Being gay is not a preference

If you are enjoying this story, take a look at the other pieces in our Sexual Revolutions special series, including:. You can spot the problem with this study a mile away: were the gay brains LeVay studied born that way, or did they become that way? Another landmark paper on the origins of homosexuality was published in by a geneticist named Dean Hamer, who was interested to learn whether homosexuality could be inherited.

‘I am gay – but I wasn’t born this way’

While acceptance has increased over the past two decades, the partisan divide on homosexuality in the U. At the same time, the U. In 22 of 34 countries surveyed, younger adults are significantly more likely than their older counterparts to say homosexuality should be accepted by society.

Americans are still divided on why people are gay

In developing this website we drew on feedback from LGBTQ outreach and advocacy groups, dozens of LGBTQ rights advocates and community members, and workshops arranged by Sense about Science where representatives of the public, activists, and researchers discussed the results of the study.

The Global Divide on Homosexuality Persists

I am a molecular biologist and am interested in this new study as it further illuminates the genetic contribution to human behavior. The new finding is consistent with multiple earlier studies of twins that indicated same-sex attraction is a heritable trait.