What is the born this way gay arguemnt

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what makes LGBT folks different from our straight siblings. Even if Mayer and McHugh's most ridiculous and unsubstantiated claim were true -- that LGBTs' higher rates of substance abuse, depression, and attempted suicide are somehow not rooted in society's hostility toward us and are instead inherent to the condition of queerness itself -- we have very conclusive evidence that forcing us to play straight only makes our health outcomes worse.

The song debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Allies declared it when standing in solidarity. Hamer details the many ways in which Mayer and McHugh use very unscientific methods in order to reach a set of predetermined conclusions. But are people really born gay?

If there were somehow no biological or chemical component to gender identity whatsoever, we'd still want to affirm the expressed gender identity of trans folk, because mountains of empirical evidence show us that's the course of action that leads to fewer adults and kids trying to kill themselves.

And then, using only 1, words, famed geneticist Dr. Dean Hamer demolishes all of their conclusions. Lady Gaga in released her triumphant gay anthem "Born This Way" and that same. And they -- without any evidence -- dismiss out of hand the idea that societal pressure could underpin LGBT health disparities, leaving the reader with the erroneous implication that queers are fundamentally broken and beyond help.

That claim has come under fire recently in an article written by Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at John Hopkins and the religious right's go-to guy whenever a patina of scientific respectability is required for its biblically based challenges to basic LGBT rights.

Gay rights advocates used it to make the case for legal equality. anthem. The Pope has said it. And since they're a matter of nature -- like height, sex, and eye color -- they should not be legislated against. Lisa Diamond is an author, and a professor of psychology and gender studies at the University of Utah.

Why the Born This

By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. For at least the past three decades, the belief that members of the LGBT communities are "born that way" has been a central tenet of those communities' struggles for rights and recognition.

Who wouldn't choose to be straight if they could? It's clear that Mayer and McHugh crafted a piece of propaganda and called it "science. Yes, anchoring the struggle for LGBT rights in a "born this way" sensibility has been strategically effective, but it caries an implication of inferiority: Of course they must be born gay!

Mayer and McHugh ignore important research into the positive effects of affirming the gender identity of trans folk. For the sake of argument, let's say that Mayer and McHugh's fundamental conclusions -- that gender identity and sexual orientation aren't fixed -- have merit.

Together Mayer and McHugh produced a page essay for The New Atlantis for the record, it is not a peer-reviewed scientific journal which claims to be "a careful summary and an up-to-date explanation of research The essay comes to a number of conclusions, including that sexual orientation and gender identity are not biologically fixed and that LGBT people are burdened by far higher rates of depression, substance abuse, and self-harm than their heterosexual counterparts.

The argument that sexual orientation and gender identity are innate, fixed characteristics – that people are "born this way" – provided a powerful counterargument to prejudiced beliefs that these identities are choices or lifestyle preferences.

Lisa Diamond, a professor of psychology and gender studies, deconstructs the ""Born This Way" argument and shows why it doesn't advance LGBT equality. Suzanna Walters, the director of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Northeastern University and the author of the book The Tolerance Trap: How God, Genes, and Good Intentions are Sabotaging Gay Equality, agrees—and believes our culture is at a tipping point, in which the “born this way” argument may even start to do more harm.

Zealots and fundamentalists will seek to attack and marginalize us regardless of whether our queerness is chosen or inborn. They cherry-pick data -- for instance, ignoring well-supported studies of the sexuality of identical twins, while granting inordinate weight to an obscure sociological study.

"Lady Gaga has said it. What would that change? When Lady Gaga released “Born This Way,” the song on an album of the same name, it was an instant hit and an instant L.G.B.T.Q. She studies the expression of sexual attractions and sexual.

In an essay for Advocate. What if it is all, to use that right-wing dog whistle, a "lifestyle choice"? Queer activists, thinkers, and politicians have won over many skeptics of LGBT equality by asserting that sexual orientation and gender identity are immutable and fixed at birth.

Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and trans people should still deserve the right to have kids, serve in the military, and marry a member of the same sex -- because study after study has shown us that our rights in no way harm children, the military, or society.

And if being LGBT is rooted in our DNA, then the search for the "gay gene," however innocuously and scientifically framed, is potentially disastrous for the queer communities. Additionally, there is a greasy layer of implication that sexual and gender nonconformity are by-products of sexual molestation.