Originally Posted by
mraynrand
Hope I didn't piss ya off too much Zig. You might be surprised how many genetics experts just make crap up about all this.
A plausible evolutionary explanation is that ostensible homosexual attraction is a linked trait to something else that is absolutely essential for survival, say sexual attraction in general. The other possibility is that it is completely epigenetic, meaning it is not encoded genetically, but that the expression of genes that give the propensity for same sex attraction is triggered by environmental factors (those could be anything but it's a really fanciful way of saying "I don't know what causes the predisposition")
As far as I can tell there are three causes of apparent homosexual behavior, based on the simple fact that humans are a two sex species:
1) intersexual development: homo sapiens either develop as male or female, but sometimes develop intersexual traits, and sometimes that's subtle, so that the person is more or less indistinguishable as a specific sex. So someone who looks male may be tilted toward female development and someone female tilted toward male development, etc. So the 'same sex' attraction that intersexuals feel is perfectly natural
2) Trauma - there are all sorts of developmental and experiential trauma that can lead to ego-identity confusion and/or make a person of one sex less attracted to the other sex, and gravitate towards the same sex. Most people probably know a divorced woman who is now gay as a result of an abusive husband, for example. Children who have parents with confused sexual roles can also be affected (Sorry, that's probably not the correct way to say that).
3) Experimentation - This is more common in women than men, but people do get influenced by society - sometimes accidentally and harmlessly and sometimes dangerously and purposefully- to 'explore their sexuality,' and they do just that, without having any homosexual inclination at all.
Ultimately though, in any of the cases, the decision to express any of these feelings in a sexual way, regardless of their genesis, is a voluntary act, presumably by agents with free will, with all the implications that entails.