The myth of gender & sexual neutrality

One of the questions that came up at the recent presidential debates was about homosexuality. The candidates were asks if homosexuality was based on genetic predisposition or choice. Kerry answered quite correctly that it is a matter of genetics, however the cogency of his answer was obscured by his stupid political calculation to make his answer about the Vice President's daughter. The President punted the questions, suggesting that it is simply unknowable. Unfortunately for Bush, that's patently untrue. The "choice theory" about sexual predisposition is an extension of the nurture versus nature argument about sexual identity that raged in the Sixties and Seventies. The nurture model as advanced by Dr. John Money and now largely discredited suggests that we are born gender neutral and our sexual identity is "assigned" through environmental and social factors. The nature model observes differences in the brain structures of men and women and concludes that sexual identity is "hard wired". Similarly, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that a person no more chooses his preference in sexual partners than he chooses his gender identity. It is a matter of nature, not nurture and certainly not choice. This research represents what I believe will ultimately become the scientific underpinnings of the end of institutional discrimination against homosexuals in this country. If the conventional wisdom is that homosexuality is a healthy and normal natural process, it will go a long way towards demystifying homosexuality and allowing acceptance of homosexual lifestyles into the fold of conventional American social life.