Unlikely, this isn’t an issue they are interested in devoting any time to. However, if you are interested in knowing about what other ugandan’s think, you should look at some of their online news sources, like http://www.observer.ug and I’m sure you could find others if you just searched for them.

My posting is quite clear that I am no expert in neuroscience and genetics. But I was once a researcher who wrote, co-wrote and presented scientific findings at various international conferences on electrical/electronics engineering. Anyone who is into research knows it is not too difficult for people to manipulate data to fit into a theory they are desperately trying to justify. In controversial subjects such as gayism, there are strong vested interests at play and the dominant interest—-at least in the West— is to justify the theory that gayism is “natural”, “in-born” and “okay”. The Euro-American gay lobby is so powerful and influential that scientists are under pressure to produce some information that appear to justify the theory. It is generally safe for a researcher to work from the predetermined answer (i.e. “Gayism is natural/inborn”) backwards to the question (i.e. “Is gayism natural/in-born ?”) and bend data along the way to fit the theory. On the other hand, a scientist working from the question to the answer is under pressure to self-censor if research results go contrary to the “received wisdom” of the gay lobby and even if such a researcher is brave enough to seek publication of his/her work in a journal, the peer-review team may be too scared to allow such work through, even if it meets all required standards for publication. No one wants to be door-stepped by angry gay activists or to have his/her academic tenure scrapped because of a piece of research work. This is the reality in Western countries.

Its just like study of climate change where scientists who question some of the theories or the accuracy of predictions made by computer simulation models are castigated as “climate change denialists”—a sinister term which ryhmes with “holocaust denial”. Many reputable climate scientists not sponsored by oil companies, but who happen to be skeptics have since learned the hard way that it pays to keep your views to yourself if you want more research funds and a renewal of your academic tenure when it expires. (BTW, I am not necessarily questioning the climate science, but I strongly believe that scientists should be free to be skeptical because scientific research has always thrived on skepticism).

Anyway, I was digressing. Now back to the subject of gayism :

The problem with research on gayism is that too many gay-friendly claims have been made by “maverick scientists” which ended up being declared “outright rubbish” or “inconclusive” by an overwhelming number of real honest scientists. Personally, I think that gayism research is one area of scientific investigation where voodoo gets mixed up with biological science. No where is this voodoo/science mix-up more apparent than in claims made about the numerical size of gay sex practitioners in every country in the world. There has been claims by some “scientists” that there were 500,000 gays in Uganda and 3 million gays in Nigeria. Now, the question Africans are all asking is how did these researchers get these numbers in a continent where gayism is so hidden that it is essentially invisible? A continent where proper record-keeping ranges from “inefficient ” to “non-existent”? The answer is probably voodoo-influenced guesstimates

The fetal brain develops during the intrauterine period in the male direction through a direct action of testosterone on the developing nerve cells, or in the female direction through the absence of this hormone surge. In this way, our gender identity (the conviction of belonging to the male or female gender) and sexual orientation are programmed or organized into our brain structures when we are still in the womb…..blah, blah, blah

Zoe,

I am no geneticist or neuroscientist, but I do have a Master’s Degree by Research in Electrical Engineering—-so I am a keen on scientific facts. But what I don’t like is rubbish being passed off as “science”. I know for a fact that there are all sorts of nonsense claims flying about, including the work of a “scientist ” who claimed he had discovered the mythical “gay gene”. There is simply no credible—-I repeat again — NO CREDIBLE scientific evidence that gayism is a genetic trait or that a person is born that way. Many gay propagandists masquerading as “scientists” have claimed lots of things in past and their work always get torn to shreds and junked when peer-reviewed by real honest scientists. Your claim is just one out of several funny ones out there. Africans are not moved by pseudo-scientific claims.

If you want to be taken seriously, please let me know 3 studies you have carefully reviewed in the last year which even address biological factors in sexual orientation. If you want to claim some kind of ability to judge credibility, then lets talk specifics.

Eddy…. There was no indication prior to 1492 that the earth was round.

Huh? That’s an old wives tail. Most sailiing people knew the earth was spherical. Scots fishermen had been to the Americas to fish the Grand Banks. The Greeks (Eratosthenes) had made a calculation of the circumference of the earth in the 3rd century BCE. Islamic scientists always worked from a knowledge of a spherical earth; and one, al Biruni (?), made a calculation of the earth’s circumferece with over 99% accuracy in the 11th century.

Just in the spirit of being more accurate. If anything, the problem you speak of concerning a ‘pre-1492 flat earth’ is one of the communication of ideas. Or possibly when a society set itself up as an idealogue and perhaps worships only the gnosis of a religious book.

…

1.

I strongly support the choice of those people in this situation to either “go with the flow” – which can require genital reconstruction to complete the change – or alternatively to have surgery to prevent the change. Their decision, no-one else’s.

To understand what this can mean in human terms, see RE: SALLY (SPECIAL MEDICAL PROCEDURE) [2010] FamCA 237

2.

While >99% of these cases are from female to male due to 5ARD or 17BHDD, a handful go the other way, from male to female, due to a variety of causes, none well understood as the sample sizes are so small.

I’m one of the latter. Which is why I’ve researched this stuff, it’s for my own health, and more importantly, that of my child.

Surely Maazi isn’t that prolific!

A casual browsing through the google ‘hits’ seems to indicate that it’s a term that’s interchangeable with homosexuality and that it seems to be more popular in foreign cultures than in our own. That’s where I get disturbed. Why, when we are trying to understand and/or impact a foreign culture would we insist that those foreigners step up and use our language?

Having lived in Minnesota for much of my life, I can’t bring myself to call a ‘soft drink’ a ‘soda’ anymore. (In Minnesota, ‘soda’ means ‘a soft drink with ice cream’). I’m kinda stuck with the Minnesota usage of ‘pop’…short for ‘soda pop’ which has been in use at least since the 1950’s. When people here in Pennsylvania try to ‘correct’ my usage, it comes across not so much as a correction but as a rigidity on their part. They KNOW what I’m talking about but they insist that I say it their way. LOL. I wouldn’t score that highly in terms of ’embracing diversity’ and I wouldn’t score the criticism of the use of ‘gayism’ highly in terms of ‘cross cultural communication’.

There were valid points in Warren’s post but I, for one, was thrown off by this ‘correction’ which I found to be tacky.

The drug DES was given to pregnant women throughout the 40s, 50s, 60s and into the early 70s to prevent miscarriages. 1 in 5 46xy(usually male)-gened people exposed to this drug, a female hormone, in the first trimester end up transsexual women rather than being men. That’s a similar proportion to those affected by Thalidomide, which leads to phocomelia, “flipper limbs” in those with a genetic pre-disposition to it. DES increased the rate of transsexuality by a factor of 500.

See Prenatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol(DES) in males and gender-related disorders:results from a 5-year study by Scott Kerlin.

More than 150 network members (out of 500) with “confirmed” or “strongly suspected” prenatal DES exposure identified as either “transsexual, pre- or post-operative,” (90 members), “transgender” (48 members), “gender dysphoric” (17 members), or “intersex” (3 members).

…

In this study, more than 150 individuals with confirmed or suspected prenatal DES exposure reported moderate to severe feelings of gender dysphoria across the lifespan. For most, these feelings had apparently been present since early childhood. The prevalence of a significant number of self-identified male-to-female transsexuals and transgendered individuals as well as some individuals who identify as intersex, androgynous, gay or bisexual males has inspired fresh investigation of historic theories about a possible biological/endocrine basis for psychosexual development in humans, including sexual orientation, core gender identity, and sexual identity (Benjamin, 1973; Cohen-Kettenis and Gooren, 1999; Diamond, 1965, 1996; Michel et al, 2001; Swaab, 2004).

Start with the following:

A sex difference in the human brain and its relation to transsexuality. by Zhou et al Nature (1995) 378:68–70.

Our study is the first to show a female brain structure in genetically male transsexuals and supports the hypothesis that gender identity develops as a result of an interaction between the developing brain and sex hormones

I trust you find Nature to be a reasonably reputable publication? One with some credibility?

Moving on.

Male-to-female transsexuals show sex-atypical hypothalamus activation when smelling odorous steroids. by Berglund et al Cerebral Cortex 2008 18(8):1900-1908;

…the data implicate that transsexuality may be associated with sex-atypical physiological responses in specific hypothalamic circuits, possibly as a consequence of a variant neuronal differentiation.

Male–to–female transsexuals have female neuron numbers in a limbic nucleus. Kruiver et al J Clin Endocrinol Metab (2000) 85:2034–2041

The present findings of somatostatin neuronal sex differences in the BSTc and its sex reversal in the transsexual brain clearly support the paradigm that in transsexuals sexual differentiation of the brain and genitals may go into opposite directions and point to a neurobiological basis of gender identity disorder.

Sexual differentiation of the human brain: relevance for gender identity, transsexualism and sexual orientation. Swaab Gynecol Endocrinol (2004) 19:301–312.

Solid evidence for the importance of postnatal social factors is lacking. In the human brain, structural diferences have been described that seem to be related to gender identity and sexual orientation.

A sex difference in the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus: relationship to gender identity. by Garcia-Falgueras et al Brain. 2008 Dec;131(Pt 12):3132-46.

We propose that the sex reversal of the INAH3 in transsexual people is at least partly a marker of an early atypical sexual differentiation of the brain and that the changes in INAH3 and the BSTc may belong to a complex network that may structurally and functionally be related to gender identity.

White matter microstructure in female to male transsexuals before cross-sex hormonal treatment. A diffusion tensor imaging study. – Rametti et al, J Psychiatr Res. 2010 Jun 8.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that the white matter microstructure pattern in untreated FtM transsexuals is closer to the pattern of subjects who share their gender identity (males) than those who share their biological sex (females). Our results provide evidence for an inherent difference in the brain structure of FtM transsexuals.

Now it can be argued that the neurological anomalies are a consequence, rather than a symptom, of “gayism”. That becoming a “gayist” changes one’s brain through an agency unknown. So we should look to see if there are any areas where this cannot be the case – where behaviour is instinctive, set in the womb, and correlated with “gayism”.

“Prenatal hormones versus postnatal socialization by parents as determinants of male-typical toy play in girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia” Pasterski VL, Geffner ME, Brain C, Hindmarsh P, Brook C, Hines M Child Dev 76(1):264-78 2005

Girls with CAH displayed more male-typical toy choices than did their unaffected sisters, whereas boys with and without CAH did not differ. Mothers and fathers encouraged sex-typical toy play in children with and without CAH. However, girls with CAH received more positive feedback for play with girls’ toys than did unaffected girls. Data show that increased male-typical toy play by girls with CAH cannot be explained by parental encouragement of male-typical toy play. Although parents encourage sex-appropriate behavior, their encouragement appears to be insufficient to override the interest of girls with CAH in cross-sexed toys.

Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) is an Intersex condition, which can result in masculinised genitalia. It also results in a greatly increased rate of lesbianism and bisexuality. In extreme cases – about 10%- it can result in a mostly male appearance, and male gender identity.

Note in comparison this quote from the Swaab et al paper:

Boys and girls behave in different ways and one of the stereotypical behavioral differences between them, that has often been said to be forced upon them by upbringing and social environment, is their behavior in play. Boys prefer to play with cars and balls, whereas girls prefer dolls. This sex difference in toy preference is present very early in life (3–8 months of age) [1]. The idea that it is not society that forces these choices upon children but a sex difference in the early development of their brains and behavior is also supported by monkey behavioral studies. Alexander and Hines [2], who offered dolls, toy cars and balls to green Vervet monkeys found the female monkeys consistently chose the dolls and examined these ano-genitally, whereas the male monkeys were more interested in playing with the toy cars and with the ball….

We’re even zeroing in on exactly what brain structures are involved:

Regional gray matter variation in male-to-female transsexualism by Luders E, Sánchez FJ, Gaser C, Toga AW, Narr KL, Hamilton LS, Vilain E. in Neuroimage. 2009 Mar 30.

We analyzed MRI data of 24 male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals not yet treated with cross-sex hormones in order to determine whether gray matter volumes in MTF transsexuals more closely resemble people who share their biological sex (30 control men), or people who share their gender identity (30 control women). Results revealed that regional gray matter variation in MTF transsexuals is more similar to the pattern found in men than in women. However, MTF transsexuals show a significantly larger volume of regional gray matter in the right putamen compared to men. These findings provide new evidence that transsexualism is associated with distinct cerebral pattern, which supports the assumption that brain anatomy plays a role in gender identity.

So it’s not correct to say that trans women have “female brains” : only certain parts of the brain have to be cross-sexed, others may or may not be.

Neuroimaging Differences in Spatial Cognition between Men and Male-to-Female Transsexuals Before and During Hormone Therapy by Scoening et al J Sex Med. 2009 Sep 14.

Conclusions. Our results confirmed previously reported deviances of brain activation patterns in transsexual men from men without GID and also corroborated these findings in a group of transsexual patients receiving cross-sex hormone therapy. The present study indicates that there are a priori differences between men and transsexual patients caused by different neurobiological processes or task-solving strategies and that these differences remain stable over the course of hormonal treatment.

Thus showing that while some neural functioning is affected by hormonal treatment, other parts are not.

I’ve just quoted a few of the hundreds of papers on the subject. This small subset is all available online.

My main interest is in gender identity, rather than sexual orientation, hence the emphasis on that in those papers. But I suspect “gayism” whatever that may mean conflates the two anyway. Certainly the Ugandan legislation makes no distinction (in section 24 IIRC).

Another set of “Nature’s Experiments” are those with 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency (5alpha-RD-2) and 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency (17beta-HSD-3) . These people can have a “Natural Sex Change” from female at birth to male later. This can either cause or cure transsexuality, depending on the neurology.

Now you may find this evidence unconvincing, due to religious or other personal beliefs. That is your privilege of course. But to say there is no “credible evidence” flies in the face of the facts, as has been shown in several court rulings.

Re Kevin – Significant Findings Of Justice Richard Chisholm In Respect Of The Expert Medical Evidence In That Case As To The Causation Of Transsexualism And As Strongly Affirmed By The Full Court (Australian Family Court) On Appeal. Deakin Law Review 2004 v22

At paragraph (247): ‘In my view the expert evidence in this case affirms that brain development is (at least) an important determinant of a person’s sense of being a man or a woman. No contrary opinion is expressed. All the experts are very well qualified. None was required for cross-examination, nor was any contrary evidence called’.

At paragraph (248): ‘In my view the evidence is, in essence, that the experts believe that the brain development view is likely to be true, and they explain the basis for their beliefs. In the circumstances, I see no reason why I should not accept the proposition, on the balance of probabilities, for the purpose of this case.’

At paragraph (252): ‘The traditional analysis that they are “psychologically” transsexual does not explain how this state came about. For example, there seems to be no suggestion in the evidence that their psychological state can be explained by reference to circumstances of their upbringing. In that sense, the brain sex theory does not seem to be competing with other explanations, but rather is providing a possible explanation of what is otherwise inexplicable’.

At paragraph (253): ‘In other words (as I understand it) the brain of an individual may in some sense be male, for example, though the rest of the person’s body is female’.

At paragraph (265): ‘In my view the argument in favour of the “brain sex” view is also based on evidence about the development and experience of transsexuals and others with atypical sex-related characteristics. There is a vast literature on this, some of which is in evidence, and I can do no more than mention briefly some of the main points’.

At paragraph (268): ‘It seems quite wrong to think of these people as merely wishing or preferring to be of the opposite sex, or having the opinion that they are’.

At paragraph (270): ‘But I am satisfied that the evidence now is inconsistent with the distinction formerly drawn between biological factors, meaning genitals, chromosomes and gonads, and merely “psychological factors”, and on this basis distinguishing between cases of inter-sex (incongruities among biological factors) and transsexualism (incongruities between biology and psychology)’.

At paragraph (272): ‘In my view the evidence demonstrates (at least on the balance of probabilities) that the characteristics of transsexuals are as much “biological” as those of people thought of as inter-sex’.