reply to post by r2d246
Scientific opinion would be welcome, like all opinions.
I think for those truly interested in science the documentary on the case in my OP, some other posts, and especially FlyersFan's excellent posts above
already give a lot of scientific opinion.
Howsoever, usually on ATS, "scientific opinions" are part of the debate, and they do not settle it, especially not on this issue.
Geneticists, biologists and anatomists might have very informed theories on the issue, or why some people are born like this or that, or that certain
brains typically look like this or that.
But none of that really answers to the issue of whether a stroke can cause a profound change, such as that of sexual orientation.
I'd rather also question the sexual orientation change as relevant only to our present cultural interest.
There were many other changes, and other stroke-sufferers also sometimes have major changes with profound social impact on their lives.
Yet we somehow regard sexual orientation as more set and meaningful; as more important than other changes.
So that tells us about us and our culture.
As far as I'm concerned: if you kill the brain you kill any recognizable consciousness.
I also think sexuality and gender happen between the ears, before they happen between the legs.
How the brain is wired after puberty decides our sexuality (gay, straight, unsure, bisexual, transgender), so nobody denies that changing the brain
can change who we are.
But changing the brain is then also changing creation, and it would amount to admitting that God purposefully and anatomically creates people gay
beyond their will - and that's a long shot from current homophobic theorizing that views homosexuality as a choice; or as a sinful, brainwashed or
sexually disordered group of straight people.
If somebody is gay or straight then that's natural, and if a change occurs due to a random act with behaviors that are also natural, then I'm not sure
how a social judgement or deliberate activity like "curing" is at all relevant.
This is where we should further interrogate our contemporary culture to find out how an act of God, or an act of fate can immediately mean something
deliberate, or refer to another way of being as proving a deliberate "cure" for anything.
Yes, nature can be baffling and cruel, but yet not as cruel as we think human society would be if it had that knowledge of nature.
So this whole debate reveals something very pessimistic and fearful about human nature and our current society - that human variety and differences
would most likely be "cured", and that moralists would engage in standardization and "Nazi science" if they could.
And shockingly that's the feared "normal" part of human society who never had a stroke, and consider themselves "healthy"!
But I tend to agree, there is a fear that this could be studied for deliberate use, but there's no such suggestion yet, and it's unlikely to
succeed.
I don't consider such changes as relevant to the debate on how we are born.
The body can be changed in any number of ways from what it was at birth, often in ways that only allow social support, and we don't have a wider
theory that it must remain as it is upon delivery to be "natural".
What matters is that a vast majority of people feel they were born gay or straight, large enough to make this a significant divide in human culture,
and they will stay that way.
I mean Chris's case is probably not even statistically relevant, it's so rare.
What's good is that he feels happy and could adjust to gay life, and that's very important from my view, because if this happened to somebody in a
homophobic country or society (like Uganda) I honestly think he might have ended up being killed.
That's why arguments concerning sexual equality for all adults should never be constrained by arguments on how people were born.
All adults should have equal rights to straight or gay relationships.
edit on 21-7-2012 by halfoldman because: (no reason given)
edit on 21-7-2012 by halfoldman because: (no reason given)