The Science of "Born This Way"

Scientifically, Gaga got it right

Conservative Christians and Muslims have had their knickers in a bunch (and have pushed themselves into a corner) over their objections to Lady Gaga's song Born This Way.

It goes beyond the immature reactions of censoring the pro-gay lyrics on the radio (as authorities in Malaysia have done), or the clipping out of that same section on the Philippine-based music channel, Channel V.  There have also been the cleverly cheesy "Not Born This Way" op eds, blog pieces, and sermons disseminated by some Evangelical Christians, and certain politicians have even jumped in the mix to assert their view that homosexuality is merely a choice.  They think they're making a good point, but what they're really doing is making themselves look foolish.

The two statements most commonly made are:  "Science is in dispute on homosexuality," and "There's no scientific conclusion that there is a gay gene."

As a biologist this certainly comes as a surprise to me, as well as to my colleagues.  I'm someone who is trained in science and genetics.  This is what I went to school for, including research in hormonal affects on brain development and sexuality.  I hate to burst any bubbles, but science, in fact, is actually not in dispute on this matter.

Bishops to Pinoy LGBTs: Be who you are, but accept that you're second-class... in your church and in your nation

In typically confusing Roman Catholic style, two Filipino Bishops of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) have said that they don't care about a person's sexuality, and that they only care about making sure anyone other than heterosexuals cannot have sex or form legal unions.  This all fits tragically in with what I wrote about in a previous post, "We accept you as long as you never find fulfillment."

Essentially the two bishops, Paciano Aniceto and Oscar Cruz, aren't saying anything new.  This has been the line of the Catholic Church for the past few decades.  Their reiteration comes in conjunction with the Philippine launch of a Catholic-sponsored book entitled Homosexuality and The Catholic Church.  The crux of their view is that it's okay for gays and lesbians to come out as gay and lesbian, but at the same time, if they choose to be in a relationship, form a household, or enter into a committed union with someone of the same sex, they then become sinners who need to be "corrected."

The book isn't anything new, actually.  It was first released in 2007 but wasn't released in the Philippines until March of 2011.  I actually had the opportunity to read it in 2009.  As a biologist, I give the author (Fr. John Harvey, who recently passed away) a thumbs-up for promoting tolerance, but a thumbs-down for a lack of scientific facts.  The book presents a view of sexuality that is straight out of the playbook of early 80s psychoanalysis, and as such promotes a type of pseudoscience (essentially saying that homosexuality is a sickness, but saying it with a compassionate smile), which is neither accurate nor beneficial to the discussion.

How to avoid catching "the gay"

Talk about confusing.  I recently got my hands on a mini-booklet put out by the Focus on the Family organization.  As some of you may know, Focus on the Family is an American Christian conservative group which is very anti-gay and anti-abortion.  They also have a program called Love Won Out, which aims to turn homosexuals into heterosexuals through prayer and varying degrees of exorcism.

So within their information they have a handy little list to help youngsters avoid catching the germs that make people gay, written by an out-of-touch-with-reality man named Don Schmierer.  The list gives things that cause homosexuality, or so they believe.  It goes like this:

1.  The individual's self-will

2.  Looking at pornography

3.  Seeing gayness portrayed in the media and culture

4.  Having been molested

5.  Having parents who are adulterous

6.  Being seduced to do gay things by friends

7.  A failure in parenting or church leadership

Nice.  So if this were true, 100% of people should be gay.  Of course the list wasn't subjected to scientific scrutiny, and pretty much only includes things that Mr. Schmierer seems to frown on personally.

The Focus on the Family list goes on to include:

1.  Same-sex experimentation

2.  Negative spiritual influences

3.  Personality temperament

4.  Negative body image

5.  Public education

6.  Fear of or inability to relate to members of the opposite sex


Most of them are just nutty.  Personality temperament?  Which temperament?  Being too happy?  Too melancholy?  A temperament that likes watching too many episodes of Glee?  And public education...  Seriously, public education?  Again, the majority of people should be gay if this were true. 

That last one is the most interesting, however, because the organization contradicts what it has said in other publications.  In other statements they say that in their youth homosexuals feel more comfortable with, more secure with, and are better at relating to members of the opposite sex.  But in the list above they state the opposite:  that a fear of, or an inability to relate to the opposite sex can lead to homosexuality.

So, as a biologist I'm just wondering:  if being able to relate to the opposite sex can lead to homosexuality, and not being able to relate to the opposite sex can lead to homosexuality, then how does anyone become heterosexual??

At the end of the booklet they state:  "As this booklet has made clear, no one cause for homosexuality can be pinpointed."  Right.  It's really not too surprising that they come to that conclusion since they ignore biological factors.  Geniuses.

My all time favorite "cause" of homosexuality came from a wacky über conservative website called WorldNetDaily a couple of years ago.  They proposed that soy is the reason kids go gay.  Yes you read that right.  Soy, as in soy milk, tofu, anything with soy in it.  Some people are so obsessed with homosexuality that they're willing to blame anything for it.  If it's not the devil it must be the demon-possessed bean called soy.  They may blame everything under the sun, but of course they always avoid mentioning genetics because that would prove them wrong.  That's the convenience of paranoia.

If you'd like to take a look at some supposed cures for homosexuality espoused by Pro-Life Philippines and cleverly adapted by a Filipino blogger, click here.

Welcome!

Homosexuality is a hot-button issue to say the least. Not many issues are able to create as many sparks and fiery debates as this one.  Many countries around the world are moving ever forward, increasingly granting more and more rights and protections to gays and lesbians. Others are not.

As a Norwegian living in the Philippines, I happen to be caught between the two. I come from Norway, a very progressive country in Europe, and I now find myself in the Philippines, a very conservative country in Southeast Asia. The contrasts are overwhelming at times. My own country is cold, the Philippines is hot; Norway is developed, the Philippines is developing; Norway has a small population, the Philippines' population is quite large; Norway is a secular society, the Philippines is still highly religious in the home, the school, and even the halls of government.

The contrast in the two countries' laws is immense as well. While Norway has very liberal laws regarding, for example, divorce, abortion, and gay rights and same-sex marriage, the Philippines is a stronghold of conservatism, a place where both divorce and abortion are illegal, and where gay rights are still seen as something "foreign." Having been raised in an open, liberal society, the way things are in the Philippines can be admittedly frustrating.

I personally am heterosexual, but I have a cousin who is gay. He recently married his partner and they have since adopted a baby. Perhaps the fact that I have a gay family member has spurred a desire in me to see that he is entitled to all the same rights under the law. Perhaps the fact that I am from a staunchly egalitarian society plays a role as well. Perhaps the fact that I am also a biologist has something to do with why I am writing this blog. As a man of science, accurate information based on facts are of great importance to me. The amount of misinformation on homosexuality floating around the planet has stirred the disdain of myths and inequality that I have inside me.

I have often heard said to gay and lesbian people, "Oh you're gay?...well, there's a cure for that." Being that most people who say that are religious conservatives, the assumption is that they mean you can "pray the gay away." Cute but incredibly naiive when viewed through the lens of modern science.

Biology, which is my field of expertise, together with neurology, embryology, and genetics, are on the front lines of this issue.  While theologians and armchair moralists quibble over doctrines and Hebrew Old Testament verses, we in science are afforded to work with powerful "little" things called facts.  And while doctrines are open to interpretation and verses written in ancient languages must be scrutinized ad nauseum in light of historical, cultural and linguistic contexts, scientific facts are purely scientific facts.  One cannot ponder them into obscurity if one doesn't like what they show evidence of.  They are facts, not opinions, and by their very nature they are concrete.  

This blog's posts and pages will explore those facts, which each day grow more and more numerous and convincing.  The data and peer-reviewed research from all corners of the globe are showing one thing:  a homosexual orientation is no more of a choice than a heterosexual orientation.  Again, this has nothing to do with opinions, feelings, doctrines, or beliefs.  The scientific evidence speaks perfectly well enough for itself.

For those who believe "there's a cure for that," this blog is for you: to shed light, facts, and broaden understandings. It is also for the many gays and lesbians who daily struggle in the face of prejudice, discrimination, and bigotry at the hands of people who just don't know any better. It is to let you know that there are many straight people - including many straight Christians - who are not against you, but who stand with you and fight for you. It is to let you know that you are not strange, disordered, deviant, or abnormal. That is why I'm writting this blog: to say to people who push a "cure," that knowledge is actually the best cure.

If you're misinformed, confused, unsure, ignorant of the facts on the matter, unaware of what modern science has to say, well...there's a cure for that.

______________________________________

It is important of course to remember that the Philippines is a very socially conservative country -- a place where divorce is not yet even legal. The powers that be, and always have been, are deeply religious. Though they may be sincere they are often sincerely wrong, and more and more frequently they find themselves on the opposing side of modern scientific findings.

I read a newspaper opinion piece written by an outspoken Filipino Catholic priest, in which he asserted that the Philippines is "the last bastion of family and life in the world." Though slightly misguided, this priest, and throngs of other like-minded religious conservatives, wholeheartedly believe that to be true; and they are willing to resist tooth and nail any agenda they believe may alter the status quo.

They are the very embodiment of conservatism: defend and uphold the thoughts and ways of old, and resist change at any cost. It would be admirable if only it weren't so narrow and impractical, for to do so requires one to either deny or altogether ignore scientific facts. Many place their beliefs above everything else, ignoring all evidence that contradicts them. It has been said that one should not have to surrender one's mind in order to be a faithful believer. I couldn't agree more.

But I must take caution not to become the very thing I take a stand against: intolerant. I have neither disrepect nor disdain for Catholics or any religious person. I myself am a Christian, and my faith is an important part of my life. Religious conservatives have just as much a right to voice their opinions in good conscience as anyone else, and I am not nor have I ever been intolerant of those views.

The issue for me arises in the way those views are often voiced and propagated, that being to the exclusion of all others. Furthermore, many religious conservatives have a desire to take their private beliefs and transfer them upon everyone else through legislation or the ballot box. This is where I take issue.

It is one thing to believe in and follow the teachings and edicts of one's faith in one's own life; it is another thing altogether to insist that your neighbor must also live their life according to your beliefs. Such an attitude is both irresponsible and damaging, and has no place in a modern, pluralistic democracy. We went down that path in Europe in the middle ages and the end result brought nothing but oppression, disunity, and eventually blood-shed. Please learn from our mistakes.

Speaking of ballot box morality, I am reminded of the Proposition 8 fiasco that took place in California in 2008. The Supreme Court of California had found it unconstitutional for the state to deny same-sex couples the right to marry, and social conservatives thought the sky was surely falling. Then, in November of that year, a California-wide initiative was placed on the general election ballot: it was called Proposition 8, and the intent was to allow Californians to vote on whether or not same-sex couples should be barred from marrying under state law. The measure passed by a margin of 52-48%, and gay Californians saw a constitutional right stripped away from them in an instant.

When news of this broke, I was practically sick to my stomach. I was home in Norway at the time, and when my family, friends, and colleagues discussed the matter we were all utterly disgusted by it. We weren't entirely shocked that the measure passed - after all, America has its fair share of social conservatives that's for sure. What was really shocking to me and most other Norwegians (indeed many Europeans overall), was that Prop. 8 made it on the ballot in the first place.

Imagine, citizens in a democratic nation going to the voting booth to decide the civil rights of their fellow citizens! It literally boggled my brain. It would be a tropical day in Norway before anything like that would happen there. That's almost offensive to even imagine. It's equivalent to asking people to vote on whether or not interracial couples should be "allowed" to marry, or whether Asians should be allowed to move into "white neighborhoods."

I think it will go down as one of the great social injustices of our time, but hopefully it will be found unconstitutional before too much longer.

Oscar Wilde put it well: "Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live; it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."




UPDATE ~ August 4, 2010:  a 9th Circuit US Federal Judge ruled that Prop 8 violates the US Constitution and is therefore unconstitutional and overturned.  The matter will most likely go to the US Supreme Court after a ruling on appeal by the 9th Circuit Appeals Court, which is scheduled to begin December 6th, 2010.  It looks as though America is finally edging ever closer (slowly) to nationwide marriage equality, and it seems the days of discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans are numbered.