Posted: Monday, August 15, 2005 12:00 am
Being a man of science, it's understandable that Oregon State University animal sciences professor Fred Stormshak would be optimistic that research into the biology behind same-sex rams might some day yield insights into the origins of homosexuality in humans - perhaps even settling the long-raging debate on whether it is destiny or desire that determines who is gay and who is not.
For 10 years, Stormshak and researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho, and Oregon Health and Science University have studied rams who refuse to mate with ewes. At first, this was an issue of economics. A ram that won't breed costs a sheep rancher a $500 loss.
But now that there appears to be well-documented and consistent differences between the anterior preoptic area of the hypothalmus section of the brains of same-sex preference rams and those that mate with ewes, there is an inescapable parallel to similar studies of the same portions of the human brain in the early 1990s.
Such changes - in both humans and rams - appear to occur while a fetus is developing in the uterus.
Refining such studies has the potential, said Stormshak, of refuting the notion that homosexuality is purely a lifestyle choice. Presumably, this would have the effect of increasing tolerance for those who are gay.
But there is another possibility that such findings, when and if they pinpoint exactly the mechanism that triggers homosexual development, will merely fuel pressure to then come up with a "cure" for homosexuality, leaving society with another ethical dilemma: If medicine could interrupt and reverse the development of same-sex preference, given that this has been a variable in human development for our entire history, should it be permitted?
The question is not meant to raise readers' blood pressure, although it certainly will in some cases. It is more intended to point out that this topic is not going to be resolved purely by scientific information, because it is, at heart, an emotional and moral issue with some people.
Some people will persist in wanting to label, categorize, stigmatize and otherwise continue to see homosexuality as some sort of plot to bring down "traditional values."
As much as the research by Stormshak and others adds valuable information to a fascinating and evolving area of science, we doubt it is going to put an end to the raging debate over how homosexuality fits into society any time soon.