I suppose I’m wondering why it matters why people are gay. If it is a choice or natural inclination – why does this matter at all?

I know that wthrockmorton.com is a values based site my core interest is the cause of SSA. For me at least the answer to that question answers nearly every other question I have.

And of course, we just don’t know yet.

I’m of the belief that the only reason orientation is such a big deal, is because religion has made it a big deal.

I suppose I’m wondering why it matters why people are gay. If it is a choice or natural inclination – why does this matter at all? It only matters if you see this behavior as bad or you wish to change it. Perhaps this is it?

In a world where our country does not have a theocracy, shouldn’t people have a choice? Isn’t that, in part, what this blog is about? Letting people have the choice who wish to challenge their same-sex attractions…but, if neutral, this sort of approach should swing both ways…can’t people have the right to just be gay?

I guess I’m not sure why it matters. Why not live life according to your own standards, let people live theirs according to theirs (you know, not a theocracy), and have rules that govern us all so that we do not harm each other or ourselves.

Seems okay to me.

I’m not even sure about that – Again, it depends on what we mean by “openly” – I know some gay people, who say they are open, who might very well not label themselves as gay on a survey!

I’ve read that in New York city about 10% of the adult, male population is gay. However that’s gotta be at the high end of the spectrum. 2% to 4% seems to be the number that floats around as a decent average which is why I picked 3%.

But realitistically, I dunno. Until scientists get some better tools we can’t know for sure.

I would be curious to know how genes/socialization/child abuse/etc…. create Opposite Sex Attractions (OSAs) as well.

I’m also curious where you came up with the 3% of men figure? Especially since we still don’t, and may never have, a definitive percentage of people who are gay. The best I’ve seen is in a Wikipedia article that pulls several studies together to suggest that anywhere from 2% – 7% of the population is gay. Remember, any figure we DO have is probably an UNDER-REPRESENTATION of the true number, since people are likely not to report their true orientation if they are gay. Using the percentages above that means that anywhere from 6 – 21 million people in this country are homosexual.

Ther may be more than one kind of expression for SSA. I do believe it is part genetic and part environment. Some a little more to one side or the other.

I’m sure you are right. For most people SSA is probably the result of a few common gene/enviro combinations.

However I wouldn’t want to exclude either genes or socialization. I’m sure that a few people have SSA due exclusively to one or the other. When I was growing up in the 70s/80s people thought SSA was the result of child abuse. In fact thats probably true in some cases, but certainly not 3% of men.

My prediction: the sheep will be “gay” far more frequently than the regular 8% occurance rate but not 100%.

100% agreement on that one. If the average is 8% I’d guess that clones might be 2 or 3 times that likely to be gay. I wish I could go forward 5 or 10 years to find out.

Ther may be more than one kind of expression for SSA. I do believe it is part genetic and part environment. Some a little more to one side or the other.