The American Psychological Association has reversed it's position on the existence of a "gay gene":

"no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors"
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=97940

I did wonder a while back, as to the depths this thread would finally sink to, and it didn't disappoint.

It is all too easy for normal folk to imagine that an automatic, visceral rejection of homosexuality has disappeared from our society. Since the stigma no longer exists, it should follow that the gut-level hatred goes too.

So it is useful to be reminded that there are still people out there - apparently literate, possibly even intelligent people - who still carry a deep-seated fear of homosexuals, and react accordingly.

This puzzled me for a minute.

>>The American Psychological Association has reversed it's position on the existence of a "gay gene"<<

From the little I know of genetics, any "homosexual gene" would un-breed itself out of existence, pretty quickly, by definition. So it had never occurred to me that anyone would have postulated its existence for a minute.

Still, it's important to note that with genes out of the way, the fear brigade now 'knows for a fact' that homosexuality is simply a lifestyle choice. Incorrigible.

It is also useful to keep track of the sources these folk use for their material. Thanks KMB. That one's an absolute cracker. Not an ounce of humanity to be found in the mudslide of its prejudices.

I particularly loved its self-promotion:

"an independent news company dedicated to uncompromising journalism, seeking truth and justice and revitalizing the role of the free press as a guardian of liberty."

Ranks up there with Fox News, which is now fair, balanced *and* accurate!

http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/05/06/fox-adds-accurate-to-fair-balanced-slogan/

So, thanks to keith, KMB, phanto. Most educational.

The postscript to this must go to phanto.

>>I wonder would it be ok under any SSM legislation for two mates who were not homosexuals to be married so they could have access to all the things that being legally married seems to provide<<

That would be life imitating art, phanto.

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/12/boston-legal--1.html

Pericles,
Are you saying that WND inaccurately quoted the American Psychological Association?
If not, then what is the relevance of what you're saying?
Are you saying that the APA got it wrong?
If so, where is your proof?
Stormbay has earlier claimed on this thread that "we are psychologically born with our sexual preferences".
The APA quote refutes that there is any factual basis for making this claim.
I'd previously quoted Peter Tatchell to refute the gay gene theory.
http://www.petertatchell.net/gay%20gene/gene%20genie.htm
Does he pass your test?

False dichotomy.

There's more to biology and development than genes and 'choice'.

Thalidomide babies aren't born with "the Thalidomide gene", they are developmentally changed by 'environmental' influences (in this case a drug). There are many environmental factors that can influence development within the womb and after. And yet you cannot say that such affected children are a 'lifestyle choice'.
Brain development is especially sensitive to particular developmental influences as it changes synaptic connections so much over time and is influenced so much by biochemistry.

Weirdly enough though, every male contains enough genetic information to make a female. It's an uncommon but not exceedingly rare occurrence to see developmentally ambiguous genitalia on children at birth- it's not genetic, it's developmental. And they're born with it.

Bugsy,

False analogy.

You appear to have missed my previous post:

"no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors"
...American Psychological Association

Unlike the victims of Thalidome, however, homosexuals can be cured:

"While many mental health care providers and professional associations have expressed considerable skepticism that sexual orientation could be changed with psychotherapy and also assumed that therapeutic attempts at reorientation would produce harm, recent empirical evidence demonstrates that homosexual orientation can indeed be therapeutically changed in motivated clients, and that reorientation therapies do not produce emotional harm when attempted"

Maxmen, JS & Ward, NG 2009, Essential Psychopathology and Its Treatment, WW Norton & Company, New York, p. 488.

KMB: << homosexuals can be cured >>

So homosexuality's a disease? Says it all really.

How interesting to observe full-blown homophobia so honestly expressed.