The debate on whether you are born homosexual or you have been raised in an environment causing you to be homosexual has been one of the oldest ongoing debates in history. The debate is called nature versus nurture. It is very hard to pick a side as to whether or not your environment or your genes make you homosexual. This is a debate that makes it difficult to decide which side you should be on because both sides of the argument have incredibly strong points to help support their beliefs. Many people haven’t even picked a side, they just remain neutral. Many adults that are homosexual claim to have felt that they were different even as a small child. Some say they knew that they were homosexual as young as age three. Men usually say that they felt more comfortable around girls when they were younger versus guys. Women say the opposite as men do. The young boys would talk about things such as sports, wrestling, or cars while the young girls would talk about playing house and barbies. Children who felt that they were homosexual would generally feel more themselves around the opposite sex. As a child, that can be very strange feeling things that are completely different from other children. It is hard enough as it is to be a child or a pre teenager, but adding the fact that you’re very different from other children can make things incredibly worse. That is where bullying could possibly come into play. Some children think that it is just a phase and that they will get over it while others just try to hide their true feelings. The first psychological test to determine if your environment could make you homosexual was conducted in 1957 by a scientist named Karen Hooker.
…show more content…
Hooker studied the relationship between homosexuality and psychological development. The test subjects were separated into a group of homosexuals and a group of heterosexuals. Hooker gave the test subjects three different psychological tests: the Rorschach, the Thematic Apperception Test, and the Make-A-Picture-Story Test. Hooker found no significant differences in the results of the tests. Therefor, Hooker concluded that homosexuality was not based on environmental factors because of the similar test scores. In 1973, from Hooker’s findings, the American Psychiatric Association no longer referred to homosexuality as a psychological disorder. Then in 1975, the APA released a statement publicly stating that homosexuality was not a mental disorder. There have been countless studies to determine whether or not being homosexual was determined by your genetics. Among the most illustrious were the series of studies conducted by Pillard and Michael Bailey. Bailey was a psychology professor at Northwestern University. They found that homosexuality was in fact largely determined biologically and not environmentally influenced. Pillard and Bailey examined both identical and fraternal twin brothers. They also examined unrelated brothers who had been adopted. In their findings, they discovered that if one identical twin was homosexual, then there was a 52% chance that the other brother was homosexual also. In fraternal twins, there was a 22 percent chance of both of the brothers being homosexual. While in the unrelated adopted brothers, there was only a 5% chance of that occurring. Bailey and Pillard’s findings have been debated for many years. Pillard points out that most of
Hooker studied the relationship between homosexuality and psychological development. The test subjects were separated into a group of homosexuals and a group of heterosexuals. Hooker gave the test subjects three different psychological tests: the Rorschach, the Thematic Apperception Test, and the Make-A-Picture-Story Test. Hooker found no significant differences in the results of the tests. Therefor, Hooker concluded that homosexuality was not based on environmental factors because of the similar test scores. In 1973, from Hooker’s findings, the American Psychiatric Association no longer referred to homosexuality as a psychological disorder. Then in 1975, the APA released a statement publicly stating that homosexuality was not a mental disorder. There have been countless studies to determine whether or not being homosexual was determined by your genetics. Among the most illustrious were the series of studies conducted by Pillard and Michael Bailey. Bailey was a psychology professor at Northwestern University. They found that homosexuality was in fact largely determined biologically and not environmentally influenced. Pillard and Bailey examined both identical and fraternal twin brothers. They also examined unrelated brothers who had been adopted. In their findings, they discovered that if one identical twin was homosexual, then there was a 52% chance that the other brother was homosexual also. In fraternal twins, there was a 22 percent chance of both of the brothers being homosexual. While in the unrelated adopted brothers, there was only a 5% chance of that occurring. Bailey and Pillard’s findings have been debated for many years. Pillard points out that most of