Gay People not 'Born That Way', Sexual Orientation not Fixed – US study

The findings below largely agree with what I have been saying for years, especially that encouraging children to embrace transgenderism and even, God forbid, get sex reassignment therapy before puberty is just wrong. The vast majority of children who identify as the opposite sex will grow out of it and be happy, healthy adults. But if sex reassignment therapy or surgery is performed, that child can never grow out of it. That, I believe, drastically increases a child's likelihood of psychiatric problems and suicidal thoughts. 


© Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

A cross-discipline study has challenged the belief that human sexuality and gender identity are determined by biology and remain fixed, saying that there is no scientific proof of this. The study cautioned against drastic medical treatment for transgender children.

The notion that sexual orientation is predetermined by biology is an important part of the current LGBT discourse. If a person has no choice over whether to be gay or not, society cannot demand that he or she be straight, so the argument goes.

But regardless of its political worth, the “born this way” paradigm is not backed up by sufficient scientific data, according to a new paper published in the autumn issue of the New Atlantis, a journal focusing on political, societal and ethical ramifications of technological advances.

The study does not claim that being gay is a choice, merely that stating the opposite may be wrong.

The 144-page paper was written by Dr. Lawrence S. Mayer, an epidemiologist and biostatistician also trained in psychiatry, who is currently a scholar in residence at the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Dr. Paul R. McHugh, a renowned psychiatrist, researcher, and educator and former chief of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The paper’s three parts focus on sexual orientation, links between sexuality and mental health, and gender identity.

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Drawing on studies in fields varying from neurobiology to social sciences, the authors wrote that “The understanding of sexual orientation as an innate, biologically fixed property of human beings – the idea that people are ‘born that way’ – is not supported by scientific evidence.”

The term ‘sexual orientation’ itself is ambiguous and is used to describe attraction, behavior or identity by different researchers. Sometimes it refers to things such as belonging to a certain community or having certain fantasies.

“It is important, then, that researchers are clear about which of these domains are being studied, and that we keep in mind the researchers’ specified definitions when we interpret their findings,” the paper said.

There are biological factors associated with sexual behavior, the paper acknowledges, but there are no compelling “causal biological explanations for human sexual orientation.” Differences in the brain structures of gay and straight individuals identified by researchers are not necessarily innate and may be the result of environmental or psychological factors.

“The strongest statement that science offers to explain sexual orientation is that some biological factors appear, to an unknown extent, to predispose some individuals to a non-heterosexual orientation,” the paper said.

LGBT individuals are statistically at greater risk of having mental health problems than the general population, the authors say. As a more dramatic example, “the rate of lifetime suicide attempts across all ages of transgender individuals is estimated at 41 percent, compared to under 5 percent in the overall US population.”

The usually accepted explanation for this is social stress from discrimination and stigma, but the study said that those factors may not solely explain the disparity and that more scientific research on the issue is necessary.

The paper added that the notion that gender identity is fixed and determined by biological factors is also not backed up by data.

“In reviewing the scientific literature, we find that almost nothing is well understood when we seek biological explanations for what causes some individuals to state that their gender does not match their biological sex,” the authors said.

They strongly advocate caution in resorting to drastic medical treatment such as sex-reassignment surgery for people identified or identifying as transgender. This is especially true in children, whose sexuality is mutable and for whom such treatments may do more harm than good, they warn.

“There is little scientific evidence for the therapeutic value of interventions that delay puberty or modify the secondary sex characteristics of adolescents, although some children may have improved psychological well-being if they are encouraged and supported in their cross-gender identification,” the paper said. “There is no evidence that all children who express gender-atypical thoughts or behavior should be encouraged to become transgender.”

“Sexual orientation and gender identity resist explanation by simple theories. There is a large gap between the certainty with which beliefs are held about these matters and what a sober assessment of the science reveals. In the face of this complexity and uncertainty, we need to be humble about what we know and do not know,” it said.

The authors noted that their paper touches upon controversial issues and insist that first and foremost it is about science and the need for additional evidence in the field. Mayer said many people who contributed to the report asked not to be identified so as to distance themselves from the potential backlash.

Because we all know that when you disagree with the politically correct assumptions, even with scientific data, you are ostracized and criticized. Climate change deniers are an example.

“Some feared an angry response from the more militant elements of the LGBT community; others feared an angry response from the more strident elements of religiously conservative communities,” he said. “Most bothersome, however, is that some feared reprisals from their own universities for engaging such controversial topics, regardless of the report’s content—a sad statement about academic freedom.”

The paper was specifically written for the general public to draw attention to mental health problems of the LGBT community, the authors said. McHugh is an opponent of sex reassignment surgery for transgender people, arguing that it often fails to improve their well-being and instead does the opposite in the long run.

Dramatic Rise in Transgender Children Puts British Primary Schools Under Pressure

Or is it the other way about?

© Oswaldo Rivas / Reuters

UK primary schools are attempting to enforce “trans-inclusive environments and curricula” as the number of British children who want to change their gender is at an all-time high.

England’s only center for trans children and adolescents, the Tavistock Clinic, says the number of British children who want to change their gender has doubled in six months.

The number of British children who want to 

change their gender has doubled in six months

According to the Guardian, the clinic says it is under huge pressure, with many of the referrals involving children under the age of 10, including one three-year-old and 12 four-year-olds.

Schools are responding to the increasing numbers by creating “new gender neutral environments” and holding “transgender days” to encourage pupils to think about gender fluidity.

OK, I can see 'gender-neutral environments' but 'holding “transgender days” to encourage pupils to think about gender fluidity' - is just encouraging gender confusion. The question is, are these programs 'responding to increasing numbers' of trans kids, or are the increasing numbers of trans kids a consequence of the programs? I would bet money on the latter.

Others are getting rid of the distinctions between boys’ and girls’ uniforms. About 80 state schools, including 40 primaries, now have a gender-neutral stance towards uniforms.

In time, British primary school students could expect to take part in non-gendered biology lessons, classes on creating unisex spaces, and physical education lessons mixing boys and girls together, the Guardian reports.

'Non-gendered biology lessons'! Do you even know what 'biology' means? What do the first two letters in biology indicate?

Stories are emerging of boys at all-boys’ schools who are being asked to be identified as girls, and vice versa.

Helen Porter, a science teacher at an all-girls’ school, told the newspaper that in one year 11 cohort, two pupils requested to stay on as young men. She says the fact it was a single-sex school made that more challenging, but the school offered them places.

The uniform policy in sixth form allowed for trousers, the toilets were already non-gender specific, and the chosen names and male pronouns were used by all, Porter says.

“A lot of it is just respecting his right and wishes to be treated as a young man.

“But as a school, there was as much concern for making all the other students in sixth form feel comfortable as there was for making them feel comfortable. After all, when they signed up for a girls’ sixth form, they weren’t expecting a young man [in it].”

Susie Green, the chief executive of Mermaids, a charity which supports young people with gender variance, says there has been some progress, but some schools continue to be obstructive.

'Obstructive', read sensible and sane.

In one recent case a school rejected a family’s request that their eight-year-old should be addressed as a boy and allowed to wear a boy’s uniform.

She says the parents went to the local authority and the local authority backed the school. The case has since been referred to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

In another example, a school reported a case of a nine-year-old who identified as a girl to social services, because they were worried the mother was making it up and emotionally abusing her child.

Supporting prepubescent children in the fantasy that they are anything other than what their anatomy indicates is child sex abuse. 85% of these children will return to their biological gender after puberty, so we are doing a great disservice to children to encourage them to ignore reality and live in a fantasy world that doesn't exist. This is pure child abuse in the name of LGBT lobbying and political correctness gone insane.