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Homosexuality - Inborn or acquired.

A researcher reignites the debate


LEMONDE.FR | 04.02.10 | 21h40 • Mis à jour le 05.02.10 | 14h19

Is homosexuality inborn or acquired? This question was the subject of lively debates among
scientists and psychoanalysts and is still alive on certain forums among the homosexual
community. Researchers at the University of Liège [Belgium, Europe] think they have solved
the issue. It seems homosexuality is genetic and can in no case be a matter of choice or
psychological malfunctioning, says researcher Jacques Balthazart, as his book appears, called
«Biology of Homosexuality. You are born homosexual, you do not choose be so».

«One part of the factors of homosexuality is genetic, the part we know least about», he
explained. «We have a lot more data on the role of the hormones and their effects. There is, of
course, a part to do with the immune system, an immune reaction developed in the mother
against a male embryo», which would affect sexual preferences, he maintains.

The theory that homosexuality is biological is not new. It was developed first of all in the
United States, before being exported to Europe. At the close of a vast study, Professor Jacques
Balthazart synthesises in this piece of work, aimed at the general public, the current state of
research, along with his own conclusions, including that the most plausible theory is that
homosexuality is innate.

In an interview given on Thursday to the Belgian television channel RTBF, he explains that
homosexuality is caused by an interaction in the embryo of genetic factors with hormones.
Several studies suggest, in fact, that a very great stress suffered by the mother during
pregnancy could destabilise the embryo’s hormonal machinery, and influence its long term
sexual orientation, he explains. (Listen to the complete interview, in French.)

According to his studies, homosexuals could have been exposed during their embryonic
development to atypical concentrations of hormones, too male-producing for a woman and
not enough for a man. «In animals, it is, moreover, possible to change experimentally the
quantities of hormones to which the embryos are exposed. So, you can add testosterone at a
specific stage in the development of female embryos, or you can block the action of
testosterone in male embryos. Then when they become adults, you can find behavioural
characteristics appropriate to the opposite sex, even though the overall morphology and
genital structures of the animal have not been changed», said RTBF.

More astonishingly, such behavioural changes can be caused artificially after birth. «As well
as these well known slow acting effects, rapid changes to the concentration of oestrogen in
the brain of a male mouse are followed after only a few minutes by parallel changes in its
sexual behaviour», says the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, echoing an
article by the Jacques Balthazart team in the Journal of Neuroscience [June 13, 2007].

THE VATICAN LINE

According to Jacques Balthazart, this work on the biological origin of homosexuality would
naturally favour acceptance of homosexuality. «If homosexuality is not a vice or a
perversion», he claims, «and in some way not even a choice, there is no reason to persecute
homosexuals». Being a specialist in the neuro-endocrinology of behaviour, the researcher

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realises he wants to attack theories according to which homosexuality is due to
psychoanalytical reasons.

The Vatican takes the following line. «You are not born homosexual, but become it. For
different reasons, issues of education, because you have not developed your own identity
during adolescence», claimed in December Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, the Pope’s
former Minister of Health.

Throughout his work, Jacques Balthazart wants to address the general public. «It is time to
redress the balance. By going beyond the stupid innate/acquired or nature/environment
conflict. For everything is the interaction between these two. I also want to dismantle, on a
scientific basis, beliefs according to which homosexuality is supposed to be an illness, a
perversion or deviance», he maintained.

For some homosexual bloggers, this book is welcome news. «It goes without saying that this
book demolishes the pseudoscientific remarks by the future Primate of Belgium, who bases his
vision of homosexuality as an abnormality in the development of the person on Freudian
theory. Its publication comes at just the right time!», thinks Gay Kosmopol, an information
site on gay issues, which got several scientists to react to Professor Bathazart’s theory.

Le Monde.fr with AFP (Agence France Presse)

English translation of a French original text. In the event of any differences between the English translation and
the French original, the French text shall prevail. Translated by T. E. for Tjenbé Rèd (French federation for the
struggle against all sorts of homophobia and racism, and against AIDS).

French original text:

4 février 2010 - Le Monde - Homosexualité innée ou acquise ? Un chercheur relance le débat


http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2010/02/04/l-homosexualite-est-genetique-selon-un-
chercheur_1301366_3244.html
http://www.tjenbered.fr/2010/20100204-89.pdf [fr]

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