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Originally Posted by She5
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I've also read about how hormones affect people's sexual orientation...but do hormones change a person's DNA? (I know hormones can affect the behavior of the organisms in our bodies and our overall behavior as well, but I'm asking if hormones can change/mutate your DNA or chromosomes?). Aren't genes the only pre-determined and permanent thing about people?
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This is a good point to introduce the field of epigenetics for anyone who hasn't heard about it yet; "epigenetics is the study of changes in gene activity that do not involve alterations to the genetic code but still get passed down to at least one successive generation".
Here's an interesting introductory article.
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Epigenetics: DNA Isn’t Everything
I'm not saying environmental changes in an embryo somehow switch on the gayness in a person. But I want to point out that DNA is more complex than we think, and our current understanding is just that, what we
currently understand. So genes are permanent, but their expression can change. This change can also be inherited. Mysteriouser and mysteriouser, eh?
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Aren't XX and XY chromosomes pretty much pre-determined sexual orientation genes? Is sexual orientation based on who you're attracted to, or who you have sex with? Can someone tell me???
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My understanding of XX/XY is that these chromosomes determine how the physical sexuality of an organism is expressed. There may be a preponderance of behaviours associated with physical sexuality (ie females tend to mate w males & vice versa) but they are not absolutes.
Sexuality is a very complex set of behaviours. Much more so in animals than in plants, I believe, because in animals there is a brain which changes according to learned responses as well as following the template laid out by the genes of the animals inherited DNA. You will find evidence of "homosexual" activity in pretty well every branch of the animal kingdom. I'm not sure these animals are choosing to behave this way. It may be something more than choice.
Another thing to be clear on. A persons' actions do not necessarily express their sexuality. A man who has sex with a woman is not automatically and for evermore straight, and a man who has sex with a man is not necessarily gay from that point onward. Of course there are the cases of people who permanently refrain from any sexual contact - they are not necessarily neuters. There is circumstance and context to take into account for all kinds of sexual orientation questions and actions. Prison sex is not the same as sex when there is freedom of choice. Nor is sex within an arranged marriage, or indeed within any constrained social contract setting.
That all said, I feel pretty sure there is an underlying mechanism that is often expressed in homosexuals as the "gay voice", the "gay walk" and "gay sensibility". Not always, and not cut and dried either, but often enough to make me say hmmmmmm.