Zombie Starscream wrote:Wouldn't the 'gay gene' eventually be weeded out over time? If the people who have it don't naturally want to get with the opposite sex as that is required to pass it on, wouldn't it eventually go extinct? I know some gay men manage to get married and have kids before they discover they're "gay," and now some of them use surrogates to have a child, but before all this came about why didn't the supposed "gay gene" go away? Maybe because it doesn't exist. At the risk of being politically incorrect, nature would have weeded it out long ago. Nature is ruthless. A gene that had the potential of making you attracted to the same gender instead of the opposite one may make your genetic line go extinct, because instead of putting that energy into sexual relations with the oposite gender and potentially having an offspring, you are putting in all that energy with someone whom it is impossible to reproduce with.
A gay person may have other things that can turn him gay, but one of them is NOT coming from a gene.
You're assuming then that the 'gay gene' is not a natural response to the development of an unhealthy or undesirable set of genes in utero. I'm not saying that 'gay' is natural selection at work, but by your argument, it could be. Also, remember we are living in an era of unprecedented human expansion and healthcare. What might have been weeded out in nature 2000 years ago is now protected by society and medicine. And, just as a counterpoint, what is to prevent nature from changing the breed imperative to offset over-population?
As to whether humans are 'born' or 'choose' to be gay, the answer is: both. There are tons of people who make the choice, for experimentation, lifestyle, and status. The people who make these type of choices do not generally suffer the same type of emotional and psychological trauma of 'outing'. For them, gender based sex is a non-issue.
But, from personal observation, (no scientific data) I have witnessed three examples of homosexual preference repressed until sexual maturity. One of these observations is from a neighbor's kid, whom I have known since he was born. Based on his behavior, choices, mannerisms, as far back as age 4, this child exhibited the signs that his sexual preference would not include women. It in not a lifestyle choice for him. He lives in a rural, highly religious, Southern town. There is no 'gay subculture' subverting him to their cause. He just is that way.
The other story is from one of my best friend's back in middle school. He was staying over at my house, and I had secretly raided my dad's stash of Playboys. I think we were in 6th grade at the time...old enough to know that girls and their boobies were neat, but not what you really did with them. Or I thought they were neat, anyway. I was fascinated. My friend wasn't. He looked at a couple pictures and put the magazine down. I was sorta stunned, but I didn't say anything about it. We played Metroid instead, no big deal. But we were 11.
6 years later, and you guessed it, he came out of the closet 2 months before senior prom. He took a trophy date, who tried to 'cure' him. It didn't work.
There are plenty of people who make the choice and plenty of people who have that choice made for them.