You can purchase an autographed copy of Anything But Straight by sending a $35 check or money order to:
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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
A new book out this week conclusively shows that sexual orientation is natural, normal and certainly not a choice. The only people still saying that nurture causes homosexuality are right wing groups like Focus on the Family. To prove their point, they scrape druggies, loons and sundry losers off the street, and slip them a lot of hard cash to say that God turned them straight. Unfortunately for Focus, they keep running into the walls of reality and science. I guess walls never stopped them. Look how they work to destroy the one separating church and state.
8 Comments:
I'm looking forward to reading this book. I feel it will shed some light on facts that gay human beings are already aware of: sexual orientation is determined long before social factors can have any influence whatsoever. It is fixed, innate, instinctive, "hard wired" into the brain and CNS, and not changeable, in fact, it would be no different if one were to take reparative therapy to become homosexual. After reparative therapy, one must become a hypocritical, born again self-righteous, non-thinking idiot to really believe this stuff. Those who say they have become heterosexual are either: 1. Lying, 2. Were never really gay in the first place but do this because of the financial rewards. I suspect both are the case. The nature vs nurture debate is over as far as I'm concerned. Sadly, Focus on the Family and it's leader James Dobson, are unlikely to change any of their points of view in light of any new information. Melissa Fryear, "gender issues analyst" (what really the F*** is that anyway)will most likely denounce it as well, because she is a former lesbian (yeah right). And a well paid one at that. Tim W.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/03/2005 10:21 PM
What is wonderful, is that these new studies are starting to explain not only the questions the studies themselves seek to answer, but they shed light on other studies that were unconclusive or raised more questions.
We've always wondered why there are more gay men than lesbians. We've also become convinced all foeti begin as female and some develop male characteristics. The variegated effects of testosterone during gestation may explain the differences in homosexual populations among males and females.
What I find especially comforting, is that the Christian right is depending less and less on the infallibility of the bible (a smart move given the increased public awareness of why the bible is what it is thanks to the popularity of The DaVinci Code), and more on "junk science."
We get enough studies like this, which all dovetail, and reparitive therapy proponents can look forward to a career of fighting to be heard at professional seminars only to be laughed off the stage.
posted by PBCliberal, at
7/04/2005 12:25 AM
These studies support (prove?) what we Gays have known our whole lives. But this book and others like it will be ignored and/or rubbished by Dobson's Hocus Pocus on the Family and other hate groups like them. I think the leaders of these "christian" groups in their heart of hearts KNOW their claims about homosexuality are bullshit, they simply have too much power and money riding on the fictions 'it's a choice' etc. and will never change their position. It's their justification for bigotry and discrimination. These are the same putzes who wont accept the mountains of evidence supporting evolution; one book called Born Gay wont't change them either. But, hopefully the more open minded and educated of the general public will continue to be swayed to our side by these new revelations of SCIENCE and not the voodoobullshit of the religious right! Gary (NJ)
posted by Anonymous, at
7/04/2005 7:29 AM
The problem with this report is that it's not conclusive. The twin studies show 30% - 50% concordance, but the rest about the activity in the womb is speculation. There is still no scientific evidence, only conjecture which includes this book, that hormonal factors in the womb affect sexuality.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/04/2005 8:07 AM
There have been recent studies relating to smell and sexual arousing between women and gay men, as well as a repeat of the infamous "fruit fly" experiment, in which a female fly injected with male DNA tried to mate with a female fly. These are all in a series of studies that will be ongoing for at least the next decade or two. The scientific community is ddefinately approaching this in a very professional fashion, and it's good to see reality and reason on our side. The Advocate has a special on this subject by the way in its most recent edition.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/04/2005 8:51 AM
You'd think that the news that sexual orientation isn't learned behaviour would comfort them.
After all, they spend all this time fretting about the evil homosexuals recruiting their children, you'd think they'd be happy to hear that's actually impossible.
So, homosexuality has now been proven inborn? I thought that had been done years ago. Didn't Chandler Burr do that, circa 1996? Why bother to write another book at all?
posted by Anonymous, at
7/07/2005 5:41 AM