2008 Woodie Awards
Actor discusses science, sexual orientation
Heather Cosson
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: Lifestyles
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"We're going to keep hosting events like this until there's no fear for our students or debate about this on campus," GLBSA Vice President Xavier Boston said.
Actor Bill Oberst Jr. moderated the event and began by showing a story that first appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes in March 2006.
On the show, reporter Leslie Stahl interviewed school-aged twin boys, Jared and Adam, and talked about the differences in the boys' behavior.
Jared was a typical boy who played with trucks, was fascinated by the Army and wore camouflage. Adam, clearly more effeminate, played with ponies, dolls and wore nail polish with diamonds on each fingernail.
For Adam, the reason he and Jared were so different was simple.
"I was supposed to be a girl," Adam told Stahl. "Mom wished for boys. I wish I was a girl."
Stahl suggested that having twins with different sexual orientation shows that homosexuality isn't based only on the way children are nurtured.
Stahl also said that having identical twins with different sexual orientations might prove that homosexuality isn't caused completely by genetics. Also in the piece was a well-accepted idea that Oberst included in his speech.
Men who grow up with older brothers are more likely to be gay. The belief behind this theory is that when a woman is pregnant with a boy, her body doesn't recognize the Y chromosome.
Instead, her body creates antibodies that fight off the Y chromosome. The more sons a woman has, the more antibodies she will create. As the number of antibodies increases, the amount of male hormones the child receives decreases. That makes the child more likely to be homosexual.
Another theory behind sexual orientation is the amount of hormones received while in the womb.
Fetuses start out as females and either remain as females or become males, depending on the amount of hormones they receive.
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