Homosexuality and Science

Rev. David Holwick

Ledgewood Baptist Church     (Evening study)

February 2, 1997



HOMOSEXUALITY AND SCIENCE



     "Born Gay?" Joe Dallas, Christianity Today 6/22/92, p. 20.


    I. Arguments for inborn homosexuality.

        A. Based on several recent studies.  (see below)

        B. Conclusions made from research:

            1) Homosexuals are born that way.

            2) Homosexuality is a normal condition.

            3) What is normal cannot be immoral.

            4) Therefore, prohibitions against homosexuality make no sense.

        C. Four essential questions.

            1) Were studies conducted in an unbiased and fair way?

            2) What are the true implications of the results?

            3) Are the results accepted almost universally by the

                  scientific and medical communities?

            4) Are the results compatible with biblical truth?


   II. Agendas and outcome.

        A. Many of the researchers are open about their homosexuality.

            1) Their goal is to educate society.

            2) Randy Shilts:  "It will reduce being gay to something like

                  being left-handed."

        B. Counter-concerns of evangelicals.

            1) If something is genetic in origin, does this make it normal?

                a) What about birth defects?

            2) Should the standard for normality be determined by what is

                  inborn?

            3) Facts must be examined, and also what they imply.


  III. Simon LeVay and hypothalamus research.

        A. One-third smaller in homosexuals than in heterosexual men.

            1) But can this area be accurately measured?

            2) Is size critical, or the number of neurons?  (Newsweek)

            3) Does size determine homosexuality, or vice-versa?

                a) Neurophysiologist Kenneth Klivington of the Salk Institute:

                      "You could postulate that brain change occurs

                       throughout life, as a consequence of experience."

                b) A "feedback loop" could affect the organization of the

                      brain.

                c) Therefore, are homosexuals born with a smaller hypothalamus

                      or does the size decrease later in life?

        B. Methodological questions:

            1) The sexuality of the cadavers may not be certain.

            2) The number of bodies was small, and the study has not been

                  replicated.

            3) LeVay is conservative in his own assessment - "perhaps and

                  maybe."  (Time magazine)


   IV. Michael Bailey and Richard Pillard and identical twin research.

        A. Higher incidence among identical twins (52%) than fraternal

              or adoptive.

            1) Therefore something in genes must cause homosexuality.

        B. Methodological questions:

            1) Study is flawed because twins were raised in same environment.

            2) Pillard concedes, "There must be something in the

                  environment."

        C. Opposite results from a similar British study.

            1) March 1992 "British Journal of Psychiatry" reports only 20%

                  of homosexual twins had a homosexual co-twin.

            2) Conclusion:  "Genetic factors are insufficient explanation

                  of the development of sexual orientation."


    V. Evident facts.

        A. Differences may exist in the brains of some homosexual men.

        B. However, the suggestion that homosexuality is therefore inborn

              is interpretive and arguable.

        C. The implication that society should therefore accept homosexuality

              as common, normal, and morally neutral cannot be supported from

              the medical facts alone.

            1) "Different" does not mean "inborn."

            2) "Inborn" does not mean "normal."

        D. Society often acts from basis of bias.

            1) LeVay's and Pillard's studies garnered much media attention,

                  while a study that found a gene present in 77% of alcoholics

                  and absent in 72% of non-alcoholics was ignored.

               (Published in the "Journal of American Medical Association")



===================================================================


      "Homosexuality and Biology," by Chandler Burr, Atlantic Monthly,

          March 1993, p. 47


    I. Psychology.

        A. Psychologists cannot distinguish homosexuals from heterosexuals.

        B. In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association removed it from

              its diagnostic manual.


   II. Neurobiology - brain structures.

        A. In rats, "the default brain" for both sexes seems to be female,

              and the introduction of testosterone produces maleness.

            1) Known as sexual differentiation of the brain.

            2) Rat male and female brains are different (sexual dimorphism).

        B. Research of Simon LeVay.

            1) The human hypothalamus is dimorphic, not just with sex but

                  also with sexual orientation.

            2) Possible problems with research:

                a) Small sample size.

                b) Great variation in individual nucleus size.

                c) All the gay men had AIDS.

                d) No replication by other researchers.

            3) Status is tantalizing supposition.

                a) Human brain sexual dimorphism itself is disputed.

                b) Establishing a distinction is not the same as finding

                      a cause.


  III. Endocrinology - hormones.

        A. Hormone alterations in rats causes sexual changes.

            1) Human studies have found no significant differences in

                  hormone levels of heterosexuals and homosexuals.

            2) Prenatal hormone exposure is unproven as an influence.

        B. Research of Richard Pillard.

            1) He speculates that Mullerian inhibiting hormone, which

                  defeminizes a fetus, may have brain-organizing effects.

                  Its absence or failure to kick in sufficiently may

                  prevent the brain from defeminizing.

            2) In this view, gay men are basically masculine males with

                  female aspects, including perhaps certain cognitive

                  abilities and emotional sensibilities.

            3) Gender-atypical play in prepubescence may indicate hormonal

                  influence.

        C. Caution: if the prenatal-hormone hypothesis is correct, we

              might expect to see prenatal endocrine disturbance (genital

              abnormalities) in a large proportion of homosexuals, but this

              is not found.


   IV. Genetics.

        A. Fruit flies exposed to radiation can become "fruitless."

            1) The gene is recessive.

        B. Richard Pillard and identical twins.

            1) Concordance rates:

                a) 11% for adoptive brothers.

                b) 22% for dizygotic twins.

                c) 52% for monozygotic twins.

            2) "The findings suggest that homosexuality is highly

                   attributable to genetics - up to 70%."

                a) Other factors would also be responsible.


    V. Ramifications of science.

        A. Biological factors play a role in determining sexual orientation.

        B. Potential for abuse.

        C. "Five decades of psychiatric evidence demonstrates that

              homosexuality is immutable, and nonpathological, and a

              growing body of more recent evidence implicates biology in

              the development of sexual orientation."

        D. "One cannot justify discriminating against people of the basis

              of such a characteristic.  Yet it would be wise to acknowledge

              that science can be a rickety platform on which to erect an

              edifice of rights."



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