There has been debate throughout the years of whether being gay is a choice or not. Many people believe that gay people choose to be gay and they could just turn it off whenever they want to. However, I don’t think this is the case. In my opinion, it doesn’t make sense for someone to go through the trouble of “coming out” of the closet, possibly facing judgment and/or problems from society, or just making things harder for themselves in general. Therefore, I believe that being gay is not a choice. This led me to question why people were gay, though. I thought that perhaps there might be a genetic or biological reason as to why people were gay in the first place.

According to my research, there are no clear “gay genes” that have been discovered so far. However, this doesn’t mean that sexual orientation isn’t biologically based. There are many other species that have been reported to engage in same-sex behavior, or be a part of a same-sex pairing. “Lions, chimpanzees, bison, and dolphins have all been reported to be part of same-sex pairings.” This proves that homosexuality isn’t just an inherently human notion, since other species also engage in same-sex behavior.

Despite there not being any “gay genes”, according to studies, there are some genes that make being gay likelier. “A study published in the journal Psychological Medicine showed that a gene on chromosome 8 and a gene on the X chromosome called Xq28, seem to be more prevalent in gay men.” It’s also more likely for identical twins to be gay than it is for fraternal twins, which could mean it’s genetic since identical twins share all their genes.

There are other theories that explore the possibilities of biological effects shaping sexual orientation. For example, there have been studies that suggest that hormone exposure in the womb could affect a person’s sexual orientation. One of the theories is that female homosexuals and female heterosexuals have different inner ear shapes. According to the researchers at the University of Texas in Austin, the inner ear of homosexual and bisexual women tend to be structured a bit more like a man’s. While this seems somewhat strange, some researchers believe that women with male twins might be exposed to male hormones in the womb, which could alter their female development. “They also believe that low levels of male hormones could potentially masculinize some girls in the womb, and possibly affecting parts of their anatomy, such as hearing and sexual preference.”

My final takeaway on this topic is that there is still not enough information out there to know completely if being gay is genetic and/or biologically based. While I believe that being gay is not a choice, I’m still not really sure why some people are gay and others straight. However, after doing research, I think that it might have something to do with genetics and biology, even though I’m not exactly sure which theories are correct and which ones aren’t.

Picture sources:

http://imageslgmr.lazygamer.netdna-cdn.com/2014/07/gay-pride.jpg

https://hrexach.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/gchoi3.jpg