Thread: 'Homosexuality cure' and secular studies?

Originally Posted by Alextanium

I want you to try and become female right now. Just decide to do it. Really. How's that going for you?

Calm down I'm not bashing/flaming anybody. What you are describing would be a physical thing, and no I wouldn't want to do that. Nobody really knows why people are gay/bi, but it is a mental thing. I said that if someone really wants to change the way they think, what they find attractive, they probably could. I didn't say anyone should try or am encouraging it.

Originally Posted by Bizarre Jester

Calm down I'm not bashing/flaming anybody. What you are describing would be a physical thing, and no I wouldn't want to do that. Nobody really knows why people are gay/bi, but it is a mental thing. I said that if someone really wants to change the way they think, what they find attractive, they probably could. I didn't say anyone should try or am encouraging it.

It is a mental thing, but did it ever occur to you that it has to do with the physical structure of the brain, like schizophrenia? True, it has to do with the connection of neurons within the brain, but perhaps that specific area is beyond the control of the individual. Take this: I want you to turn off the part of your brain that deals with hearing. If it's just a connection of neurons in your brain, you should have total control over this. Yet, somehow, you continue to hear, do you not?

Originally Posted by Mario92

It is a mental thing, but did it ever occur to you that it has to do with the physical structure of the brain, like schizophrenia? True, it has to do with the connection of neurons within the brain, but perhaps that specific area is beyond the control of the individual. Take this: I want you to turn off the part of your brain that deals with hearing. If it's just a connection of neurons in your brain, you should have total control over this. Yet, somehow, you continue to hear, do you not?

okay you could make an argument, but sexual attractions as a result of how your brain is structured doesn't really add up.

okay you could make an argument, but sexual attractions as a result of how your brain is structured doesn't really add up.

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neur...1/bbhogal.html

^potential cause of schizophrenia = physical brain abnormality. Perhaps homosexuality follows same lines.

Looks like you need a gay on the scene.

I'm pretty damn gay. Actually, I'm full gay. I've tried to make myself be attracted to men, and it just didn't work. I can't help thinking chicks are hot.

Originally Posted by Mario92

It is a mental thing, but did it ever occur to you that it has to do with the physical structure of the brain, like schizophrenia?

Yes. I read about a study in Scientific American Mind that found that the brains of gay men are shaped more like the brains of straight women, and the brains of lesbians are shaped more like the brains of straight men. This is all over the brain, not just in one place. For example, in straight women and gay men the hemispheres of the brain are usually pretty much equal in size, while in straight men and lesbians the left hemisphere is usually slightly larger than the right.

I have to say, my brain has masculine and feminine aspects to it. For example, in some social aspects I'm a complete man, because I don't understand or know how to interact with girls like a girl. This is made worse by the fact that girls expect me to speak their language. But then in other aspects my brain works like a girl's would-- I talk like a girl, with rising intonation and question words at the ends of sentences (like "right?" or "yeah?" and "okay?"), and I think that's actually partially to try to make up with my manly behavior. Plus add to that the fact that my body is sending out female hormones and affecting my brain that way, and I'm not really "a man trapped in a woman's body." My brain's more androgynous.

If you're a man, thinking about penises will not "turn you gay", unless you really are secretly gay and you're just trying to deny it, but then that's not turning you gay anyway. That's just revealing your secret gayness.

Sexual orientation is not a choice. Yes, you can choose the type of person that you have sex with, but you can't change the type of person you are attracted to. There's a difference. Many gay people have sex with someone of the opposite sex to try to turn themselves straight and it doesn't work. At least, you can't make yourself "feel" straight.

The only way that you can truly choose your orientation is if you're bisexual, but then, again, you're just choosing your actions; not your feelings.

Could there be a true 'cure' for homosexuality? First of all, that's implying that homosexuality is a disease that needs a cure, but since it doesn't impair one's ability to interact normally (aside from giving some gay men 'limp wrists'), it's not classified as a disorder. Try looking it up in the DSM, bitches. It's not there, because it's not a disorder. Ten percent of people are queer. That's a lot more than the percentage of people who are schizophrenic, or autistic. Lots of animals have shown the occasional tendency to be gay or bisexual. So, you see, it's a natural phenomenon.

I'm sure anything's possible with SCIANCE, but to make a gay person straight you'd have to radically reconstruct their brain. They wouldn't even be the same person anymore. (see previous post)

There was one study that caused "homosexuality" (technically bisexuality) in male fruit flies by taking away their ability to smell and know whether another fly was male and female, so they tried to mount both males and females. But the human brain is a whole lot more complex than that of the fruit fly, as is the human body.

Although hm... shooting someone up with hormones could definitely change their brain. It would have health risks, however.

Well... actually I kind of perverted myself, I wasn't born gay, to the best of my knowledge.

So isn't it possible to change someone's sexuality through perverting their mind?

You may wish to explain how you "perverted" yourself, and at what point you noticed you were gay.

My guess is that puberty and all the fun of that happy little process awoke a piece of your mind (as it is prone to do) that said you were gay. Of course, if you actively trained yourself to be unattracted to women...it is possible to train the human mind to avoid pain...but I'm not sure if it's really a "cure" more than it would be "torture."