New Theory: Sexual Orientation Determined by Brain Hemisphere Dominance

While the Christofascists continue to peddle the fraudulent claim that sexual orientation is a choice and/or is something that can be "changed," members of the LGBT community know that their sexual orientation is no more of a choice than breathing.  Some of us, like myself, tried to deny and ignore this reality for many, many years before we finally faced reality.  Others sadly will continue to believe the Christianist lies and Bible based poison they disseminate and live their entire lives denying reality - and likely being miserable in the process.  As The Advocate is reporting, a new book that has reviewed numerous peer reviewed studies (as opposed to the studies conducted by Christianist funded quacks) confirms a physiological basis for sexual orientation and concludes that it is something set before birth.  Here are a few highlights:

Olson believes that current research looking for a “gay gene” is searching in the wrong place. Rather, Olson contends, sexual orientation is determined by brain hemisphere dominance. Most men are left-brain dominant, whereas most women are right-brain dominant. Seizing on the implication that “most” necessarily excludes some people, Olson wondered what happened when brain dominance was reversed from the standard. 

After reviewing a large collection of scientific literature, Olson hypothesized that when a man is right-brain dominant or a woman is left-brain dominant, that person will be gay or lesbian.

If sexual orientation is determined by brain dominance as Olson contends, it’s important to note that the pathways connecting the two hemispheres of the brain and determining which side is dominant are mostly finalized before birth. As such, Olson reiterates conventional scientific wisdom that sexual orientation is predetermined and unchangeable. The author, a straight, single man originally from Oklahoma, also believes that his observation could help demystify the source of sexual orientation and thereby foster peace and understanding.

“We fear what we don’t understand,” said Olson, who holds a business degree from the University of Oklahoma. “I’m looking for peace and an end to this war against gay people. The answer is education — if people understand what’s going on, then the fear disappears.”

Olson says he culled numerous peer-reviewed articles about the hemispheric preference — and corresponding behavior — of straight, gay, and bisexual men and women. One important study Olson cites comes from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, which found that scans of gay people’s brains most closely resembled — in structure and composition — those of heterosexual people of the opposite sex. Essentially, the 2008 study posited that a lesbian’s brain closely mirrored the structure of a straight man’s brain, while a gay man’s brain was most similar in structure to a straight woman’s. 

Olson’s supporters say his common-sense conclusions may be our next best hope at understanding the origins of sexual orientation and proving that LGBT people are not mentally ill, making a lifestyle choice, or in need of a cure.

Olson’s book, The Whole-Brain Path to Peace, has received four national book awards and required a broad range of research to complete. This brain-dominance theory, and the paper which presents it, is his first effort to synthesize scientific information, and Olson believes it is the first to discover the connection between brain hemisphere dominance and sexual orientation.

New Study: Gay Brains Structured Like Those of the Opposite Sex

Well, it looks like more bad news for the Christianists based on new Swedish research being released just as gay marriage takes off today in California. But then, the Christianists care little for science and research, preferring to live in a fantasy land of their own based on hate and bigotry. Perfessional homophobes and merchants of anti-gay lies Robert Knight and Peter LaBarbera among others will be wetting themselves in spastic aggitation over it all. Obviously, we gays know damn well that our sexual orientation and the gender of the objects of our romantic attraction are not a choice no matter how many lies the likes of Concerned Bitches for America and similar organizations disseminate. This new reseach shows a definite difference in brain structure between gays and the straight members of their gender. Obviously, we do not somehow choose to have different brain characteristics. It will be amusing to see what lengths the Christianists go to avoid recognizing this new knowledge. Here are some highlights from New Scientist:

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Brain scans have provided the most compelling evidence yet that being gay or straight is a biologically fixed trait. The scans reveal that in gay people, key structures of the brain governing emotion, mood, anxiety and aggressiveness resemble those in straight people of the opposite sex. The differences are likely to have been forged in the womb or in early infancy, says Ivanka Savic, who conducted the study at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

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Previous studies have also shown differences in brain architecture and activity between gay and straight people, but most relied on people's responses to sexuality driven cues that could have been learned, such as rating the attractiveness of male or female faces. To get round this, Savic and her colleague, Per Lindström, chose to measure brain parameters likely to have been fixed at birth.

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The results showed that straight men had asymmetric brains, with the right hemisphere slightly larger – and the gay women also had this asymmetry. Gay men, meanwhile, had symmetrical brains like those of straight women. They found that the patterns of connectivity in gay men matched those of straight women, and vice versa (see image, above right). In straight women and gay men, the connections were mainly into regions of the brain that manifest fear as intense anxiety.

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"This study demonstrates that homosexuals of both sexes show strong cross-sex shifts in brain symmetry," says Qazi Rahman, a leading researcher on sexual orientation at Queen Mary college, University of London, UK. "The connectivity differences reported in the amygdala are striking."