Linda and all,

OK, I'm not trying to start a debate here on the possible biological origins
of homosexuality, but since you asked, Linda, here's a bit of what I know.

Chandler Burr, in a 1993 article in The Atlantic, stated that the research
that had been done comparing straight men's and gay men's sex hormone levels
and the studies comparing the sex hormone levels of straight women and
lesbians showed that gay men had slightly *higher* levels of testosterone than
did heterosexual men. There was no difference in the levels of sex hormones
between straight women and lesbians. There have been gay men and lesbians
throughout human history. I very much doubt that most gay men over the
centuries have been fed high levels of phytoestrogens in the early years or
have been artificially fed in infancy. In fact, I have a devotional book where
the author, Chris Glaser, in one of the meditations, recalls the warmth and
security he felt nursing at his mother's breast. Chris is gay and he not only
was breastfed, but he was nursed as a toddler. Now that's another stereotype,
isn't it: Breastfeed a boy "too long" and he'll turn gay on you!

In the reading that I have done on the biology of homosexuality, I have seen
no evidence that how one is fed as a baby has anything to do with one's sexual
orientation. There is tantalizing evidence that homosexuality does have some
basis in biology. Did you know, for instance, that gay men have greater facial
symmetry than do straight men? Two good books on the subject are A Separate
Creation: The Search for the Biological Basis of Sexual Orientation by
Chandler Burr (Hyperion, 1996) and Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of
Research on Homosexuality by Simon LeVay (MIT Press, 1997).

Feel free to email me privately if you would like to discuss this topic
further.

The above expressed opinions are just my own .02.

Warmly,
Carol Kelley LLLL
Taylors SC USA  in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains
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