Showing posts with label sexual orientation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sexual orientation. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Neurobiology of gender identity and sexual orientation

Sexual identity and sexual orientation are independent components of a person’s sexual identity. These dimensions are most often in harmony with each other and with an individual’s genital sex, although not always. The present review discusses the relationship of sexual identity and sexual orientation to prenatal factors that act to shape the development of the brain and the expression of sexual behaviours in animals and humans. One major influence discussed relates to organisational effects that the early hormone environment exerts on both gender identity and sexual orientation. Evidence that gender identity and sexual orientation are masculinised by prenatal exposure to testosterone and feminised in it absence is drawn from basic research in animals, correlations of biometric indices of androgen exposure and studies of clinical conditions associated with disorders in sexual development. There are, however, important exceptions to this theory that have yet to be resolved. Family and twin studies indicate that genes play a role, although no specific candidate genes have been identified. Evidence that relates to the number of older brothers implicates maternal immune responses as a contributing factor for male sexual orientation. It remains speculative how these influences might relate to each other and interact with postnatal socialisation. Nonetheless, despite the many challenges to research in this area, existing empirical evidence makes it clear that there is a significant biological contribution to the development of an individual’s sexual identity and sexual orientation.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6677266/#!po=0.442478

 

 

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

VIDEO – Gender Binary & LGBTI People: Myth and Medical Malpractice


Here is a video of the presentation “Gender Binary and LGBTI People: Myth and Medical Malpractice” that I gave on April 27, 2012 at the Freethought Festival organized by “Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics” at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. This video clearly shows all the slides as I explain them, and is much easier to follow than the slideshow and audio file of this same presentation that I posted on May 13th.



This Freethought Festival was the first of its kind, and I am honored to have been a part of it. You can “attend” all the other thought-provoking Freethought Festival presentations at this link. http://www.youtube.com/wiscatheists

P.S.  Here are some comments from another site:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/07/08/the-gender-binary-lgbti-people-myth-and-medical-malpractice/

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Slideshow with Audio: GENDER BINARY AND LGBTI PEOPLE - MYTH AND MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

My PowerPoint slideshow and the accompanying audio recording of my presentation given on April 27th at the Freethought Festival 2012 in Madison, Wisconsin are below.  Click on the audio link (in a separate window) to listen to the presentation and then click on the slideshow to see the slides while you listen.
You will learn the science of sexual development in mammals that includes sexual identity and sexual orientation as well as the genitalia.   "Core sexuality" is discovered, not learned!   You will also learn how LGBTI people continue to be pathologized and subjected to unethical, bogus treatments by medical practitioners hell-bent on enforcing the gender binary.

AUDIO RECORDING 

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

"Disordered or Just Different" Presentation at Chicago's LGBT Center



It’s a pleasure to announce that my next presentation of “Disordered or Just Different” will be at the Center on Halsted, Chicago’s fabulous LGBT center. I’ve been promised the plush Hoover-Leppen Theatre, so I’m hoping for a large turnout. And I’m hoping that the audience reflects the diversity of core sexualities that the Center serves. My previous presentations have been to audiences that were comprised of either secular humanists (primarily cissexual heterosexuals) or women (primarily cissexual lesbians). This is the first presentation intended for an audience composed of the entire LGBTI community. Oh yes, there will be some conventional cis-heterosexual people attending as well. They can’t help it! They were born that way!

Unlike the biblical story that “explains” only the “Adams and Eves,” the scientific story explains everyone: gay and lesbian people, transwomen and transmen, intersex people, … and oh yes, cis-heterosexual people. Everyone has genitalia, a sexual identity, and a sexual orientation - key components of “core sexuality."  At this presentation, I will show you the evidence for the “organization-activation” mechanism responsible for the development of these core sexual components in all mammals. If you live in the Chicago area, why don’t you attend this presentation and find out how “mother nature’ has tweaked this mechanism to produce your particular core sexuality?

Here are the details:

Event Title: Disordered or Just Different? Myth, Science, and Sexuality

Location: Center on Halsted, Hoover-Leppen Theatre
3656 North Halsted Street
Chicago, IL 60613


Date: September 18th (Saturday), 2010
Time: 6 pm

Presentation Description:
What exactly is a Female? Male? Intersexual? Is intersexuality natural? How many sexes are there? Sexual Identity - innate or learned? Sexual Orientation? Sex versus Gender? Religious myth versus science! Cruel and unscientific medical treatment of gay and lesbian people, intersex people, and transsexual people! Fifty years of research on core sexual development from a physiologist’s perspective.

 Questions and discussion to follow presentation.

FREE!

Please plan to join a group of us who will be going to dinner at a nearby restaurant after this event. This will be a Saturday night you will talk about for a long time!

See the slideshow

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

PowerPoint Slideshow: "DISORDERED OR JUST DIFFERENT? MYTH, SCIENCE AND SEXUALITY."


This "Disordered or Just Different" slideshow, that I use in my live presentation of the same name, tweaks and builds on my earlier slideshow ("Science and Sexuality"). "Disordered or Just Different" covers the biology of core sexuality (genital development, sexual identity, and sexual orientation) but then builds on this foundation by distinguishing between sex and gender and adding some anthropological considerations.  This new slideshow presentation culminates with a scientific indictment of the (pseudo)medical practitioners who are too quick to classify the merely different as disordered and who continue to harm gay, lesbian, transsexual, and intersex peoples.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

New Presentation: “Disordered or Just Different? Myth, Science, and Sexuality”


I will be a speaker at the first annual conference of the Center for Inquiry/Chicago on Saturday, April 24th. The theme of this conference is: “Dangerous Nonsense - Exploring the Gulf between Science and its Impostors.” This theme is the perfect context for my talk entitled “Disordered or Just Different? Myth, Science, and Sexuality” that will focus on the scientific evidence on core sexuality obtained over the last fifty years and the medical profession’s treatment of intersex, homosexual, and transsexual peoples.

Here’s a conference description and schedule:

The Center For Inquiry/Chicago First Annual Spring Conference:
Dangerous Nonsense: Exploring the Gulf between
Science and its Impostors

Saturday, April 24th, 2010
8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.

111 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago 60601
26th Floor - Conference Room

Bunkum grows like a weed in American culture - whether it's climate change denial, conspiracy theories, or healing by prayer. Some ideas are not only nonsense, they are dangerous nonsense, with serious implications for our lives. In this age where misinformation can be spread more easily than ever before, understanding the role of the scientific process in human affairs is critical to our survival. This conference will present top scientists in biology, physiology, and physics, each of them gifted at explaining both the science and its impostors of their respective fields. Join us and gain valuable insight into exploring the world through science and reason.
Conference Schedule
8:30 a.m. Check-in and Registration
Optional: Set up your evening dinner reservation with a nearby restaurant
9:15 a.m. Welcome - the Center For Inquiry/Chicago Board
9:25 a.m. Dr. Massimo Pigliucci, Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York
“Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell the Difference Between Science and Bunk”
10:25 a.m. Coffee Break
Dr. Pigliucci will also be available to autograph his new book
10:45 a.m. Dr. Veronica Drantz, Professor of Physiology at DePaul University’s College of Nursing
“Disordered or Just Different? Myth, Science and Sexuality”
11:30 a.m. Dr. Michael Albrow, Nuclear Physicist at both the Tevatron (Fermilab) and the Large Hadron Collider (CERN)
“What's True and What's Untrue in Physics Today”
12:15 p.m. Announcements
12:20 p.m. Lunch on your own
(Your packet will include lunch options in the immediate vicinity)
1:40 p.m. Dr. Ron Pine, Explorer, retired biology professor, and debunker of Intelligent Design “Intelligent Design or ‘No Model’ Creationism: Why It Can't Qualify Even as Pseudo-Science”
2:25 p.m. The Mentalist “Mystopher” & Carolee
“Serving Fork-Fulls of Magic and Imagination”
3:00 p.m. Dr. Dario Maestripieri, Professor of Comparative Human Development, Neurobiology, Evolutionary Biology, and Psychiatry at the University of Chicago
“What Primatology and Evolutionary Psychology Tell Us About the Evolution of Human Behavior”
3:45 p.m. Coffee Break
Dr. Pigliucci will also be available to autograph his new book
4:05 p.m. Panel Discussion with all of our presenters
“The Future of Science and Science Education in the U.S.”
5:15 p.m. Adjourn
Post-Conference
5:30 p.m. Optional: Post-Conference discussion and drinks (cash bar) at the Hyatt Regency Hotel (directions included in your packet - it’s about a block away)
6:30 p.m. Optional: Dinner (your cost) in downtown Chicago - some of these will be “hosted” by CFI/Chicago Board members (your packet will include a selection of places and cuisines)
Late Optional: Music clubs (your cost) - some of these will be “hosted” by CFI/Chicago Board members (your packet will include a selection of places and musical styles)

Learn more about the speakers here.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE

Friday, June 5, 2009

8 Biology Of Sexual Identity

Part 8 of "Science and Sexuality." Is sexual identity a biological reality? How does it develop? What determines a person's sexual identity?

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Sexual Identity is Biological & Innate!

Questions: Is Sexual identity a biological phenomenon or a cultural/psychological construct? Is sexual identity innate or is it learned? Now we know! The science is in! SEXUAL IDENTITY IS A REAL BIOLOGICAL PHENOMENON AND IS INNATE!
When I first wondered about this issue, little scientific evidence was available on sexual identity per se. In 1965, Milton Diamond published his legendary challenge to John Money's goofy
"psychosexual neutrality-at-birth" theory. Much science has been done since then, some of it by Diamond who, having the evolutionary perspective of a biologist is a proponent of the "sexuality-at-birth" theory.
The scientific evidence is compelling, coming from many different avenues and all of it pointing in the same direction. While the molecular mechanisms are not yet entirely clear, there is a clear answer to the question: "Is sexual identity innate or learned?" The simplest explanation for all of the evidence is in keeping with Diamond's theory: Sexual identity is biological and innate!

After a long hiatus (due to all sorts of personal distractions), I will soon be posting about issues that spring from the important realization that sexual identity is biological and innate. Some of these issues are:

  • The significance of the fact that sexual identity is a biological phenomenon and innate - why haven't biologists picked up on this important biological fact? Everyone has a sexual identity!
  • Why we should be grateful to transsexual people for teaching us about our human nature
  • Why medical science needs biologists. Biologists recognize the value of differences and celebrate diversity but medical doctors pathologize/medicalize differences and attempt to "fix" them. Transsexuality is uncommon but not necessarily a problem for anyone.
  • Why transsexuality is a biological variation and transphobia is a cultural disease!
  • The treatment of trans people: Should we change the body or the culture?
  • Why it was inevitable that a biologist (Milton Diamond) would be right and a psychologist (John Money) would be wrong when theorizing about sexuality (even though psychologists pretend to understand behavior)
  • Why parents, educators, and medical professionals need to know that sexual identity is innate
  • Why, as a biologist, I can say: It is possible to be a man and a female at the same time. Similarly, it is possible to be both a woman and a male.
  • Exactly what is sexual identity? On the brain systems level, cellular level, molecular level?
  • What is the neurological relationship between sexual identity and sexual orientation (also innate)?
  • What about intersex people?
  • The political and social justice issues regarding sexual identity
  • Gender binary?...The only thing binary about gender is gamete production (egg or sperm)!

Please feel free to post any questions you would like me to address.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Heterosexuals need defense from "Gender Theories"

Pontiff equates gender theories with threat to rainforests!!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/23/pope-gender-sexuality?commentid=109df3f9-2adf-443b-a94a-b0837e08b74a

This message from the Holy Roman Poop, ... er ...I mean Pope, is so stupid! As if the Catholic Church has never cared about the well-being of the planet! As a biologist, I know that the primary problem of our planet is human overpopulation. It is irresponsible reproduction by heterosexual people that has caused destruction of the rainforests and all the rest of the global ecological calamities. No other institution has fostered irresponsible reproduction as much as the Catholic Church by condemning birth control and resisting the freeing of females from male-controlled reproductive policies. Of course the truth or facts have nothing to do with religion. Religion is all about mind control and the 24/7 behavioral control of the believers to serve the agenda of the hierarchy. And the Catholic Church hierarchy is comprised of male-bodied, male-identified, misogynists with purported heterosexual orientation.

The following paragraph about the holy roman poop's xmas message concerning "queers" is from the 12/27/08 blog of the remarkable Zoe Brain: http://aebrain.blogspot.com/ (emphasis mine).
"The pope was not talking about "transgender" or even "gender theory". He was talking about the concept that gender is distinct from physical sex. He denied this concept as merely an artifact of Man's Pride (for want of a better term), the same urge that led to the Tower of Babel.Theologically speaking - and how else could the Pope speak, he professes that there are men, and women. Nothing else. Men are attracted to women, and women to men. That is the natural order of things. There is no "gender", only sex. He states that all other things that appear to contradict a strict Male/Female binary, such as Homosexuality, or "women born in a man's body", "post-operative transsexuals" or any body not obviously male or obviously female, are all against the natural order of Creation, and dangerous. All such are artefacts of Human origin, perfect Divine creations spoilt by Man. Intersexed people may be explained away as the result of Man's tampering with the environment, with chemical and possibly spiritual pollution."

So the concepts of "sexual identity" and "sexual orientation" as neurological/biological phenomena independent of the genitalia are threatening to the Church. Yippee!!! And you know what happens when a religion makes a statement about the natural world - science eventually investigates and disproves that idea. Now we all know that the earth moves around the sun; Copernicus and Galileo were right and the bible was wrong. And the biblical Adam & Eve binary sexual system is as unnatural as the sun moving around the earth. The very existence of gay people, transsexual people, and the many types of intersex people refutes the "gender binary" and this obviously threatens the Poop.

In the last twenty years or so, a lot of groundbreaking research on homosexual, transsexual, and intersexual people has been done and a compelling scientific picture of sexuality has emerged!!! There are at least three separate dimensions to sexuality: one for the body, one for sexual identity in the brain, and one for sexual orientation also in the brain. Everyone occupies a point somewhere on each of these three continuums.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Confusion about Sexual Orientation versus Sexual Identity!

The Gendercator has sparked debate across the country for its take on gender identity, including the premise that some butch lesbians might be pressured to become transmen in a right-wing future with room for only two genders.

WHAT CAN SCIENCE TELL US`ABOUT THIS CONTROVERSY?
And why do we assume that the lesbian would be "butch" in order to be a viable candidate for transmaleness? Does this attitude reflect the biblical binary system of sexuality? Whoa! Lesbians making assumptions based on the goofy Adam & Eve story? Lesbians should know better!

Sexual identity and sexual orientation are very different aspects of sexuality, and the scientific evidence supports the idea that both are innate. Click on my proposed "SexualityModel" at http://science.meetup.com/77/files/. I welcome questions and feedback.