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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Political/War Lounge > Woooot!! Another state for equality!

Woooot!! Another state for equality! (Page 2)
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besson3c
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Mar 27, 2014, 02:45 PM
 
I see what you mean.

I think that is what people claiming a gay gene or gay genes mean though, pretty much. It could be that babies are born with the bits and pieces (for lack of a better term) that can lead to a later discovery of being gay.

Sexuality is based on a sliding scale, right? We are not 100% hetero or 100% homo, so therefore babies born with a mix of gay and hetero bits and pieces could go either way in settling on sexual preference(s). However, it is also not inaccurate to say that there are gay genes, because something innate/natural/genetic/whatever you want to call it is behind these bits and pieces, and if none exist, it doesn't seem plausible that being gay is just a totally random thing, or else there would probably be a greater percentage of people that are gay, right?
     
subego
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Mar 27, 2014, 02:51 PM
 
I think the proper terminology is you are predisposed to a trait, but that isn't the same as it being locked in your genes the way hair color is.

I see "I was born gay" as analogous to the statement "I was born hawt for big hair". I assume we agree the latter isn't possible, why is the former?
     
besson3c
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Mar 27, 2014, 03:02 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
I think the proper terminology is you are predisposed to a trait, but that isn't the same as it being locked in your genes the way hair color is.

I see "I was born gay" as analogous to the statement "I was born hawt for big hair". I assume we agree the latter isn't possible, why is the former?
Then the essence of this question is what predisposition entails? We are also predisposed to having a number of personality traits, and while I accept that environment shapes how these traits manifest themselves, at the very lowest level there has to be some sort of genetic data, right?

Maybe an appropriate analogy is a computer and computer software? Software is filed of all sorts of abstract layers, the lowest level of these those we don't ever think about. However, at the end of day beneath all of this is binary data. The layers above this lowest level can be sculpted a variety of different ways...

Or, maybe this analogy sucks. Whatever the case, I'm clearly predisposed to trying to come up with clever analogies, even though I clearly suck at doing so!
     
Shaddim
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Mar 27, 2014, 04:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
Maybe this is just an issue of semantics then. Shouldn't whatever is "natural" to us be a part of our genetic blueprints?
Nature, nurture, hardware, software... programming is programming. How we get to who we are isn't nearly as important as who we become or choose to be.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
     
subego
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Mar 27, 2014, 04:56 PM
 
Not as important, however I find it very interesting.

I think the hardware/software analogy works in that sense. I see either and my first instinct is to try and reverse engineer it.
     
besson3c
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Mar 27, 2014, 05:13 PM
 
Originally Posted by Shaddim View Post
Nature, nurture, hardware, software... programming is programming. How we get to who we are isn't nearly as important as who we become or choose to be.
Agreed, although in the case of being gay I think this is more of a "becoming" than "choose to be". Who would choose to be gay?
     
Shaddim
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Mar 27, 2014, 05:31 PM
 
It's purely anecdotal, but we have an acquaintance who couldn't find a woman who would find him attractive, nature wasn't kind to him, he nearly is a real-to-life Quasimodo. However, he did find a guy who cares about him, so he decided that was much better than being alone. He's an extreme case, but I can't imagine there aren't other people who are in similar relationships. Hold on, I also know a straight guy who is in a homosexual relationship of sorts in prison. I guess those are both cases of urges overriding inclination.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
     
besson3c
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Mar 27, 2014, 05:37 PM
 
Originally Posted by Shaddim View Post
It's purely anecdotal, but we have an acquaintance who couldn't find a woman who would find him attractive, nature wasn't kind to him, he nearly is a real-to-life Quasimodo. However, he did find a guy who cares about him, so he decided that was much better than being alone. He's an extreme case, but I can't imagine there aren't other people who are in similar relationships. Hold on, I also know a straight guy who is in a homosexual relationship of sorts in prison. I guess those are both cases of urges overriding inclination.
Wouldn't those people that are close to 50/50 in hetero/homo, like your friend sounds like, be dubbed as bisexual?
     
subego
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Mar 27, 2014, 05:52 PM
 
I know someone who claims it was a choice, though this individual doesn't seem to have a huge sex drive.

There are women who I feel have made the choice based on how men treat them.

I fully admit these are outliers, and would probably fit best into the "bisexual" part of the continuum, but none of them actually self-identify as such.
     
 
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