© HH5800/ISTOCKPHOTO.COMOur recent (not yet published) genetic linkage study of male sexual orientation predictably garnered considerable media buzz when I summarized the results during this year’s AAAS meeting in Chicago. Scientific findings concerning the causes of sexual orientation provoke intense public interest. One reason is that the topic is intrinsically interesting. Show me someone who denies interest in what makes some people gay and others straight, and I’ll show you someone who is remarkably incurious. Another reason is the widespread belief that such findings have important consequences for how homosexual people should be treated. In the U.S., pro- and anti-gay activists have long argued over the causes of sexual orientation. The belief that the causes of sexual orientation have important social consequences is wrong, however, and its persistence is bad for both science and human rights.
Pro-gay liberals tend to emphasize innate causes, and anti-gay conservatives “choice” and malleability. This well-established attitudinal correlation is based on faulty reasoning by both sides. Let’s start with the most common framing of the debate: whether sexual orientation is genetic or chosen. This framing is utterly mistaken. The complement of genetic is not chosen but environmental. If parents could influence children’s sexuality by giving them certain toys, this would be an environmental influence, but it would be absurd to say that children choose their sexuality. The unfortunate insertion of chosen/choice reveals a badly outdated understanding of the way the mind works, implying that one is free to choose one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors without consideration of prior causes, including genetics. No scientist I know believes ...
