People Are Born LGBT

Introduction

While many LGBT people believe they were born that way, there are a number of people who believe that sexual orientation and gender identity are learned behaviors. Some even believe they are lifestyle choices.

A large number of organizations (often with "family" in their title to hide the fact they harm families) spend millions of dollars annually combating and suppressing the truth about LGBT people and spread lies about LGBT people and even what schools teach in order to stir up fear that children can somehow be "made" LGBT. While they may be countered by a large number of LGBT affirming organizations, it's important to study the evidence itself. After all, fear (including fear of gender and sexuality differences) stems from the unknown and so fear is reduced through knowledge.

Direct Observation

The simplest way to gather evidence is by observing a subject. Direct observation of LGBT children shows obvious behavioral differences compared to non-LGBT children. For example, some boys have crushes on boys or act more feminine than most boys and some girls have crushes on girls or act more masculine than most girls.

These distinctions do not always overlap. For example, a masculine girl may be straight and identify as a girl and a feminine boy may be straight and identify as a boy. Alternatively, a child who is biologically female may identify as male but still be attracted to males in the same way that most biological females are. This would make him both transgender and gay. This observational data suggests that the factors involved in sexual orientation and gender identity are broader than often thought.

Some people who believe being LGBT is learned repeat the idea that an absent father makes a child LGBT. This is of course easily observed to be untrue, since almost all single mothers raise straight cisgender children just like two parent households, loving or abusive parents, in fact with no percentage difference. An alternative belief is that insufficient same sex peers as a child leads to gender confusion. Yet children with no friends, many friends, only friends of one sex or the other, are all mostly straight and cisgender. Another theory proposes that bullying makes someone LGBT, because LGBT people are often bullied for being different. Of course, being bullied for something can not make someone become what they were being bullied for already. That's not how the basic physics of cause and effect work.

The idea that upbringing creates sexuality and gender comes from the classical belief that children are blank slates that parents and society shape. However, direct observation shows that siblings, who share the same parents and culture are no more likely to be LGBT if another sibling is than to be left handed if another sibling is. In the womb, even twins behave differently, indicating that the framework for individual personality is established before birth.

In nature, hundreds of species have already been directly observed to display homosexual or transgender characteristics. Since, like with humans, factors such as parenting and environment do not seem to notably influence this behavior, it can be concluded that it is at least mostly inborn and not learned.

Below is a small sampling of observable LGBT traits and history:

Homosexuality in humans:
plato.stanford.edu/entries/hom…

Transgender humans:
www.revelandriot.com/resources…

Homosexuality in animals:
www.yalescientific.org/2012/03…

Transgender animals:
www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-f…

Witness Testimonies

Since parents are often the first to notice differences in personality and behavior, they can serve as witnesses to gender and sexuality at an early age and how it manifests itself later in their childhood, teen years, and onto adulthood.

However, because of social and religious pressures, many parents who notice these patterns can become alarmed and attempt to change their child. Many methods have been used in the past, some with deadly consequences.

So, the best witnesses are LGBT people themselves. They can remember noticing differences in early childhood. Although, at the time, they may have been too young to understand, looking back provides unique insight into the fact that they were always LGBT. Though, obviously social pressures come into play for LGBT people too, just like their parents.

Because most people are predominately straight and cisgender, being different can be frightening. For example, decades ago, boys who were "too feminine" were sent by their parents to doctors who used torture techniques such as aversion therapy to attempt to masculinize them. The results were disastrous, leading to self loathing and suicide.

Fortunately, with the rise of LGBT rights, LGBT people have felt less fear and therefore open to tell their stories. And, as people got to know LGBT people, including their loved ones, acceptance increased and attempts to change them decreased, as attempts to change a person's gender or sexuality comes from fear. This was also aided by the exposure of gay conversion camps and the lives they ruined countered with positive portrayals of LGBT people on television.

Listening to the coming out stories of LGBT people can be very enlightening and not only reveal how early individuals noticed differences compared to the general population, many of whom take their feelings for granted, but also reveal the variety of gender and sexual differences. The black and white view of gay or straight, cis or trans is oversimplistic.

Below is a small sampling of personal stories from LGBT children and their families:

Coming out stories video playlist:
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=…

Having a gay son:
m.huffpost.com/us/entry/when-y…

Having a transgender son:
www.nbcnews.com/storyline/tran…

Having a lesbian daughter:
askoutline.wordpress.com/2015/…

Having a transgender daughter:
www.glaad.org/blog/six-year-ol…

Growing up gay:
www.matthewsplace.com/personal…

Growing up lesbian:
www.matthewsplace.com/personal…

Growing up bisexual:
zusterschapcollective.com/grow…

Growing up MtF:
www.glaad.org/coymathis

Growing up FtM:
www.telegraph.co.uk/women/fami…

Scientific Studies

Because of both direct observation and witness testimonies, many people who believe being LGBT is learned have been forced to keep pushing back when this supposed process takes place. Many now believe that the myth of an absent father or not enough same-sex friends takes place very early in childhood, possibly infancy, and that's why observation and testimonies show people only ever remember being LGBT.

There are even quite a number of people who believe that the fact that most people notice their sexual attractions at puberty somehow means that's when their sexual orientation developed and it didn't exist before. However, sexual attractions are actually encoded alongside all the other procreative instincts. Just because someone develops enlarged genitalia, breasts, body hair, deep voice, mental maturity, increased awareness of self, etc at puberty doesn't mean it magically happens to develop at the same time for most people. No, science very clearly shows the information for everything from body changes to brain changes that will occur at puberty is written into our DNA long before birth and develops when our brains develop, just as our brains develop motor skills in the same areas based on that DNA blueprint. It's why anomalies to puberty are shown to be passed down from relatives. That wouldn't be possible if puberty were simply some socially induced phenomenon that could be influenced by parenting or peers. It's a normal human biological process that simply varies depending on one's genetics.

Some people are born intersex, having both male and female physical characteristics, so it is reasonable to conclude that, if genital and chromosome differences appear during development in the womb, brain differences also form during development in the womb. Sex differences may even provide clues to gender differences, both of which relate to prenatal hormones and genetics.

In fact, decades of research has found that sexual orientation and gender identity are determined in the womb and are both influenced by hormones. This breaks into two main parts. One is hormones present in the womb and the other is the fetus' genetic susceptibility to each hormone. Those two combinations affect brain structure, which continues throughout a person's life. Note that, when scientists talk about environmental factors, they include the prenatal environment, so some may wrongly conclude "environmental" necessarily means after birth. Science has instead shown that the prenatal environment is the only consistently measurable environment that can alter the sexual and gender presets in our developing brains and that environment is determined almost entirely by genetics.

So, technically there is no gay gene, but that's because sexuality and gender are determined though DNA and then affected by genetic susceptibility and production of hormones that shape the developing brain based on the child's and mother's combined genetics and not single genes directly. In fact, even hair or eye color is not directly determined by a gene contrary to popular belief, but we know that is genetic. So, to argue that there's no gay or trans gene means being gay or trans is not genetic shows a complete lack of understanding of how genetics even works.

Below are a small sampling of some of the more recent peer reviewed scientific studies:

Hormone exposure in the womb influences sexual orientation and gender identity:
www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-…

Hormone exposure influences brain development and gender identity in the womb:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/74…

Hormone exposure in the womb permanently changes brain structure and determines lifelong sexual orientation and gender identity:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10…

DNA methylation influences hormone susceptibility that determines brain gender:
www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v…

Genes influence hormone receptors that determine MtF trans brain development in the womb:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic…

Genes influence hormone receptors that determine FtM trans brain development in the womb:
www.fertstert.org/article/S001…

Sexual orientation and gender identity are determined in the womb:
pnas.org/content/105/30/10273

Brain development of gender in the womb remains consistent into adulthood:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11…

Brain anatomy in adults reveals gender identity, even when it doesn't match sex:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/…

Men attracted to men have similar brain structures to women attracted to men and visa versa for women attracted to women:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18…

MtF trans brains resemble female brains:
press.endocrine.org/doi/abs/10…

Homosexual and heterosexual brains are different:
science.sciencemag.org/content…

Gay men respond to male pheromones like straight women and visa versa for lesbian women and female pheromones:
pnas.org/content/102/20/7356

Brain scans show pheromone responses in lesbian women like those of heterosexual men 
men and opposite for heterosexual women:
www.rense.com/general71/lesbea…

Homosexual offspring linked to highly fertile maternal relatives, confirming previous research about the evolutionary basis for homosexuality as natural population control:
rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or…

Decades of research show chromosome variations linked to sexual orientation: 
www.cambridge.org/core/journal…

Fraternal twins only half as likely to share the same sexual orientation of their sibling compared to identical twins:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/849448…

Scientists use DNA differences to create an algorithm that accurately predicts male homosexuality: ep70.eventpilotadmin.com/web/p…

Conclusion

Humans often have a hard time accepting that we are born with certain brain structures set, despite evidence of this. We can accept that a cat never has to be taught how to purr, kneed, burry its waste, call a mate, or lift its rear to be mounted or the fact that a beaver raised by humans will still have the same mental instincts to cut wood and build a damn since none of that is learned but written in their DNA, but accepting that we too have instincts already set in our brains can make us feel like it diminishes our free will or reduces us to wild animals. But hiding from the truth or making up lies in order to maintain a comfortable ignorance doesn't actually help anyone, because it makes it harder for us to accept the reality that we're all born different.

So, while children may not be made LGBT by parents or friends, their lives are dramatically affected by both. Supportive parents create a healthy environment for children regardless of how they are born. However, parents who reject their children or try to forcibly change them can create a sense of shame in their children, which can lead to negative behavior, including suicide, drugs and unsafe sex.

How acceptance of LGBT individuals affects lifespan:

LGBT individuals living in anti-gay communities die on average 12 years earlier than in accepting communities:
www.eurekalert.org/pub_release…
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/art…
www.medicaldaily.com/can-preju…
reuters.com/article/amp/idUSBR…

Being homophobic cuts 2.5 years off your life:
www.theatlantic.com/health/arc…
newser.com/story/182553/homoph…
www.businessinsider.com/antiga…

Married same-sex couples live longer than single straights:
www.livescience.com/27796-same…
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic…

There are also factors that influence individuals beyond their biology. Just as social pressures can make someone suppress their biological sexuality or gender identity, society can influence how individuals identify themselves. For example, many of the concepts of what it means to be male or female are cultural. Likewise, sexual behavior can be cultural too.

Someone may have had negative experiences with someone who looks a certain way and have that make them not attracted to people who look that way. Conversely, positive experiences with someone who looks a certain way may make that appearance more attractive than it otherwise would have. And people can be platonically or romantically attracted but not sexually attracted to someone and visa versa. There is no one path to follow, no matter how you label yourself or what society says that label typically means.

The lesson is to discover who you are and not hate yourself. This doesn't mean you can't change. No one needs to remain the same forever but should be open to grow as a person. This includes both emotional and physical growth. But it also means understanding that we are all born different and have different paths in life. Being born one way does not set your life out for you in stone. Your life path may shift radically from what your genetics started you with.

Two people could have the same gender identity and sexual orientation but have very different paths and two people could have different gender identities and sexual orientations but have very similar paths. This doesn't have to be scary but can be a beautiful reality: the acceptance of the diversity of life.

Being born different doesn't have to make us feel like we don't have free will or that our life is entirely determined by our DNA. In fact, direct observation, witness testimonies and scientific evidence all show people can change immensely after birth. Connections in the brain can be chemically created, severed and strengthened. Someone may be born with a pansexual or bisexual brain and be sexually fluid or even feel mostly heterosexual or homosexual. Change is a part of life, so be open to what is right for you as not just as a physical but also as an emotional person. Even sexuality and gender identity can change to a small degree after birth for some individuals.

The main reason people believed for generations that being LGBT is learned is because being different was seen as something to fear or despise. Birth traits are neutral and can not be seen as moral or immoral. As people accept gender and sexuality differences as neutral rather than negative, the necessity of finding causes and ways to "prevent" variations will decrease. In fact, the continued research into what makes people born LGBT will be purely for scientific knowledge rather than the social and political cause it often is today.

And, children can finally be taught that it's okay to be different without parents protesting schools "indoctrinating" their children because they fear the children will somehow be "influenced" to become LGBT. Once people accept that's not how sexuality and gender work, the fear will die down as people accept that everyone is different and there is nothing wrong with that.

Being LGBT does not mean you are a mistake or were born with some brain defect. Just as no one hair color or eye color is the "correct" one just because it's more common, no one sexual orientation or gender identity is "correct" just because it's common. We are all individuals and born that way.