Director Roger Nygard traveled the world asking theologians, scientists, skeptics, and everyday people 85 tough questions to try to understand The Nature of Existence! Now that he’s asked the experts, it’s YOUR TURN! To offer your own insights on today’s question, “What determines sexual orientation?“, Leave a Reply below!
A combination of genetic and environmental factors
- genetics and perhaps invitro environmental factors
The control (or lack of such) of desire.
I think that sexual orientation is determined by the same genetic crapshoot which ultimately determines everything else about our initial conditions when we are born. Since human gender itself is actually a spectrum of masculine and feminine tendencies, I don’t think it’s surprising that we observe a similar spectrum of sexual orientations exhibited by our species.
In my opinion, environmental conditions serve mostly to drive how the individual must present their selves to the outside world. If the individual discovers that their natural sexual inclinations are proscribed in some fashion by the local environment, I don’t think it unreasonable to expect that the individual will mask their inclinations and to seek out a new and more accommodating environment.
Barring that ability, I think mental illness is the likely result.
Genes, environment, hormones, society to an extent.. physiology.
I don’t know why i’m bisexual, buti’d like to think that in my upbringing i was exposed to something or that my psychology simply was played out like this, maybe the same reason why i like the color blue or why i don’t care about lemons, possibly i just wasn’t given the idea to repress other gays. maybe we are all capable of being intrested in the same sex to a point but given what we are taught we might be discouraged to think so, and vice versa.
Both nature and nurture.
As a person grows up their experiences will influence their values, and their psychology. But also they do have very early preferences that are not explicit choices.
Sexual orientation is predominantly environmental. Basic child psychology teaches us that in our early developmental years, we are at one time “in love with our mother” and at another “in love with our father”. This is supposedly one of the greatest determinations. Though in addition, I would speculate that this actually means we are probably born bi-sexual and our sexual preference is determined purely by environmental factors. If environmental factors were consistent we would naturally become heterosexual for procreation reasons, though instinctually humans are particularly driven to desire intimacy. If the opposite sex ceased to exist, I think we would have a gay society before a celibate one!!
Nature. I believe we are born with a certain sexual orientation. I have always been attracted to the opposite sex, it was never a choice that I had to make, and there is nothing that could get me to change this. Also, I grew up with a girl that is gay. She is four years younger than myself so I watched her grow up. She was considered a tomboy in the neighborhood, she wore boys clothes, would not play with dolls like the rest of the girls, she literally exhibited male tendencies all the time. When she came out to me expecting me to be surprised, I told her I’d have been surprised if she told me she had a boyfriend, not a girlfriend. Whether it’s hormones or a chemical in the brain, I don’t know, but I cannot see how it can be anything but natural.
man, if only i knew, i could make a fortune talking and writing about it to people. i don’t believe a good god would care what your sexual life was like.