Shit my Psych teacher does! —Episode 07

Hello, folks. Long time no see! Welcome to another episode of Shit my Psych teacher does! If you are new to the program and curious about what exactly I am talking about, clicking on the title will get you to a list of previous episodes. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy. Today, I’ll be debunking my Psych teacher’s adamant claim of homosexuality is a choice.

So, my Psych teacher has said on numerous (numerous, numerous, numerous) occasions that, “There is no proof that homosexuals were born gay. We don’t know whether they really were born gay or their homosexuality was a result of the practices that they engaged in.”

Yes. She really did say “the practices that they engaged in.” She has said it so often, in fact, that everytime I see that phrase, I hear her voice in my head. (Not a very comforting thought, by the way.)

Anyway, I already challenged this claim in a previous post. However, today, she added a sparkling, new, additional comment that screamed “B-I-G-O-T-R-Y!” 

The gist of what she said is this, “You can believe whatever you want to believe about homosexuality, but just know that there’s no hard evidence to support the fact that they were ‘born’ homosexual. Of course, I’m currently leaning towards ‘the practices that they engaged in’ because there’s more evidence for that.”

Whoa, back up there. Evidence? What evidence?

Sadly, she did not elaborate.

So, let’s backtrack a bit and consider what she said before. One of the few (actually, only) evidence I remember her giving about “homosexuality being a choice” was the brain differences between a homosexual and a heterosexual. She further went on to describe the brain differences between musicians and non-musicians before raising the question: “Are musicians born musicians, or did they build up more neural connections through practice? Are gays really born gay or did their brain change because of the practices they engaged in?”

Rather than refuting the basic idea of brain differences, let’s work with her basic argument and answer her question that way, shall we?

In short: for now, let’s simply “assume” that she is correct about brains being different between homosexuals and heterosexuals.

So, to answer her question, let’s look at some other examples of brain differences.

• Male and female brains (gender-wise) are different. [In this case, transgender individuals have brains that are more representative of their gender than their sex.]
• Left-handed people use different parts of their brain than right-handed people.
• Brain differences are apparent among those with mental disorders.

I am fairly certain that I was born female. I am most certainly born right-handed (though I could learn to write with my left-hand, it could never compare to my right). And, I am fairly certain I cannot simply wake up one morning and decide to become ADHD.

What does this mean? Well, if we take into consideration the evidence (that she so loves to rub in our faces), we can conclude that… Musicians were born musicians, and gay people are really born gay.

Not convinced? Let’s go back to the original premise of her argument then. She contends that musicians are not born musicians and gay people are not born gay because they learn to be musicians and gay through “the practices they engaged in.” Her proof is that there’s a difference in neural connections between musicians and non-musicians, homosexuals and heterosexuals.

Okay, so that might be true for musicians. (Might—notice how there’s no conclusive evidence. And, according to her, evidence is everything.)

But, homosexuals? Sorry to break it to you, Mrs. Psych teacher, but there are far more differences between homosexual and heterosexual brains for it to be just due to neural connections. [One hemisphere is larger than the other, for pete’s sake!]

Conclusive evidence? I think so. And, if this argument had been done in court, I would’ve gotten a Not Guilty verdict five paragraphs ago—Ace Attorney style!

[Also, proof that bisexuality is not a phase, for those interested: observational study of bisexual women reveals that most do not change their sexual orientation, brain chemical discovered that might cause bisexuality, and bisexuality has been observed in the animal kingdom.]

Anyway, thanks for tuning in to this issue of Shit my Psych teacher does! Tune in next time for some more exciting debunking!