By Arush Desai
A global survey revealed that 3% of all people identify as gay and 4% as bisexual. But homosexuality is still a contentious reality for all of them. Homosexuality — or same - sex attraction — is a rejected phenomenon in virtually every religion, community, and culture. Many countries, for instance Saudi Arabia and Iran, levy heavy criminalization or even worse — the death penalty –- for homosexuals. Discrimination is prevalent. Moreover, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was previously coined as gay-related immunodeficiency (GRID) as the Christian evangelicals affiliated AIDS with homosexuality, which led to ostracization of homosexuals and mass incarceration of minds. However, decades long scientific research, especially in neurobiology, has diminished our prejudices against gays and lesbians; science, unequivocally, suggests that homosexuality is not a disease, but rather a positive expression of sexuality — a statement which is backed by the World Association of Sexual Health, Indian Psychiatric Society, Baku Research Institute, and so many more.
Scientists at Stockholm Brain Institute mentioned in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences USA that homosexual men and heterosexual women have similar activity of amygdala, a region in the limbic system which is associated with emotion and aggression. This was found by using Positron Emission Topography (PET) to measure the blood flow toward the amygdala. The same statement is accurate for lesbians and straight men. Moreover, gay men and straight woman have symmetrical cerebrums, a region that controls your sensory processing and planning, whilst homosexual women and heterosexual men have asymmetrical cerebrums. It can further be noted that homosexuals have brain symmetry that aligns with their opposite sex, which is cited by Qazi Rahman from University of London.
Expanding upon brain morphology, a research conducted by Mikhail Votinov and his colleagues revealed that homosexual men had a higher grey matter volume (GMV) in thalamus compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Furthermore, lesbians have a smaller GMV in precentral gyrus and a higher GMV in putamen. To dissect this, lesbians have a larger putamen, or, to put it simply, a more male-sized putamen. Simon LeVay also revealed that a small clump of neurons of anterior hypothalamus, which regulates sexual behavior, is twice the size in heterosexual men than homosexual men.
Apart from your brain, even genes have been said to play a pivotal role is determining your sexual orientation. Gene SLITRK6, which is active in the diencephalon of your brain, differs in size in homosexuals and heterosexuals. Moreover, a 2010 study showed links with the gene fucose mutarotase and sexual preferences. When this gene was deleted from female mice, they became attracted to female smells, and preferred mounting females. Additionally, male mice lacking TRPC2 expressed sexual interests in both males and females. However, homosexuality is not caused by a single gene and whether it is inheritable still remains inconclusive.
Penultimately, prenatal hormones, too, shape your sexual orientation. For example, females with congenital adrenal hyperplasia are normally exposed to high levels of testosterone in the uterus, which increases their propensity of being homosexual. Moreover, manipulation of prenatal hormones demonstrated homosexuality in rats. Besides that, your finger length ratio and auditory systems in brain, which are influenced by your prenatal hormones, differ in different sexual orientations.
Lastly, your birth order plays a significant role in determining your sexual orientation in a phenomenon called fraternal birth order effect; the more number of older brothers you have, the more androgens (male sex hormones) you were exposed to as a fetus, and greater chance that you become homosexual.
Homosexuality is verified by science as to be a natural phenomenon, a phenomenon which is observed prolifically in nature; giraffes, bottlenose dolphins, lions, bisons, albatross, bonobos, swans, and so many more animals and birds show homosexual activities.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it was normal to mutilate the genitals of boys with micropenis, and raise them as girls. But guess what? These ‘boys’ still showed sexual feelings towards women. Therefore, it can be concluded that your sexual orientation is determined at your birth and develops during adolescence. It is influenced by your brain morphology, prenatal hormones, birth order, and (to some extent) genes and most definitely is not a choice.
It is time that we start thinking scientifically and critically, and letting homosexuals be gay!
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