I was born a lesbian. When I was growing up in the Midwest in the ‘50s, there were no points of reference being offered for lesbians. There were no concepts, no visibility, no vocabulary, not any women living together but chastised “old maids”.
Still, I insisted on wearing my cowboy boots to church with my pink frilly dress (my sister, the redhead, got to wear blue). I delighted in spending time with other girls. I adored my women teachers. I got furious when I had to follow the dress code and wear skirts to school starting in the 3rd grade. I had no use for dolls and preferred stuffed animals. I loved sports and was disappointed at the limited opportunities offered to girls as compared to the heroic numbers of possibilities given the boys.
There has always been a huge controversy about the origin of homosexuality. Some argue that being gay is a matter of choice or a reaction to abuse as a child. Some feel justified to believe that it is “phase” that will hopefully quickly pass”. Then there are the few who insist it is not a choice, but biology.
So, I was not surprised when researchers announced that they had found the first strong evidence of a physical difference between lesbians and straight women. Leave it to science to discover that the inner ears of lesbians function more like those of men.
In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Sciences at Austin reported that they found the inner ears of lesbians showed “masculinization” and dared to conjecture that it could possibly be from certain hormone exposure before birth. They made the leap to suggest “since their auditory centers have been masculinized the presumption is that so have the sites in the brain that direct sexual preference.”
Molecular biologists around the world have been making headway in search for specific parts of DNA that contribute to particular behaviors. In Bethesda, Maryland in 1993 at the National Cancer Institute, a variation was discovered on the X chromosome in 33 out of 40 pairs of brothers who were gay. This evidence suggested that genes might play a part in sexual orientation. Other institutions, however, had mixed results when trying to replicate these findings. A comparable variation has not yet been found for lesbians.
In the inner ear study, a key sound amplifier measured the function of the cochlea. Women were found to be more sensitive than men, making it possible to hear very soft sounds. The test results indicated that lesbians had responses significantly weaker than heterosexual women. The response between gay and straight men was even weaker. Scientists predicted that by the year 2005 they would have mapped the entire sequence of human genes. This work was either been abandoned, under-funded, or kept from the world.
What difference would it make if scientists truly discovered a biological explanation for sexual orientation? Would I be able to have my relationship sanctified by the church and state? Would I be able to be on my partner’s health insurance plan? Would I love more confidently or differently? Would my family feel less guilty about doing “something wrong” or would they relax and love me for who I am?
I honestly don’t know if my hearing is appreciably better or worse that heterosexual women’s. I don’t know why I feel “at home” with women and not as comfortable being in relationships with men. I do believe being a lesbian is not simply about sexual preference or hearing. Being a lesbian contains many aspects of being in the world that better expresses who we are as women. So is it nature or nurture? Who knows? All I know for certain is that I was born a lesbian.
Still, I insisted on wearing my cowboy boots to church with my pink frilly dress (my sister, the redhead, got to wear blue). I delighted in spending time with other girls. I adored my women teachers. I got furious when I had to follow the dress code and wear skirts to school starting in the 3rd grade. I had no use for dolls and preferred stuffed animals. I loved sports and was disappointed at the limited opportunities offered to girls as compared to the heroic numbers of possibilities given the boys.
There has always been a huge controversy about the origin of homosexuality. Some argue that being gay is a matter of choice or a reaction to abuse as a child. Some feel justified to believe that it is “phase” that will hopefully quickly pass”. Then there are the few who insist it is not a choice, but biology.
So, I was not surprised when researchers announced that they had found the first strong evidence of a physical difference between lesbians and straight women. Leave it to science to discover that the inner ears of lesbians function more like those of men.
In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Sciences at Austin reported that they found the inner ears of lesbians showed “masculinization” and dared to conjecture that it could possibly be from certain hormone exposure before birth. They made the leap to suggest “since their auditory centers have been masculinized the presumption is that so have the sites in the brain that direct sexual preference.”
Molecular biologists around the world have been making headway in search for specific parts of DNA that contribute to particular behaviors. In Bethesda, Maryland in 1993 at the National Cancer Institute, a variation was discovered on the X chromosome in 33 out of 40 pairs of brothers who were gay. This evidence suggested that genes might play a part in sexual orientation. Other institutions, however, had mixed results when trying to replicate these findings. A comparable variation has not yet been found for lesbians.
In the inner ear study, a key sound amplifier measured the function of the cochlea. Women were found to be more sensitive than men, making it possible to hear very soft sounds. The test results indicated that lesbians had responses significantly weaker than heterosexual women. The response between gay and straight men was even weaker. Scientists predicted that by the year 2005 they would have mapped the entire sequence of human genes. This work was either been abandoned, under-funded, or kept from the world.
What difference would it make if scientists truly discovered a biological explanation for sexual orientation? Would I be able to have my relationship sanctified by the church and state? Would I be able to be on my partner’s health insurance plan? Would I love more confidently or differently? Would my family feel less guilty about doing “something wrong” or would they relax and love me for who I am?
I honestly don’t know if my hearing is appreciably better or worse that heterosexual women’s. I don’t know why I feel “at home” with women and not as comfortable being in relationships with men. I do believe being a lesbian is not simply about sexual preference or hearing. Being a lesbian contains many aspects of being in the world that better expresses who we are as women. So is it nature or nurture? Who knows? All I know for certain is that I was born a lesbian.
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