Mainstream Media Rocks

I guess that 60 Minutes is about as mainstream as you can get. The viewership is definitely not the so carefully courted 18 to 34 age group. I just wonder what most viewers though of Leslie Stahl's report on the Science of Sexual Orientation. I wonder if Pat Robertson watched this. It might have been educational for him. I know that there is still come capacity in my head to learn a few things. Maybe there still is in his.

How about this for start?

The single factor that best predicts whether a boy will be gay or not is his number of older brothers. But, that only is true if the boy is right handed and there are no such correlations for women. So, please, Pat Robertson, tell me how that is all the responsiblity of some weakness of character?

There are many things that I am proud of about the Green Party, and one of them is the fact that it has always stood against any form of discrimination on the basis of your sexual orientation. So is my wife.

Psychologists used to believe homosexuality was caused by nurture — namely overbearing mothers and distant fathers — but that theory has been disproved. Today, scientists are looking at genes, environment, brain structure and hormones. There is one area of consensus: that homosexuality involves more than just sexual behavior; it’s physiological.

So, if it is physiological, where does that originate? Is it strictly genetic. Stahl conversed with identical twins, one gay, the other straight. Then, she discussed that fact with Northwestern Universtiy's Dr. Michael Bailey.

"But that's environment," Stahl said.

"That's environment. But that's not the only environment. There's also the environment that happens to us while we’re in the womb. And scientists are realizing that environment is much more important than we ever thought it was," Bailey explained.

Acceptance of that as fact, maybe supported by additional research, will cause major change in how we think about homosexuality. If it is really determined by what happens in the womb, then there is no blame for being ones self. Some are even researching that it may be tied to the manner in which the mother's immune system regulate hormone expression in the fetus. That is even more physiological, and not at all to do with the child.

Before the political left starts to use this as the lynchpin for further expansion of gay rights, might they want to stop and think that if whatever happens in the womb is that important, there exists a stronger moral arguement against abortion. Before the political right decides to use this as a further rational for "right to life" laws, do they understand that they have to accept homosexuality along with it. I am not sure politics can deal with all that.