View Single Post
Old 06-17-2006, 04:17 PM   #20 (permalink)
Gilda
32 flavors and then some
 
Gilda's Avatar
 
Location: Out on a wire.
Quote:
Originally Posted by timalkin
I'm not really sure what is gained by revealing this type of information. A biological basis for homosexuality simply means that homosexuality is some sort of genetic mutation that is undesirable in the grand scheme of life. Since homosexuals don't bear offspring, they don't pass their genetic material to another generation.
Why is it undesirable? At a species level, it has little effect on the population. One in 20 men and one in 40 women is homosexual, yet we're still growing our population.

And it's not a genetic mutation. The best evidence available right now seems to indicate that male homosexuality is a result of variant gestational hormone levels. The cause of female homosexuality is more difficult to determine, but there does seem to be a stronger environmental influence. It's still natural.

Quote:
It's not such a big deal in the human world where we set goals other than having children and raising them, but a homosexual animal is very undesirable in nature. An animal's most important goal in life is to produce offspring. It's safe to say that any homosexual animal species died out long ago.
This presumes a species that is 100% homosexual. Since we're talking about humans, where homosexuality is 5-6% for males and about half that for females, it's hardly an issue. As someone else suggested, it may be an adaptation to population density, though I see no evidence to support this and think that there is some good evidence on the other side. If it is, it wouldn't make it good or bad, it would make it evolutionary. In other words, natural.

I suspect that dd3953 is right about homosexuals reproducing less often than heterosexuals, primarily because homosexual couples cannot produce accidental pregnacies, while that's quite common among heterosexuals. It's not really an issue, though, as we don't reproduce true. Children of homosexuals are no more likely to be homosexual themselves than those of heterosexuals, and nearly all homosexuals come from heterosexual parents. We don't need to reproduce, because you folk are gonna keep making more of us.

Gilda

Last edited by Gilda; 06-17-2006 at 04:19 PM..
Gilda is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360