Title: An Exploration of Biological Influences and Evolution in Male Homosexuality. About 9 pages in length not including the full works sited page.

Essay by EbonyCPrincessUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, December 2003

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Homosexuality: Choice or Genetic?

An Exploration of Biological Influences and Evolution in Male Homosexuality

For years there has been an ongoing debate as to whether homosexuality is right or wrong. Said more accurately, the debate is truly over whether gayness is a choice or whether it is genetic. There are a lot of problems when presenting an argument supporting genetics. One would think that science always presents factual evidence which leaves little to no room for doubt, but in reality nothing could be farther from the truth. Science is biased as with everything else in life. Even the "Father of Genetics", Gregor Mendel, is thought to have altered, or smudged, his data in order to make it fit his theory of inheritance (Russell, 2003). One of the problems is the press to which genetic linkages with many conditions, one of which is homosexuality, have been reported prematurely. These reports gain a lot of attention and more often than not have to be retracted, but the retraction does not gain nearly as much public interest as the linkage itself.

So even the sources we hold to be factual, such as newspapers, may not always contain information that is entirely accurate (Conrad, 1997). Another reason that fuels the ongoing debate is the contradictory views of the causes of homosexuality by homosexuals themselves! Some say they choose to be gay while others insist they "were born that way" (Gaypride.com). Neither or both of these views may be correct: behavior is integrated, meaning that both genetics and experience play a role). With the completion of the human genome scientists have mapped for many diseases and their approximate location, as well as identified some specific causative genes. The finished genetic map helps scientists to identify the sources of many conditions quickly, but only those with...