Thursday, August 25, 2011

Torn This Way

Born this way: Fun hair and a willingness to take fashion risks

Queerty has a post about the Fraternal Birth Order Effect, the theory that for each older brother that a guy has his chances of being gay increase by about 33 percent. This isn't exactly new news -- for whatever reason, it just popped up in the blogger's mind recently so he wrote about it -- but I've always found it very interesting seeing as I am the youngest of four boys. (My mom's first baby died of crib death when he was about 2 months old.) What caught my eye this time, however, wasn't some new scientific discovery about the hypothesized antibody that forms in Mom's womb after giving birth to her first boy, but some of the comments people are leaving, which read like a Republican presidential candidate denying climate change and evolution while "Born This Way" is blaring in the background:

Scott: This “antibodies” theory sounds like crap. I resent these theories that imply that things didn’t go right and a gay child was born, that heteros are better. I am not a birth defect. I’ll bet there are 2 genes somewhere that govern sexuality and 2 recessive ones got together in my case. No matter what technique was used to create me I’m sure I’m exactly the way the universe intended me to be. I’m perfect the way I am.

James UK: I am the eldest of 3 boys. The younger 2 are straight, married with a kid each. I am the gay one – the very gay one. I think that we are born gay. Whether it is genetic or due to in utero hormone levels or a combination, doesn’t matter to me. There is nothing wrong or abnormal about being gay. It’s nothing that I’ve ever felt the need to apologise for or explain away. I am as good as anyone else, gay, straight or anywhere else in between.

Listen, I grew up thinking I was the only gay person in the world, too. I'm really happy that the Internet, It Gets Better and Lady Gaga are around these days so others like me don't have to feel so isolated for so long, and don't have to grow up believing there is something "wrong" with them. So I can understand how putting why we are the way we are under a microscope would make someone who has struggled for acceptance feel uncomfortable. But it's another thing all together when LGBT people become so consumed with self-acceptance that they're no longer open to the wonders of science and learning about themselves -- something I thought The Gays LOVED to do! -- and begin to sound exactly like the same wingnuts who use ignorance as a basis for denying anything that doesn't fit into their agenda.

I say to my fellow LGBT citizens: Feel good about yourself. Fight for our rights. Demand equality on all levels. But whatever you do, don't fight for the right to be as ignorant as our oppressors. (Saying you know gay people who are first-born makes you sound like someone saying it was cold outside in June, so there's no global warming.) As Larry Kramer is quick to point out, many of the smartest people to ever live were born this way. Let's embrace -- and enjoy -- finding out why. (No one is saying this isn't a complex issue and that birth order is the ONLY factor.) And if sick people try to use this information for evil (as some understandably fear), we're strong enough -- and smart enough -- to deal with it when the time comes. I'm not willing to abandon my thirst for knowledge just because I'm fearful of what stupid people might do with it. I was born this way.

6 comments:

The Honourable Husband said...

Hear, hear. I am fascinated to learn more about what makes me unique, and how I came to be so. Science, in Latin, meant knowledge. Nothing more, nothing less.

Mark said...

I think the science is fascinating, but I'm not sure it's particularly helpful. When I was in college, I had a friend say to me, "Think how much easier it would be to get gay rights if we could prove it's genetic!"

Well, I thought about it, and wasn't too impressed. We know that sex is genetic, but women were treated like property for much of humanity's history. They're paid less than men, and more likely to be victims of violence.

Same with skin color. We damn well know that's genetic, but black people are still discriminated against, are more likely to be victims of violence, have a shorter life expectancy, and have been impacted disproportionally by the recession.

It's interesting, but I doubt it will have much impact on the day to day lives of LGBT people.

SpragueD said...

Some people (like me) are wary of the risks of adopting a reductive biological "explanation" of something that's very complex. More thoughts on the matter: http://www.ratdiary.com/2006/07/27/genetic-fundamentalism/

Charles M said...

My twin brother and I have no older brothers and two younger brothers. I'm the only gay one. Of course, in my case, I think I got all the recessive genes sharing the womb with my twin. I'm the only blond-haired, blue-eyed, light-skinned kid in a family of dark hair, brown eyes, and olive skin. Genetics obviously has something to do with the way I am, since environment can be ruled out.

Hue-Man said...

KIT212: I don't have a problem with the research if it stopped there. What if Prez Bachmann unleashed NIH to find the cure for gay, a Folic Acid equivalent to offset the "gay" chemicals in Mother's second and subsequent pregnancies? Ethically, would you want to support a drug that would reduce the population of gay men (especially with smaller families today, the percentage of gay men should decline anyway if the theory is correct)? My recollection is that lesbians don't show the same birth order effect. BTW, as the eldest I didn't know any better since the research hadn't been done yet!

Will J said...

My fabulosity cannot be explained by mere science.