Tag Archives: human sexuality

Can serotonin cure gay mice? Do we care?

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Researchers in China have reported a series of experiments indicating that sexual orientation — or at least sexual preference — in male mice is determined by the levels of serotonin in the rodents’ brain.

Mice first bred a little of boy rats whose brains were not receptive to serotonin then put them in a cage with females and other males. The male mice with brains not receptive to serotonin ignored all the other mice, male and female, at least in a sexual way. But when they put the not-receptive-to-serotonin boy rats in a cage with only other boy rats, “the modified males were far more likely to mount the male and emit a “mating call” normally given off when encountering females than unmodified males were,” according to reports on BBC News.

The researchers then bred a male mice that lacked the tryptonphan hydroxylase 2 gene, necessary for the production of serontonin and conducted the experiments again, getting similar results.

Continue reading “Can serotonin cure gay mice? Do we care?” »

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HRC calls out Pastor Joel Osteen, who will again promote gay teen suicide on CNN tonight

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Above is video of the Houston megachurch pastor’s latest remarks, which are scheduled to air tonight on CNN. And below is a press release that just came across from the Human Rights Campaign:

HRC to Joel Osteen:  Use Your Pulpit for Good, Not Hate

Televangelist’s Hateful Remarks Before a National Audience are Dangerous

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest civil rights organization dedicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality, today called on Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, TX and well-known evangelical preacher with a syndicated television following of over 7 million viewers, to immediate apologize for his remarks on national television that “the Scripture shows that [homosexuality] is a sin.” Osteen made the remarks on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight. The full show will air tonight.

“It’s a real shame that someone of Joel Osteen’s prominence and life experiences would repeat this tired and dangerous statement. It furthers ignorance and discrimination by some Americans and adds a burden to those already struggling to accept their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “One would hope Mr. Osteen would use his pulpit, with an audience of over 7 million people, to tell all human beings that they are loved just the way they are. Instead he chose to send a dangerous and irresponsible message.”

The American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association have both concluded that same-sex attraction is normal.

Mr. Osteen’s position does not reflect the views of many religious leaders and denominations. Mainline denominations such at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the Episcopal Church, see God’s divine presence working across the spectrum of human sexuality. Many Baptists also dispute Mr. Osteen’s stance.

“Joel Osteen is certainly entitled to his opinion, but America needs to know that he doesn’t speak for all Christians, he doesn’t even speak for all Baptists,” said Rev. Dr. Miguel de la Torre, a Baptist minister and member of the HRC Religion Council. “As a Southern Baptist and an ethicist I believe that we can’t follow Jesus’ commandment to love God and our neighbor as our self if we start with the premise that homosexuality is sinful. Starting with the belief that people are sinful doesn’t allow us to get to know them, let alone love them.”

HRC encourages young Baptists who are struggling with their identity to contact the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists (AWAB) for resources on the church and sexuality. AWAB’s website is http://www.wabaptists.org/. AWAB partnered with the Human Rights Campaign in 2010 to honor several Washington, DC area Baptist pastors who were instrumental in passing marriage equality legislation in the District of Columbia.

—  John Wright

Nature or nurture? Or maybe it’s diet

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Scientists in Florida have discovered that ingesting too much mercury apparently turns male white ibises gay. But they stress the research has no bearing on human sexuality

Leslie Robinson  General Gayety

ARE THEY OR AREN’T THEY? | Only their dietician knows for sure. Recent research indicates that male white ibises that ingest mercury go gay.

Scientists in Florida have discovered that when male white ibises eat too much mercury, they turn gay. Don’t blame an overbearing ibis mother. Blame the metal.

Suspicious that mercury had led to lower breeding levels among the wading birds, researchers fed groups of ibises varying levels of mercury over three years. The results shocked the stuffing out of the scientists:

The higher the mercury dose, the more likely a bird was to sing show tunes.

These new Friends of Dorothy “pretty much did everything except lay eggs,” said study leader Peter Frederick to The Miami Herald. “They built nests, they copulated, they sat in the nests together.”

They went to a lesbian flamingo therapist when no egg appeared.

Male ibises with any mercury intake were more reticent to perform ritual courtship displays, causing numbers of female ibises to cry together over Cosmopolitans.

In the high-mercury birds, reproduction plunged 35 percent. Complaints from wannabe grandparents soared 65 percent.

The mercury levels in the experiment mirrored those found in the birds’ natural wetland habitats. Frederick, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Florida, told Nature.com “the implication is that this is probably happening in wild bird populations.”

Which means the wilderness is getting wilder. Not a good thing, in this case.

These beautiful, long-billed birds are being poisoned into gayness. In wild populations of ibis with no mercury exposure, same-sex pairings don’t occur.
Well, it probably happens once in a while, when the tequila is plentiful and the birds are bi-curious, but not as a rule.

We should go with what nature intended. Let’s keep the ibises straight and the people gay!

In south Florida, mercury leeched into the Everglades for years, mainly from the burning of municipal and medical waste. Frederick said, “Most mercury sources are local rather than global — local enough that we can do something about it, such as installing scrubbers on smoke stacks.  Ecosystems respond very quickly to regulatory action when it comes to mercury.”

But how will the birds respond? If their diet is cleaned up, will they revert to being straight?

If they need a little help, then by George, we might’ve found an actual use for ex-gay groups. Ex-gay leaders can take ibises under their wing and lead them back to heterosexuality. The success rate can only be higher than it is with people.

Speaking of people, Frederick frets that “people will read this and immediately jump to the conclusion that humans eating mercury are going to be gay. I want to be very explicit that this study has nothing to say about that.”

Doubtless some parents have nonetheless purged their larder of tuna fish, tossed the thermometer, and made a date at the dentist’s to convert all of Junior’s mercury fillings. And if they hadn’t already banned from the house the music of Freddie Mercury, they have now.

Frederick also said that what’s true for ibises isn’t necessarily true for other species, even other bird species. So jump to no conclusions about a couple of male green herons that adore each other’s company. Make no assumptions about the two roseate spoonbills with a passion for pomegranate martinis.

The turtles that hide during mating season are simply shy. And the alligators that agree they’d make lovely boots are just metrosexual.

I visited South Florida this past year, and I watched ibises. I admit to my shame that I didn’t notice any gay goings-on. This is probably because I can’t tell males from females.

I needed obvious indicators of homosexuality. Now, had two canoodling birds sported Prada shoes, I would’ve caught on.

Leslie Robinson should learn to tell male from female. E-mail her at lesarobinson@gmail.com, and check out her blog at GeneralGayety.com.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition December 10, 2010.

—  Michael Stephens

‘A Map of the Lands of Human Sexuality’

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If Dallas Voice is late hitting the streets on Friday, it’s because we were busy playing with this interactive Sex Map, which allows you to place pins on things you’ve tried and liked; tried but didn’t like; would like to try; and would prefer to strictly fantasize about. Don’t forget to save your work, and you can even order a full-size poster version! Via Joe.My.God.

—  John Wright

South Korean research shores up arguments that sexual orientation is genetic, as scientists create lesbian mice

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Research conducted by Professor Chankyu Park and his team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejon, South Korea, seems to once again shore up the argument that sexual orientation is genetic in nature, and not a matter of choice.

According to a story in the San Diego Gay and Lesbian News, after Professor Park and his team disabled a specific gene is certain female mice, those mice then refused to mate with male mice and instead insisted on trying to mate with other females. The gene in question was the “fucose mutarotase” gene — abbreviated as FucM. Considering the results, perhaps they should call it the Won’t FucM Gene.

Pardon me. I turned into a 12-year-old there for a second. Anyway. Back to science.

Park explained that the FucM gene influences the levels of hormones that the brain is exposed to, and that disabling this gene simply caused the altered female mice to behave as if they were male and develop a sexual attraction to other females. He and his team also noted that hormones don’t affect humans the same way they do mice, so they aren’t sure whether the study has any relevance when it comes to human sexuality.

Park did say he would like to study whether an enzyme produced by the FucM gene influences sexuality. But he acknowledged it may not be that easy to find human volunteers. (I guess the mice don’t really get to refuse to participate.)

Park’s study was published in BMC Genetics journal.

—  admin