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Gay Gene

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THE GAY GENE

The good ol’ nature vs. nurture debate; it’s been around for ages. Scientists still to this day are trying to figure out whether it’s our genetics or the environment we are surrounded by that determines the characteristics of us human beings. I think its safe to say that society accepts the fact that our genes establish biological factors such as our height, blood type eye color etc. What about our social behavior? Genes explain anatomy of a human being but they don’t explain why some people act the way they do. It can’t explain why some people are smarter then others, why people are more violent then others or why some people choose to be homosexual. Those types of social characteristics are determined strictly by your surroundings. Our society, environment, education and parental/neighborhood behavior are part of what makes us who we are. Genes can determine how you look but can’t determine how you act. Homosexuality is a hot topic of debate among us in today’s world. From same-sex marriage to Gays and Lesbians adopting children with their partners; there is a lot of ethical questions to be answered when it comes to those topics. When trying to answer these questions we need to get to the root of the issue, is homosexuality a choice or is it something you are born into? Nature or Nurture? Some popular arguments that I will be critiquing in this paper in support of gay marriage are as follows: 1. Homosexuality is a result of genetic and biological factors. 2. Homosexuality is god-given.

Homosexuality is a result of genetic and biological factors that result in a child being gay. Children are born gay and have no choice but to live with it, its not a choice to be made, its something you are born into and stuck with. Being gay is part of your genes, why would someone choose to be gay if so many people were opposed to it and discriminating against him or her? There have been several studies to show that homosexuality is indeed a result of genetics.
To those that say homosexuality is a result of genes, I’ve done thorough research and I found that to date there are no replicated scientific studies supporting any specific biological etiology for homosexuality. I did however find a study done by psychiatrists Michael Bailey and Richard C. Pillard from 1997 titled “The Incredibly Shrinking Gay Gene” that examined 12 identical twin brothers in an effort to establish a genetic link to homosexuality. The result was they found that only one male was homosexual. But since identical twins have identical genetic material, the fact that not 100% of the identical twins were homosexual effectively refutes the idea that homosexuality has a genetic basis. There is no scientific evidence showing that homosexuality is a genetic trait, rather it’s a result of your upbringing and social surroundings. People are not born gay, they are conditioned to turn gay, factors that contribute to this are rough childhood experiences, absent father figure, not having friends at a young age or other sociological conditions.

Homosexuality is of course a god-given trait. Just like the color of our hair, our height or the sound of our voice is. No one chooses his or her sexual orientation, to suggest otherwise is ignorant. God chose for select individuals in society to be gay.
Now if we logically break down the argument that god himself is responsible for creating gay folks, we will realize that that statement is actually self-refuting. If you are justifying homosexuality by stating that you believe in god and believe that god has created homosexuals, then obviously that means you believe in god regardless of the religion. In every religion god forbids homosexuality. If you believe in god and also believe that god has created gays and lesbians then how do you justify that? God forbids homosexuality, yet god is the one who’s chose for you to be gay? This argument just isn’t logically compelling at all and does not make sense to a critical thinker.
Homosexuality is a choice that an individual makes. God has created us all equal at birth. How you behave and act is determined by your upbringing and surroundings growing up. When someone does something wrong, we shouldn’t blame nature, rather we should look at what social factors have contributed to make someone the way that they are. Simply put, you are a product of your own environment.

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