![]() Presumably, most men have a longer ring finger than index finger, whereas most women have the opposite (or they have index and ring fingers of the same length). ![]() Let’s take one example: In 2000, a team of researchers at UC Berkeley conducted a study in which they found that lesbians were more likely than heterosexual women to have a “masculine” hand structure. But show me a study that claims to have proven this, and I will show you a flawed research design. The science is wrong (Part 1) : People like to cite “the overwhelming scientific evidence” that sexual orientation is biological in nature. But still, it wouldn’t make the idea true.Ģ. Maybe, as gay people, we want to get together and pretend it is true because it is politically strategic. They have taken their lead from the mainstream gay and lesbian movement, which has powerfully advocated for this view.īut the fact that the “born this way” hypothesis has resulted in greater political returns for gay and lesbian people doesn’t have anything to do with whether it is true. Indeed, most progressive straight people and most gay and bi people–including Lady Gaga herself–hold the conviction that our sexual orientation is innate. In light of all this, I can absolutely understand why it feels much safer to believe that we are born this way, and then to circulate this idea like our lives depend on it (because, for some people, this truly is a matter of life and death). And they are willing to offer this help in the form of violent shock therapy and other “conversion” techniques. see here). And when homophobic people come to the opposite conclusion-that homosexual desire is something we can choose-then they want to help us make the right choice, the heterosexual choice. ![]() Any sane person would choose heterosexuality (not so. By implication, if we could choose, of course we would choose to be heterosexual. If homosexual desire is hardwired, then we cannot change it we must live with this condition, and it would be unfair to judge us for that which we cannot change. Yes, it’s true that straight people are more tolerant when they believe that lesbian and gay people have no choice in the matter. …Every religious right hatemonger is now going to quote this woman every single time they want to deny us our civil rights.” Under considerable pressure from lesbian and gay advocacy groups, Nixon recanted her statement a few weeks later, stating instead that she must have been born with bisexual potential. As one horrified gay male writer proclaimed, “ just fell into a right-wing trap, willingly. In 2012, the extent to which gay biology had become a moral and political imperative came into full view when actress Cynthia Nixon, after commenting to a New York Times Magazine reporter that she “chose” to pursue a lesbian relationship after many years as a content heterosexual, was met with outrage by lesbian and gay activists. The problem with such statements is that they infuse biological accounts with an obligatory and nearly coercive force, suggesting that anyone who describes homosexual desire as a choice or social construction is playing into the hands of the enemy. Cynthia Nixon (right) and wife Christine Marinoni (left)
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