A Short Review of The Causes of Sexual Orientation

All in the Mind Podcast Assignment

I was thoroughly informed about sexual orientation through the podcast “Is being gay in your biology?” The purpose of the podcast was to inform of the psychological and biological factors included in the preferences of sexual orientation. The causes of resulting sexual orientation remains unclear, yet there is research that brings about rather interesting insight. The podcast went into great detail in some research that involved the hair curls around the crown of the foreheads of males. In concern to hair curls, homosexual men tended to have counterclockwise hair curls in comparison to straight men that had clockwise hair curls. Also, it was established that homosexual males had symmetrical hemispheres of the brain, similar to heterosexual women. Homosexual women had larger right hemispheres, similarly to heterosexual males. In addition, a very significant study surprised the headlines with the findings indicating that the homosexual men and heterosexual women mirror a similar sized 1NAH-3, which is located in the hypothalamus. This research brings about many questions and especially controversies since homosexual men are compared to heterosexual females and homosexual females are compared to heterosexual males, which is said to be an unreliable comparison. Although this was an interesting study, there is not a definitive way to explain the outcome of sexual orientation. It is only certain that approximately fifty percent of sexual orientation is determined by genetics. There does not seem to be an exact answer to the question, “Is being gay in your biology,” but it is evident that genetics and environmental factors play a role in sexual orientation.

I am a very open-minded person when it comes to sexuality and a person’s sexual preference. I was surprised at some of the research I received from the podcast and found the hypothetical theories to be intriguing. The podcast was based solely off of scientific research and allowed me to reach a much deeper understanding of homosexuality through a scientific perspective rather than an emotional perspective. I did not see homosexuality as being a question of human biology before and the incorporation of genetics and environmental factors allowed me to see homosexuality in a broader sense; the bigger question of sexual orientation rather than just homosexuality. In addition, the study of neuroscience and comparing brain size and structure created more in depth questions for me, concerning how relevant the information was in the discovering the answer to sexual orientation. It is clear that genetics does play a role in the determined sexual orientation of human beings, yet what I find interesting is that there are many other factors. However, what remains to be seen is an answer that satisfies every component of controversy in this topic. Yet this research seems to be a stepping-stone in humanity’s psychological perspective due to the more information being compiled in the study of sexual orientation. As people become more informed on the scientific explanations for sexual orientation, stereotypes will begin to fade away and new generation of psychological understanding will eventually emerge.

I think the two most interesting topics brought up were the idea of identifying the causes of homosexuality by also identifying the causes of heterosexuality, and the similarities between brain structures. I felt that it was more reasonable for researchers to generalize sexual orientation in order to completely understand what the cause is to the result of a human’s sexual preference. This was interesting to me because the study did not just focus on homosexuality and in a way did not separate the study from sexual orientation in general. I found it fascinating that in order to find the cause of homosexuality, the researchers had to incorporate both straight and gay individuals in their studies to understand the differences. The other topic I found to be interesting was the similarities in brain size from homosexual males and heterosexual females, and homosexual females and heterosexual males. Although the similarities in brain size cannot be proven to have significant evidence in the causes of sexual preferences it does bring society closer to an answer as to what cause us as humans to have sexual feelings towards specific sexes, whether it be the same or opposite sex. It is rather interesting that sexual preference can be determined by genetics and environmental factors, but is not determined by a specific cause. In other words, sexual orientation is a constant scientific study that continues to baffle society and mold a different mindset in future generations. The more information discovered about sexual orientation allows young generations to open their minds to disabling current stereotypes on homosexuality and to look for further information on the causes of it, rather than settling for the current label of homosexuality as being a mental disorder.

I have many friends that are homosexuals and I do not judge their preferences, nor do I feel that they suffer from any type of disorder. I do feel that sometimes my homosexual male friends seem to act more feminine yet I have learned that not all homosexual males act in a feminine manner and homosexual females do not always act in a masculine manner; this is merely a stereotype that needs to be broken down. From my experience, homosexuals and heterosexuals differ in the sexes they prefer, but do not have a mental disorder that holds them back from functioning ‘normally’. Although scientifically homosexuals are different from heterosexuals, I do not see people with a specific sexual preference any differently. Instead I believe that research can allow society to break the barriers in which homosexuality is separated from heterosexuality. Stereotypes can be undone and can change the way in which people think about sexual orientation.