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Forums - General Discussion - France legalizes gay marriage despite angry protests

 

Do you want gay marriage in your country?

Yes, It would just be fair 241 58.78%
 
No, get the gay out of my country 102 24.88%
 
meh, I don't really care 66 16.10%
 
Total:409
Player2 on 27 April 2013

This is bad news... now french gay couples won't come to Spain to marry, which means less tourism so unemployment rates will increase even more...



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*Yoshi* on 27 April 2013

I hope that gay marriage will be in my country... (Chile), mmm..., impossible... :(



 

 

mai on 18 May 2013
Slimebeast said:

Yes, I know the implications of his argument - namely that genetic markers in combination with epigenetic factors could cause the hormonal changes needed to produce an altered sexuality in the brain (through the mechanisms you explained). I'm not against that theory at all. It most likely explains a large part of homosexuality prevalence.

But he makes a big deal out of the markers only (because they're genetically tied and therefore could suggest that homosexuality is an evolutionary selected trait), and ignores the possibility that there are cases where no genetic predisposition is needed. Just a hormonal imbalance during embryonal development resulting in a homosexual brain, just like other common embryological disturbances that aren't linked to any genetical predisposition.

No matter what he says, the facts are that:

1. we know hormonal imbalances during embryonal development can alter a person's sexuality

2. we've discovered genetic markers that are shared between some groups of homosexuals (only male homosexuals as far as I know, and not by all of them).

Those are the facts. But that doesn't mean these two things are connected, and it certainly doesn't mean that they're always connected like he claims. To go beyond those facts and connect them is just speculation, which I was very clear about.

He also is very dogmatic about the definition of "disorder".

He lastly put forward another factor, whether the brain is the chicken or the egg, but when it comes to this topic, and disorders in general, that's irrelevant.

To contribute to your conversation. What do you guys think about strictly sociological research on the subject aside from genetic and epigenetic heredity?

These researches often do not match each other, but this is understandable thanks to different sampling and methodology. More importantly they're often disregarded due to their controversial nature as if the subject is long settled, that I'm not very sure about.

Few quotes:

 

Do Parents Influence the Sexual Orientation of Their Children? Findings From a Longitudinal Study of Lesbian Families. Susan Golombok and Fiona Tasker. City University, p.8.

 

Several recent large population based surveys have provided generally consistent estimates for the frequency of male homosexual behavior in contemporary western societies (ACSF Investigators, 1992; Billy, Tanfer, Grady, & Klepinger, 1993; Johnson, Wadsword, Wellings, Bradshaw, & Field, 1992). The estimate varied with respect to the stringency of the criterion from 1% to 2% (for exclusive homosexuality over a several-year period) to nearly 5% (for any lifetime homosexual experience). Our criterion, homosexual or bisexual identification, is probably relatively stringent, and thus the percentage of men meeting it was nearer the lower figure. If so, it could be argued, the rate of homosexuality in the sons (9%) is several times higher than that suggested by the population-based surveys and is consistent with a degree of father-to-son transmission. The 95% confidence interval of the sons' rate of homosexuality, 3% to 16%, exceeds the smallest population-based estimate (Billy et al., 1993).

Sexual Orientation of Adult Sons of Gay Fathers. J. Michael Bailey, David Bobrow, Marilyn Wolfe, and Sarah Mikach. North-western University, p.7.