(identity 'myron)

Tue, 10 May 2005

Gay Pheromones [/misc]

To add more context for the debate on same-sex marriage, now totally displaced by the political circus that is our government, new research on sexual orientation and the brain shows not only that homosexual men's brains respond differently from heterosexuals, but that the pheromones and body odour they emit are also different:

[W]hen confronted by a chemical from testosterone, the male hormone, portions of the brains active in sexual activity were activated in straight women and in gay men, but not in straight men, the researchers found.

The response in gay men and straight women was concentrated in the hypothalamus with a maximum in the preoptic area that is active in hormonal and sensory responses necessary for sexual behavior, the researchers said.

Savic said the group is also doing a study involving homosexual women but those results are not yet complete.

In a separate study looking at people's response to the body odors of others, researchers in Philadelphia found sharp differences between gay and straight men and women.

"Our findings support the contention that gender preference has a biological component that is reflected in both the production of different body odors and in the perception of and response to body odors," said neuroscientist Charles Wysocki, who led the study.

So what's the big deal? Many opponents of same-sex marriage base their arguments on the assumption that homosexuality is learned behaviour done by choice. Now that's not so easy to argue unless you reason that brain responses to smells and the smells a person emits are also different by choice. Take the learned behaviour assumption away and most points against same-sex marriage are moot.

// posted at 09:17. permalink   comments