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By: WAYNE BESEN
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GAY MEN ARE limp-wristed and may have a "Queen Gene," according to a controversial segment on last week’s "60 Minutes" called, "The Science of Sexual Orientation."
The legendary CBS newsmagazine suggested in the report by Leslie Stahl that gay men are prissy and prance and wear lavender pants while they lisp and dance. Which can certainly be true, in some cases, but is this just crass stereotyping masquerading as science?
The segment featured two sets of twins. Adam and Jared were 9 years old and fraternal twins. Jared was tough as nails and had a collection of G.I. Joes, while Adam painted his nails and dreamt of pantyhose.
Steve and Greg, who are identical twins, were adults living in New York City. Steve, who is straight, grew up playing sports, while gay Greg "liked helping out in the kitchen."
The idea of studying twins is to show that "nurture"- —-upbringing has nothing to do with the outcome of sexual orientation. Indeed, you’d have to be a dolt with an agenda to still believe the outdated myth that homosexuality is caused by bad parenting.
"Psychologists used to believe homosexuality was caused by nurture-—-namely overbearing mothers and distant fathers-—-but that theory has been disproved," Stahl reported authoritatively. "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."
BUT THE IDENTICAL twins cast doubt on "nature" as well, since their differing sexual orientations suggest there are other factors at work than just genes. Don’t count nature out, argued Northwestern University researcher Michael Bailey, since "nature" can mean more than just genes.
"There’s also the environment that happens to us while we’re in the womb," Bailey said, referring to hormones a fetus is exposed to. "And scientists are realizing that environment is much more important than we ever thought it was."
Michigan State University’s Marc Breedlove drove home this point by showing Stahl how he can take a rat that scurries and make him sashay with a shot of hormones or castration.
"I wouldn’t call these gay rats," explained Breedlove, who has the perfect name for a vermin sex researcher. "But I would say that these are genetic male rats who are showing much more feminine behavior."
WHETHER BAILEY HAS hit the scientific jackpot or is a crackpot is open for debate. Many people bristle, for example, when he claims that gay people walk and talk differently.
True, your gaydar does not have to be finely tuned to figure out Richard Simmons or Clay Aiken is gay.
Oh, wait, is Clay gay?
Before Bailey makes such broad assumptions, however, he should put on football pads and collide with former NFL player Esera Tuaolo. This might rattle him out of his one-dimensional mindset and lead him to expand his research to include gay men and lesbians who are not borderline transgender.
Other critics rightfully question Bailey’s potentially dark motives. He once told The New York Times that if it became possible for parents to determine sexual orientation in the womb then, "Selecting for heterosexuality seems to be morally acceptable.
"Selection for heterosexuality may tangibly benefit parents, children and their families and seems to have only a slight potential for any significant harm," he argued.
"His research is highly questionable," said Lisa Mottet, a transgender rights attorney with the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. "Bailey’s work is simply not credible."
NGLTF has also criticized his research on transgender people and bisexuals calling it shoddy and filled with unscientific assumptions.
Still, the "60 Minutes" segment, as a whole, was very helpful to the argument for gay equality. It brusquely dismissed the inane pseudo-science of our opponents.
But in the process of neutralizing the right, it neutered gay men. While we are cheering the segment, Bailey should know that most of us aren’t using pompoms.
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