SO our local boys the gay sheep have turned up in the news again. And yet, while i find this all fairly amusing, I also feel much of it is just that. Hilarity, not science. All this talk about nature vs. nurture, genes vs. hormones seems to have been stunted and appears to live in scientific infancy despite being in the popular science, and gossip minds for a very long time. Who actually, besides middle schoolers, measures fingers to try and determine if that boy sitting next to you in homeroom is gay? Seems a pretty juvenile game to me.
Is this post, then, an urgent call to action and for further intense inquiry? Not necessarily. While I may find it interesting to note that sheep may have gay proclivities, or that men with multiple older brothers are more likely to be gay, I don’t think it’s necessarily a particularly compelling question in science right now. We, as gay people, often want to use this to say, “Hey, we can’t help it. We were born this way,” and thereby justify our existance and self-worth. I feel no need to have science validate me. I am who I am, whether I was born to it or chose it I am a person worthy of respect. In addition, I worry that once the “disease” is diagnosable, we will look to “cure” it. And then how boring a world would be have with no queers in it. Really, I shudder at the thought.
For a serious and thoughtful look, that still doesn’t gloss over social realities, I recommend checking Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People by Joan Roughgarden. She really tears down Darwin’s walls and looks critically at animal behavior.
