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Science Explains Why
Homosexuals Exist
04 Sept 2007- Kampala, Uganda- Daily
Monitor reader F. Mungereza of Kampala has asked for scientific evidence why one
is gay.
It was not until the 20th Century that
scientists in Europe and America began to search for what in the human boy
governed attraction and sexual behaviour.
Previously such study had been taboo for
religious reasons, and mankind had not developed the kinds of technology that
made such research possible.
These first studies, occurring between 1902
and 1948, shocked scientists when they found that many more people were
attracted to the same sex than what they had expected, and that most were
otherwise normal people and not criminals or perverts as they had thought they
must be.
It is now 34 years since the American
Psychiatric Association declared that homosexuality was not a disorder of the
mind based on the weight of research showing it could not be cured, was not a
compulsive behaviour and did not exhibit any of the classic signs of a mental
illness.
Furthermore they found that most
homosexuals could live happy and productive lives provided they were free from
persecution.
Though homosexuality had been legal in a
few European countries for some years before this date, it was this expert
opinion and similar findings by mental health authorities throughout the world
which led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Europe, the Americas,
Australia and much of Asia in the decades to follow.
Since then scientists have been
increasingly interested in determining the physical cause and mechanisms for why
some people are homosexual and others are not. Science has known for many years
that the part of the brain that governs sexual activity in both people and
animals is the hypothalamus. In recent years they have discovered that this part
of the brain seems to be a different shape in some parts if a person is gay.
During mating season in animals it is this
part of the brain by which animals find their mates by their smell, and though
we do not do this consciously, this part of the brain seems to play the same
role in humans.
A 2005 study by the Karolinska Institute in
Sweden found that this part of the brain lit up when heterosexual men were
exposed to the smell of women, and when heterosexual women were exposed to the
smell of men. But no reaction occurred when gay men were exposed to a woman's
smell and when exposed to a man's smell the gay men's brain lit up.
Britain's University of Warwick also
released a study earlier this year which showed that the part of the brain that
governs how people perform tasks such as navigating and recalling lost objects
differs in people based on sexuality.
In general, men's brains are better at
these tasks than women's, but this study found that gay men's brains were worse
at this than heterosexual men and that lesbians' brains were better at this than
heterosexual women.
However this skill in all men gets worse
with old age much faster than it does with women. And while a specific "gay
gene" has not yet been identified, a number of genes have been found in both
homosexuals and their mothers and fathers that together appear to govern what
the orientation of their children will be, and for this reason some families
will have more homosexual relatives than others.
Studies on animals have indicated that
sexuality is fixed before birth and studies on humans have shown that a person
cannot choose or change their sexuality nor can a person "learn" or be taught to
be gay or straight, whether they are a child or adult.
Homosexual behaviour has also been observed
by researchers in more than 450 animal species, and as with humans sexuality
appears to be fixed and a set percentage of a population.
It is now generally agreed by scientists at
least five in every hundred people is gay or lesbian, with a further unknown
quantity of people who are attracted to both genders, and though most such
people hide themselves or pretend to be heterosexual- often even marrying, for
reasons of personal safety across the parts of the world where it is still
illegal, these percentages are the same across all countries and cultures.
There are hundreds of other studies that
have found similar links- these are merely some of the clearest.
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