"You know, there is a common myth in our society that you can teach somebody to be homosexual. I don't believe it. The reason I don't believe it is because we have so much evidence from around the world that you cannot teach people to be homosexual any more than you can teach them to be heterosexual. Why is this? It's because people have a desire. They know what their desires are. Most people are not confused about their desires. They're pretty clear, what they are. Where does that desire come from? If you ask people questions, in other cultures and in our culture, they say time and time again, "That's what I've felt since I was really small; since I was two, three, four years old." Where does it come from? Is it the genes, is it the brain. Is it their gonads? Something powerful inside of them is producing the most powerful attraction. They don't learn it. And some of them wish they could dislearn it. And they are equally as unsuccessful in unlearning it as they are in learning it."
Gilbert Herdt, PhD, Anthropologist
Professor, Human Development
University of Chicago
"A lot of the people who have only wanted to have sex with people of their same sex probably were born with a very strong tendency to be that way. And that's supported by the fact that the numbers look so similar, regardless of culture, which means that, no matter how children are brought up, the same number of people in every single culture, more or less, have this pattern of behavior."
Richard C. Friedman, MD, Psychiatrist
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
Columbia University College
of Physicians & Surgeons
"There are currently three different lines of evidence that suggest that a person's sexual orientation is at least partially genetically determined. The first line of evidence comes from twin studies which show that identical twins are very likely to have the same sexual orientation. The second line of evidence comes from extended family studies showing that quite distant relatives often share the same sexual orientation. And I think that the most compelling evidence comes from studies in our own laboratory which look directly at people's DNA, directly at the genes and which show that people that are gay have a tendency to inherit one type of gene and people that are heterosexual, another. Once those genes are isolated, and once these results, like any scientific results, are extended and confirmed, I think it will provide truly compelling evidence that sexual orientation is, at least in part, determined, not when a person is twenty or when a person is ten or not even when a person is one year old, but when they are conceived. Because that's when we inherit our genes."
Dean Hamer, PhD, Geneticist
Chief, Gene Regulation and Structure
National Institutes of Health
"I've studied the brains of 41 people, at autopsy, looking for differences between straight and gay people. Now, of course, we know there are differences between the brains of men and women on average. There are certain parts of the brain that are bigger in men than women and certain parts that are bigger in women than men. And there's one particular part of the brain that we've been especially interested in. It's called the hypothalamus. It's [in a region] at the base of the brain. It's involved in the regulation of sexual drive and other instinctive behaviors. So, if there's a part of the brain that is responsible for our sexual attractions, then they should be similar between most women and gay men. And that's what we find in this part of the brain where sexual feelings are generated."
Simon LeVay, PhD, Neurobiologist
Author, "The Sexual Brain"
"We used to think that homosexuality was psychological. Now we think there are biological factors involved. But either way it's very difficult for a person to change. People ask about changing. They ask about "Can a homosexual change their orientation?" And again, you have to define that. Human beings are--extremely--flexible animals. We can go up into space. We fly in the sky. We live under the water. We do amazing things that no other animal does. And a human being can live their life differently than the way they feel. We have people who we send as spies to other countries and they live their whole life pretending to be a Russian or a Persian or something else, when they really aren't; they're really from, you know, Minnesota. And it's the same thing; there are some homosexual people who so strongly want to live a heterosexual lifestyle--because its a lot easier--that they can play-act, like an actor, their lives as heterosexuals. However, most cannot do that and the outcome is depression or suicide for most people who have to live their whole lives pretending to be somebody that they're not."
June M. Reinisch, PhD, Psychologist
Director Emeritus, Kinsey Institute
Professor of Psychiatry & Psychology
Indiana University
"It's particularly important for an adolescent, if he comes for help, to help him recognize, if he is in fact homosexual, that he is--because he has had fantasies from his childhood, because he has these sexual drives that are very powerful-- and not to drive him into having sex with women, which can make him feel passionless, can make him feel sick and make him feel that, never in his life, is he going to experience love or passion for another. That is devastating for an adolescent."
Richard Isay, MD, Psychiatrist
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
Cornell University Medical Center
New York Hospital