Born that way? Perhaps bred? Both?

This week was very eye opening. First, I'll pose this to all you out there: Can same sex attraction be overcome, or is it something that we are born with? Or, is same sex attraction a product of an environment someone is raised in? As we know, children are born with a wide variety of temperament, and lets say the far left is aggressive and the far right is more passive. If we generalize, then boys tend to be on the aggressive side, while girls are generalized on the right. But what about if a girl is a bit more on the aggressive side? What if she plays more sports and likes to hunt, get dirty, etc., things we associate with boys? We tend to label a girl as a 'Tom Boy', and that is endearing. Yet, if a boy prefers to play with Barbies, or doesn't want to play sports, or is more passive and emotional in nature, we label him as effeminate or as a femme, which we associate with negative qualities. Does this mean your son is gay? Does this mean he is a girl spirit in a male body? Absolutely not. It just means your son has a different temperament. We have inborn differences, and around age 5, we start to pick our preferences in what we play with and who we play with. As early as here, we can start being outcast because of not being like the general population. Then, during some crucial times between ages 8-11 those who are different really face rejection by peers. I say this is crucial because during the years of puberty, we seek the acceptance of those around us, especially those of the same sex, but we also find the exotic becomes erotic. What is unusual for us becomes sought after. So if we didn't get the proper emotional love, then that is what we seek. I would not say this is homosexual, but more homo-romantic. That we desire the emotional connection with our peers of the same gender. Other contributing factors during a boys early life may be bullying, lack of a father's love and appropriate physical touch, such as hugs, and a smothering or authoritarian mother. Even something as terrible as being raped or molested by an older male may contribute to a feeling of same sex attraction. Now it's puberty, around ages 11-13, and people are perceiving they are different. They are trying to figure out their sexualization while trying to gain acceptance, and that is hard. Guys start calling each other gay, or queer, as insults, and it becomes the usual thing to toss back and forth. But the labeling is detrimental! Don't label people! The most important sex organ is your brain, and the more you're told something, either by yourself or by others, that is what you start to believe. These life experiences can lead someone to believe they have same sex attraction. For those who say it's a born trait, consider this. A popularly quoted study says a 'gay gene' was found, but the man who actually did the research said that no gay gene was found. There were a few similarities between the genes of a few gay or lesbian people, but not a single 'gay gene'. Consider this also: a study was done in Australia where 33,000 twins were brought in and asked if one or both of them were gay. When one of them identified as gay, only 11% of their twins said they were also gay. If this was genetic, 100% should have identified gay if their twin did also. One last thing to think about: Are we helping or hurting the transgender population by allowing them to do the surgery of changing genders? Even if we find that they are 19 times more likely to commit suicide after the surgery as compared to before. Does that really solve the issue of depression for these people? I don't know. For both same sex attraction and transgenders, I am still trying to learn more.