces that push it back to the equilibrium point.</p>
<p>6) Because of the multigene hypothesis, which I'm sure has an environmental factor (I should probably look for some identical twin concordance studies), there's never going to be a "cure". Too much going on, at far too complex a level, to tease out and come up with a "solution".</p>
<p>castleinthesky- honey, sorry to offend you with my ignorance. I actually did not know about shared genes, though I guess I should have thought of that. Still, Occam's razor, right?</p>
<p>Again, it goes beyond just shared genes. Homosexuality is just one behavioral strategy so it's going to find an equilibrium at some point.</p>