The Science Of Sexual Orientation

Sexual orientation, way do you like boys? Why do you like girls? Science has some really interesting things to say about this topic. I have been listening to Pod casts as I walk to and from work. The majority of it is political talk shows. I heard this really cool segment on sexual orientation. The report was done by Lesley Stahl of 60 minutes. The story starts with two twin boys. One is into guns and camo, the other is into horses and nail polish. You can see a short video here.
Another interesting part is what science is finding with statistics.
scientists are looking for patterns in statistics. And hard as this is to believe, they have found something they call "the older brother effect."

"The more older brothers a man has, the greater that man's chance of being gay," says Bailey.

Asked if that's true, Bailey says, "That is absolutely true."

If this comes as a shock to you, you’re not alone. But it turns out; it’s one of the most solid findings in this field, demonstrated in study after study.

And the numbers are significant: for every older brother a man has his chances of being gay increase by one third. Older sisters make no difference, and there's no corresponding effect for lesbians. A first-born son has about a 2 percent chance of being gay, and the numbers rise from there. The theory is it happens in the womb.

"Somehow, the mother's body is remembering how many boys she's carried before," says Breedlove. "The favorite hypothesis is that the mother may be making antibodies when she sees a boy the first time, and then affect subsequent boys when she carries them in utero."

"You mean, like she's carrying a foreign substance?" Stahl asked.

"And if you think about it, a woman who's carrying a son for the first time, she is carrying a foreign substance," Breedlove replied. "There are some proteins encoded on his Y chromosome that her body has never seen before and that her immune system would be expected to regard as 'invaders,'" he added.

It’s still not a proven theory.

But if the boy is left handed then the theory is out the window.

We will always wonder why we are the way we are. It is the combination of things that make us the way we are. I don't think they will find "the one thing" that makes us straight or gay. Man will always try to answer the whys. What a species!