Quote:Nah I dont think we are close at all. Its not just those particular birds its many others animals change their sexual preference/behaviour and even gender due to outside influences. As you said homosexuality is widespread in nature,well so is outside influenced sexual behaviour so why not in humans? Can you answer that?


"Claudia Wascher, a zoologist at Anglia Ruskin University, adds another nuance: If homosexuality is often adaptive, as she thinks, it’s also not going to be a straightforward trait inherited by some fixed percentage of a population, with frequencies changing in the simple manner of color patterns or height. Rather, the potential for becoming homosexual will vary from individual to individual, like curiosity or boldness or any other personality trait, and be shaped by the complex interaction of biology with social and environmental circumstance." Basically this.


Also this is of note.


Personality, genetics, and developmental experiences all have a place in influencing the development of homosexual attractions. Drs. Byne and Parsons at Columbia University believe it is important to "appreciate the complexities of sexual orientation and resist the urge to search for simplistic explanations, either psychosocial or biologic." (Byne and Parsons, pp. 236–37) They emphasize that in addition to the influences of genetics or the environment, the individual plays an important role in determining his or her identity.

Dr. John Money stated, "Many wrongly assume that whatever is biological cannot be changed, and whatever mental can be. Both propositions are in error. Homosexuality is always biological and always mental, both together. It is mental because it exists in the mind. It is biological because the mind exists in the brain. The sexual brain through its extended nervous system communicates back and forth with the sex organs." (Money, p. 123)


This explains what I've been trying to say in the simplest way possible. I think you have begun to realize how wrong your viewpoint is,but this should really hammer home the point.

 

It is biological because it exists in the embryonic cells and is hereditary. If environment influences tendencies which are already imprinted on a person's DNA months before it leaves the womb, what is the balance?  Is it 50% biology and 50% environment?  I am not discounting that family structure and dysfunction can have an influence on whether or not a person is LGBT.  I accept that there exist social factors which can influence gender identity and gender roles, but to what degree I can't say.  My belief is that the larger piece of the puzzle rests with the biological makeup. 

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