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Written by Bob Davies
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In the August 1991 issue of Science, Simon LeVay of the Salk Institute in San Diego published his study on the differences in brain structure between homosexual and heterosexual men. The study had several glaring weaknesses. It was based on a small group of 35 men, with 19 homosexual men who had died of AIDS, a factor which could have biased the results. The control group of 16 men were "assumed to have been mostly or all heterosexual," said the study. Anne Fausto-Sterling, Professor of Medical Science at Brown University, commented in Time magazine, "My freshman biology students know enough to sink this study."
Psychologist Michael Bailey of Northwestern University and psychiatrist Richard Pillard of the Boston University School of Medicine showed that homosexuality occurred much more frequently among identical twins than non-identical twins. But their 1991 study had a major flaw: All their twins grew up together; the researchers did not compare their findings with a control group of twins raised apart, which would have isolated other factors such as parental relationships and other family dynamics. And only about half the identical twins were both gay; if homosexuality was purely genetic, the correlation should have been 100 percent.
Finally, five researchers led by Dean Hamer at the National Cancer Institute released a study last July which attempted to link homosexuality in men with a specific genetic region of their X chromosome. "This is by far the strongest evidence to date that there is a genetic component to sexual orientation," Hamer reported.
Not so, said other highly-qualified professionals. "The idea of a specific gene for a specific behavior is generally considered highly unlikely by geneticists," said Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, director of the Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic in Encino, Calif. "Homosexuality is much more complex than mere behavior."
Dr. Charles Socarides, president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, an organization uniting therapists and other professionals who believe homosexuality is not inborn and can be changed, says that many psychoanalysts are treating homosexuality successfully today, "changing sexual orientation from homosexual to hetero- sexual. Such a change would be unthinkable if there were any truth at all to the biological or hereditary causation of homosexuality."
One writer in the Washington Post called the sensational media reports a "triumph of hype, another vivid demonstration of what can come from that volatile combination of scientific ignorance and journalistic sensationalism."
Dr. Nicolosi told Newsweek that "psychology and psychiatry have abandoned a whole population of people who feel dissatisfied with their feelings of homosexuality." Stanton L. Jones, professor of psychology at Wheaton (Ill.) College, says that "every study ever performed on conversion from homosexual to heterosexual orientation has produced some successes" ranging from 33 to 60 percent.
Concludes Joe Dallas, who left a gay lifestyle ten years ago: "Let research conclude what it may about the causes of homosexuality. Genetic origins do not justify sinful behavior."
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Copyright © Bob Davies. All rights reserved. |
