"Are gay men actually born gay?"
That question is the subject of last Thursday's episode of the long-running Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) series The Nature of Things. Since 1960, this award-winning documentary series has been covering a wide range of topics in science, nature, and the environment. Its current host (since 1979), David Suzuki, is a recognized educator, broadcaster, and environmental activist.
In this episode, Suzuki presents a documentary by filmmaker Bryce Sage, titled Survival of the Fabulous. Sage, who is "fabulously gay" and "proudly flamboyant", takes a look at his own family history, homosexuality in the animal kingdom, and genetic research being conducted around the world.
Follow below, and help yourself to an orange croissant along the way.
But First, A Word From Our Sponsor:
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top™ to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top™ to pop up in diaries posts around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist poster reserves the right to edit all content.
Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the orange croissant...
|
Survival of the Fabulous is one man's personal look at the existence of homosexuality. Lesbians, for example, are not mentioned in the film. Bryce focuses on gay men, and in particular, himself.
The episode is available on the CBC website, but the video is blocked outside of Canada. The film's website is here. The youtube edition can be viewed here:
In the introduction, Bryce says:
I may not know much about that natural selection business, but what I do know is, we gay guys don't reproduce. And we seem to have stuck around for a real long time. So, why haven't we become extinct?
The trail leads initially to the Human Sexuality Lab at Chicago's Northwestern University. Bryce becomes the subject of a lab test, viewing images of females, then males, with a sensor attached to his penis. The results show a physiological response to the male images, demonstrating that Bryce is in fact gay. He already knew that, but I suppose in the interest of a quest for science, you have to start at the beginning.
Next up is an MRI scan. This probes for the origin of the response to the male images, but this time within the brain. Viewing the results on a computer screen a couple of days later, the brain's limbic system is where the reactions apparently originate.
Researcher: This is the part of the brain that's responsible for the "four F's" which is feeding, fighting, fleeing, or ... mating.
Bryce: But that doesn't start with an F.
Researcher: Yeah, I'll let you figure that one out.
...
Researcher: So, it suggests that there is something hard-wired about your sexuality here, when we're just looking at your responses to men vs. women. ... Male sexual orientation is something that is set from birth, if not earlier.
Bryce: It seems like the science does say, I was more than likely born gay. ... The thing is, it doesn't say what made me gay, to begin with. And, why me? Why not my older brother Cory?
Bryce travels back to the home of his parents in Port Hope, Ontario, about 60 miles east of Toronto. Dad was caught by surprise when, years earlier, he came out. Mom knew that Bryce was "different" when compared to his older brother, Cory. Cory admits to having been homophobic at the time he got the call from Bryce, as part of his coming out. But the entire family is now very comfortable with who Bryce is.
Bryce: Do you think that I chose to be gay?
Dad: No, I don't think anybody ever choses. I don't ever remember chosing to be straight.
The film next turns to Brock University, to look at the fraternal birth order effect. This term comes from Ray Blanchard, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and is explained in the narration:
Suzuki: Repeated studies have shown that every time a woman has a boy, it increases the likelihood that the next son she has will grow up to be gay.
Researches have not discovered the precise reason for this, but the focus is on the mother's immune system. Male-specific proteins produced when a male fetus is developing in the womb, are considered to be foreign by the mother's immune system. Antibodies produced and carried in her blood may linger, and influence the sexual orientation of subsequent sons.
The fraternal birth order effect is said to be significant, but not all-encompassing. They figure that about 15% of gay men can be accounted for by the effect. That leaves 85% of us being gay for some other reason.
Bryce then visits with Dean Hamer, geneticist with the National Institutes of Health (now retired). Hamer's research about 20 years ago resulted in what the media would like to call "the gay gene". Hamer explains that it is more complicated than that; in fact a network of genes are likely involved. But it seems to be related to the X-chromosome (Xq28).
Hamer discusses studies of identical gay twins. Because they have the same DNA, if one twin is gay, the other is more likely to be gay than you would expect by random chance. It is roughly 50/50. As Hamer explains, they have the same DNA sequence, but there may be slight variations in the way the DNA is expressed. This is a new field of research, being heavily studied now.
Bryce's take from this discussion is that it confirms that there are genes involved with homosexuality, at least in some if not all cases. So there is something in his nature that makes him gay, vs. something in his nurture influenced by his upbringing.
The film continues with a look at epigenetics, changes in gene activity not caused by changes in the DNA sequence. In particular, identical twins are studied, where one is gay and the other is straight. The changes are likened to a row of light switches (within the DNA). In one twin, the switches are aligned in one way, while in the other, a few of the switches are aligned the other way. New research is looking into how this may happen, with focus on development in the womb.
Next, Bryce visits Dr. Ann Perkins, on a ranch in Montana, to investigate gay sheep. Perkins' research finds that about 8% of rams are exclusively gay. They will only mount other rams, never ewes (how the other males who are the bottoms in these relationships feel, is not addressed by the film). The gay sheep, it turns out, have hypothalamus and limbic systems that more closely resemble those of females. Perkins explains that structurally, human brains have similar systems. But for the question of why, in terms of homosexuality, she punts to the field of evolutionary biologists.
This all leads toward the primary question. Homosexuality has genetic factors. The process of natural selection would tend to eliminate genetic factors that do not contribute to reproduction. But gay men (not universally, but perhaps nearly so) do not reproduce. So, how do these genes survive from one generation to another?
In Italy, Bryce meets anthropologist Andrea Camperio-Ciani. Suzuki's narration summarizes:
Suzuki: So in other words, this genetic factor could simply code for an attraction to men in general. When males receive it, they end up gay and don't reproduce. But when females receive it, they become more attracted to men, and reproduce more often.
Suzuki: After interviewing hundreds of subjects, Camperio-Ciani discovered that the female relatives of gay men had more children on average than those of straight men. How many more? Fifteen to twenty-five percent.
Campario-Ciani continues, explaining that what some have called gay genes, are more accurately genes for fecundity, with homosexuality as a side-effect. This seems to fit in with the question of how "gay genes" might continue, without gay men reproducing them.
Bryce next travels to the independent Samoan islands. There, he meets some of the fa'afafine, the so-called third gender. The term means "in the manner of woman", and these are basically gay men expressing an accepted aspect of Samoan culture. The fa'afafine typically become helpers of their families, taking care of the children and other duties. Sort of like super uncles, as Bryce says, having a special role in society. As with gay men elsewhere, the fa'afafine do not reproduce. But researchers have found similar reproductive results here as with Camperio-Ciani's work in Italy.
The documentary takes the concept of "gay genes" and morphs that into "attraction to male genes". If you inherit such genes and you are male, you may turn out gay. If you inherit such genes and you are female, you may end up having lots of children. Thus, the females continue propagating these genes, so that gay males will never become extinct.
The existence of lesbians, I suppose, has some other explanation. The film does not go down that path.
TOP COMMENTS
December 3rd, 2013
Thanks to tonight's Top Comments contributors! Let us hear from YOU
when you find that proficient comment.
From Puddytat:
While it might be out of date for a rec (view it anyway and leave a +1 or comment), this comment by Jasonhouse about the "special" covers Time Magazine is providing for American only audiences says it all about journalism in "Merika" these days. Yes, the newsworthy covers given to their international editions promote real news stories and not the fluff that a national news magazine (among others) seem to favor.
From ER Doc:
In the diary Catholic Alliance Denounces Rush Limbaugh With A Petition Demanding An Apology, chicago minx said "Someone has "gotten to" the Pope! Limbaugh's drug addled brain in action." ruscle responded "Yeah. Speaks directly to him, I hear." That, I believe, was snark worthy of a Top Comment.
From a2nite:
shanikka has something good to say about racism. Cannot discuss this topic enough in light of one kossack's Insensitive comic that created a lot of drama that I missed over Thanksgiving.
From kkkkate:
This comment by ZhenRen in LaEscapee's Rall, Snowden, Greenwald diary is one of the most honest, heart-rending comments I have read and it gave me much greater insight into another person's perspective.
From brillig:
In Jen Sorensen's Cell cell, Inland brings up a certain phone conversation. TerryDarc's reply was priceless.
|
TOP PHOTOS
December 2nd, 2013
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
|