Here’s another piece of evidence that sexual orientation is genetically hard-wired. For my part, I don’t really see the political or moral salience of this. The origins of sexual orientation will one day be better understood. But I know of no theory – even those of the “reparative therapists” – who believe that orientation is somehow “chosen.” I know of no theorists, including those on the religious right, who seriously argue that it isn’t largely fixed (whether through genes, environment or a combination of the two) by the age of three. The point is that, regardless of its origin, sexual orientation is experienced by the overwhelming majority of homosexuals as involuntary in every sense of the word. Those activists on the far right who claim otherwise are, at some level, accusing people like me of lying about a fundamental reality in our lives. We’re not. The only salient political question is: how do you integrate a small minority of people whose sexual orientation is fixed as the opposite of the norm? Stigmatize them for being different and write them out of constitutional protections? Or integrate them into the family and the society as equal citizens, and demand the same responsibilities from them as everyone else?
SMART JEWS: Eventually, the empirical links between intelligence and genetics will be unable to be denied. But sit back and watch people try.
The Dish 