The Constitution of The United Sates guarantees each citizen the right of free choice and liberal expression of the thoughts, ideas, beliefs and, in my opinion, the sexual orientation as well. The year 2015 was a very significant one in the process of legalization of homosexual marriages. On June 25, 2015 the Supreme Court of the United States pronounced the permission for homosexual to get married freely. According to Wikipedia in 2015 4 percents in 1000 people consider themselves as homosexual (2 gays and 2 lesbians) and four in 1000 indentify themselves as bisexual. Nearly 63 percents of Americans consider the gay/lesbian relationships morally appropriate (Wikipedia, 2015). But have you ever thought why people are heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual? What is the reason of that? Is it something innate or acquired? After performing some reading and studying, I may say that the diverse sexual orientations develop in humans due to different factors such as: psychological peculiarities of human’s brain and the behavior of other human beings and the examples viewed in childhood which influences the neural structures and leads to forming of certain preferences in adulthood, innate biological factors and prenatal hormones level, and finally society and social processes a person is surrounded by.
As it was mentioned, there are many factors – social, biological, psychological – which influence the formation of straight, homosexual or bisexual orientation. As for the social factors the following example may be provided: if a child was brought up in the atmosphere of homosexual conformity and observing the same-sex peers and people around who weren’t oppressed but encouraged to express themselves sexually freely, may lead to the forming of ideas of becoming a homosexual as it is approved by the society and is widely spread and not prohibited. In the childhood it may be viewed as an example to follow in future. As for the biological factors, the experiments performed demonstrate the influence of mother’s hormones on the child in the womb. Testosterone increased the interest of females towards same gender in the adult periods and this way contributed to the homosexual formation of orientation. This way we may talk about innate reasons of sexual choice. Psychology of a human being is another reason of a certain orientation formation. Here Freud’s oedipal complex appears in a reversed manner. According to Freud, boys are attracted to their mothers and are often jealous of their fathers and see them as a contestant. But at the same time they try to seek for a sexual partner who represents themselves. This way they are looking for other men and become homosexuals in the result. So the female attraction in some way influences the psychology and changes it completely.
Male and female are different in the process of orientation forming. Somehow the factors which influence the sexual choice are different for both genders. Firstly, the statistics show that the percentage of boys who were abused by other males and then became homosexuals is higher than in the case with females. The study shows that statistically homosexual males and females are more likely to be abused in the childhood by the same gender than heterosexual ones (LeVay, 2011, 34). In this case we may observe that the psychological factors influence males more than females and this way contributes to the choice of the gay orientation. According to the experiment performed, even biologically males are also more influenced to choose the same sexual partner than females are. There was found the third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus (INAH3) in human’s brain which was more developed in males. That’s why when males and females are engaged into same tasks their behavior and choices differ from one another and the sexual orientation is one of the examples of the activity and in the course of it male choose other males for sexual preferences (LeVay, 2011, 47). So again, we may see that biological factors work differently for the genders.
According to the evolution theory, human beings are the highest representatives of the primates and that’s why we may take the data from the gender experiment with animals and somehow to connect them with the human’s ones and interrelate the results. It is suggested that human’s INAH3 is the “ancestor” of rat’s sexually dimorphic nucleus of the preoptic area (SDN-POA) and the influence they perform is believed to be the same: the experiments showed that is it one of the reasons why rat’s chose homosexual relationships. This gives the right for making a connection between animals and humans. There was the connection found in the influence of the gender traits on the examples of female girls and female monkey and sheep. Newborn girls are more attracted to people’s faces while males prefer mechanic toys. It is believed that it is caused by prenatal hormones. This was proved by the experiment with monkeys and the usage of testosterone which was reflected in the active involvement of them into rough-and-tumble games at the juvenile period. Sheep influenced by testosterone showed bigger attraction to other female sheep than those without the hormone. That’s why we may state that the experiments with animals show some natural laws which exist in the hierarchy of living creatures and humans in particular. The researches with animals help to establish and understand the fact of biological influence of hormones on the sexual orientations. The experiments show that is it possible to regulate orientation with the help of hormones, this means that it’s real to change a homosexual animal into a heterosexual or vice versa. We can’t state the same affect upon human beings as it is unnatural and unethical to perform such experiments on people, but the data of the allowed investigations held upon both – animals and people - gives the right to suppose that the same is possible with the change of human’s orientation from one into another. Here animals appear to be very useful for making theories and hypothesis which give the “food” and reason for the further studying of this phenomenon.
It is well-known and obvious that studying the fact of sexual orientation is difficult to perform because of disability to perform biological experiments with people as it is possible with animals. But nevertheless there are scientific facts and evidences which prove and show the process of orientation development. The process of orientation development is like any other process and has its stages, factors and reasons. According to the scientific studying, the process of orientation development is mostly conducted in the period from teenage to early twenties. The first step of this process is the rejection of the idea itself and the block of recognition of the homosexual attractions. This stage takes some times and a lot of psychological efforts which sometimes may be reflected on human’s health. But when the thought is no longer rejected, the phase of actual homosexual attempts begins. Such kinds of sexual experiments give a certain understanding of the orientation. Sometimes it provokes negative feelings towards homosexuality and the person reassures in being straight. In some cases it helps to understand the real nature and after realizing and being sure of this fact a person does no longer hesitate and starts perceiving homosexuality as a part of him/herself with the feeling of liking and enjoying it. This process is not fluent, it is often performed with stops and failures and then new pushes and the desire to find out the truth. The given model was suggested by Gonsiorek who described his theory and presented the results in the book Definition and Measurement of Sexual Orientation. His evidences were built on the experimental sample studies with a group of non-heterosexuals performed in the United States in 1970s.
Homosexuality is not a modern phenomena, it was present even in ancient world. From the history we know that homosexuality existed in Ancient Greek and Rome and such philosophers as Plato, Herodotus and Xenophon studied the fact of same-sex love. Throughout the history homosexuality developed and become what we know and can see now. In my opinion one of the factors which caused the evolutional development of same-sex relationships and the reason why it survived, lays, firstly, in the relationships between the people themselves. It was always that way that mothers spent the time with daughters at home, while fathers and their sons were out hunting or tinkering things. This way the connection was built which later formed into sexual relationships between same genders as we know it today. But the process of development may also be caused by socialization. By this we understand the differences not between males and females in general, but about the differences within the gender itself. It is obvious that each of us is a unique and special individual but sometimes some representatives may feel gender non-conformity. This means that trying to escape from this non-conformity some people make it even bigger and become involved in the relationships which will make them different from other peers (Reiger, Linsenmeier, 2008, 55). Another factor is the desire itself which lives inside some people and representatives of homosexuals. Of course, in previous times it was more difficult to realize this and almost impossible and very dangerous to announce that someone was attracted to the same gender, as it was for example in the Middle Ages. But people couldn’t fight with their desires and homosexuality went on existing secretly. Dr. LeVay states “Evolutionary considerations do not rule out the existence of genes that promote homosexuality—in fact, such considerations may be the key to identifying them and understanding their mode of action” (LeVay, 2011, 189). It is very difficult to study this phenomenon as the data is limited and this obscures the process of complete research and finding answers to all questions. What is known for now in that there are some mental, biological and social reasons which underlie the matter of sexual orientation and choice but it still remains a very controversial field for studying. I suppose that evolutionary the whole phenomena and process of homosexuality and attraction to same genders has come through different stages and was influenced by many factors – psychological, biological and cultural. In spite of a catastrophic HIV spreading in the second part of XX century, which was believed to be caused by same-sex connections, homosexuality still remains an important fact of the modern society and proper attitude and respect should be paid to this question.
It is very important to be aware of the necessity of understanding and liberalization of the rights of homosexuals, as we know that their rights were harshly neglected in the previous centuries. Homosexuality is not a diagnosis or disease, it’s the way of life and the right to self expression, showing the feelings and attractions a person possesses. Each person has the right of choice and no one can interfere in it. There are people who do not approve this kind of relationships, but I suppose that it’s up to each person to decide whom to love and be with. Homosexuality is the phenomenon which has the right to exist and our task is to respect it.
References
LeVay, S. (2011). Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why SIMON LeVAY 12011 The Science of Sexual Orientation. London: Oxford University Press.
Rieger, G., Linsenmeier, G. A. W. (2008). Sexual Orientation and Childhood Gender Nonconformity: Evidence From Home Videos. Developmental Psychology. 44 (1). pp. 46-58.
Wikipedia. Org. (2015). LGBT Demographics of the United States. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_demographics_of_the_United_States
