Brain Scans Vs Homosexuality! Fight!

[dv8nation]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7456588.stm

The brains of gay men and women look like those found in heterosexual people of the opposite sex, research suggests.

A group of 90 healthy gay and heterosexual adults, men and women, were scanned by the Karolinska Institute

Comments

[dwer]

if it is all due to the brain I can't help but wonder if this might lead to homosexuality being put back in the books as a medical condition.

A medical condition is something that adversely affects one's health, no?

[dv8nation]

I don't know enough about medical terminology to say that for sure.

But I don't think that a "condition" should automatically be considered something bad. Hetrochromia is a medical condition, but I'm not aware of it having any adverse effect on people born with it. Ditto an extra rib.

[dwer]

If that's the case, then so is being born left-handed or with red hair, no?

[dv8nation]

I'm not aware of either of these ever officially being a medical condition. Unlike homosexuality which was listed as such as recently as the 60s.

[ddstory]

And the pseudo-science called eugenics used to define some races as being inferior to others based on their physiological characteristics - based on that assumption, among other erroneous justifications, an official policy of compulsory sterilization continued in the US well into the 1960s.

That still doesn't make that policy any less immoral, and the very premise behind it any less erroneous.

[yes_justice]

In many cultures:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness

"Historically, the left side, and subsequently left-handedness, was considered negative in many cultures. The Latin word sinistra originally meant "left" but took on meanings of "evil" or "unlucky" by the Classical Latin era, and this double meaning survives in Italian, and in the English word "sinister". Alternatively, sinister comes from the Latin word sinus meaning "pocket": a traditional Roman toga had only one pocket, located on the left side. The right hand has historically been associated with skill: the Latin word for right-handed is dexter, as in "dexterity", meaning manual skill. Even the word "ambidexterity" reflects the bias. Its intended meaning is "skillful on both sides". However, since it keeps the Latin root dexter, which means "right", it ends up conveying the idea of being "right-handed at both sides". This bias is also apparent in the lesser-known antonym "ambisinistrous", which means "

[dexeron]

Hell, "gauche" is the French word for left. Think about the English language connotations of something being "gauche".

[dv8nation]

Still not an official entry in medical textbooks.

[telemann]

Well technically, neither was homosexuality, It was listed as a psychiatric disorder. And left handedness does have some medical connections, here are some of the studies.

[rimpala]

Of course, so was "dysaethesia"

Science wasn't immune from being abused back then.

[harry_beast]

And it still isn't.

[dv8nation]

Close enough for jazz.

[telemann]

Not at all.

[fizzyland]

But those are obvious signs of the Evil One!

[ddstory]

This might help.

medical condition
A disease, illness, or injury Medical practice Any condition-eg, physiologic, mental, or psychologic conditions or disorders-eg, orthopedic, visual, speech, or hearing impairments, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, CA, CAD, DM, mental retardation, emotional or mental illness, specific learning disabilities, HIV disease, TB, drug addiction, alcoholism

[dv8nation]

Okay, condition would seem to be the wrong word medically. But "medical feature" sounds kinda dumb.