Why does homosexuality exist?

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Other animals known to display homosexual or bisexual behavior:

dolphin
giraffe
black swan
bonobo
walrus

thank you

If that's true, then one must wonder why sex has become so taboo in many societies. I think that sex is one of those things where the biological and social drives are inseparable, a bit like language is.

Eh, it's not like things evolve because of some purpose. It's chaotic. Unexplainable random s**t happens in nature all the time. It's beautiful, I think. XD

Probably because many societies didn't study things in such great detail, until more recently at least!


I'm not sure if it's genetic, it's already been suggested that homosexuals do mate which is true - I personaly know a few with children, and there are some that donate sperm too.
I've also known a few families with a few homosexual members so there could be good argument for it being genes.

Sexuality itself serves purposes other than reproduction.

Homosexuality satisfies purposes other than reproduction, without the inconvenience of unwanted pregnancy.

You might as well ask: why masturbate? Why not make it your goal to cause a pregnancy with every ejaculation?

^Good point, I didn't know how to put that in my earlier post.

This is probably not a question that could ever be definitively answered. It is possible that homosexuality could eventually be described, though it hasn't been to date. (For one thing I'm straight but have a strange little crush on another guy right now, and the "it's how your wired" explanation at present seems to trivialise that excessively) But I can't imagine how it could be explained in the sense that a bridge falling down can be explained.

Your half right, and so is the genetic theory. It's kinda a mix of both. You see, there is a region on the x chromosome which controls homosexuality. They don't know how it works, but after studying the matter a bit since my best friend is a lesbian, I do have a personal belief. You see some people are more likely to get this gene then others. That's just how some genes work. There are some genes which stay dormant though, unless activated by life experience. I believe the homosexual area of the gene to be like that, where a lot of people get it, and then some of them have it activated by their life experience.

I has to do with early pregnacy. Males and females are very similar, almost identical. Sometimes the mind and body are not placed correctly. Since a male mind might be in a female and vice versa, they tend to like what the other would. Thats why there is no "cure" for gay as some say. Even the gay person may not want to be gay but because of the mishap in the womb thats how they are.

I think I agree with this statement the most.

Biologically, homosexuality serves no purpose and can be properly described as a sexual dysfunction. One might similarly ask: "Why does zoophilia exist?"

There is also a difference between a homosexual act and a sexual attraction to the same gender. As others have pointed out, a man who is attracted to a man is not necessarily prevented from having sex with a woman and procreating. But the purpose of the attraction is to encourage the behavior.

Also, as others have pointed out, some animals engage in homosexual behavior for reasons pertaining to their social order. Since human culture is infinitely more complex than animal culture, I'll leave it up to the geniuses to determine what cultural purpose homosexuality serves for humans. The only example I can think of is a straight male who engages in homosexual sex for money, but doesn't particularly enjoy it.

Of course I'm not trying to disparage or malign anyone. I myself have several dysfunctions and wouldn't pass judgement on somebody else.

ETA: It also just occurred to me that animals have much more limited means of expression, so perhaps they are forced to use sexual communication for several purposes. For example, if your boss is mad at you, he can fire you, reprimand you, yell at you, demote you, punch you, etc. If you're a monkey then maybe he just holds you down and nails you.

Last edited by the_incident on 23 Apr 2008, 4:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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What evidence do you have that it has to do with, premature birth? I think they would have noticed a correlation by now, got any figures?

Gestation is very complex, it does control development but I think you are making a gross oversimplification at best.

I disagree with a lot of people. Most evolutionary scientists these days are not purely stuck on natural selection.

The main thing to remember about evolution is not concerned with the individual, it is merely what happens in the present. However intelligent animals are highly individual and more so if they need together live in big numbers, when it is not feasible to fight for territory all the time.

Also within an eco system you might think that an animal’s role is to eliminate all completion and pass only its genes, but in doing so they could become extinct. There are diseccomies in doing too well. Simply catering to this ‘biological need’ doesn’t mean they will evolve more quickly.

Overpopulation, pollution, etc are diseccecomies of human evolution and advances. We have made many technological advances, but our physical evolution is still a very slow rate. In fact the fastest evolving animals tend to be the simplest. We wouldn’t attribute ‘consciousness’ to them. Even our technology is not evolving fact enough for the problems were are creating.

You know those people that have sex change operations. Sometimes the naturally have either more testostrone or estrogen then they should given their sex, where the balance of hormones us what you'd see in the opposite sex. That's what I believe.

And there is no answer it is unknown so people are putting theories.

You could have something here. In a previous job we had a young lesbian start who I became friends with, after a while I got to know her and she told me various things that had happened through her life. It seems that all bad experiences she'd had were with men (some pretty bad too) from very early on and all the comforting women in her life were women (including a gay aunt).
She'd never liked men in her life but told me that I was the first guy she'd really got on so well with.
She quite promtly turned straight and has been ever since as far as I know. All it took was her to have good male experiences to change her. I'm not saying it'd be that this for all homosexuals but it fit's with what you say I think!

I agree. That’s much of what I would say. Having a gay person in the community can be an advanged. They often do a lot of work in the community and if they had children that hard work would be compromised. The attention and love they have for the community would be directed instead to the child.

This my go to explain why in many religions high statues religion persons are required an oath of celibacy. A heterosexual priest if allowed to have children’s would have a big temptation to steal from church to fund the rising of his children.