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Homosexuality is innate.
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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The findings of studies of the brains of heterosexuals and homosexuals support the view of researchers who believe that sexual orientation is innate.
From May 28 to 31, 2011, the XXI Neurological Congress was held in Lisbon (Portugal). One of the topics discussed was the determination of human sexual orientation by the structure of his brain. The state of affairs in this area of research was outlined by Jerome Goldstein, director of the Center for Clinical Research (San Francisco, USA).
The pioneer of the research was neurologist Simon LeVay, who in 1991 discovered a clear difference in the structure of the brains of the bodies of homosexuals and heterosexuals he had dissected. Specific areas of the anterior hypothalamus were 2-3 times larger in heterosexual men than in heterosexual women, and the same situation was observed in gay men.
Research conducted in the 2000s, when high-tech diagnostic equipment became widespread, proves the "innateness" of sexual orientation.
In 2008, Ivanka Savic-Berglund and Per Lindstrom from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, used magnetic resonance imaging to measure blood flow in the brains of people of all genders and sexual orientations and found differences in the size of the amygdala (a part of the brain that influences emotional responses); the amygdalas of homosexuals were similar to those of heterosexual women, while those of lesbians were similar to those of heterosexual men.
A group from Queen Mary College (UK) led by Kazi Rahman found out in 2005 that heterosexual men and lesbians, due to a more developed right hemisphere of the brain, are better oriented in space than homosexuals and heterosexual women. But heterosexual women and homosexuals are more talkative due to a developed left hemisphere.
Although homosexuality has long ceased to be classified as a mental disorder (the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the list of diseases in 1992), a survey of 1,400 psychiatrists and psychoanalysts conducted in 2010 by Professor Michael King's group from the University College London Medical School (UK) showed that almost 1/6 of them had ever worked with clients to overcome or reduce homosexuality. Curiously, only 4% admitted that they would agree to such work again, since such therapy is often requested by patients themselves, who are under pressure from their environment.
Scientists agree that further research on straight, gay, bisexual and transgender people - neurobiological, hormonal, genetic - will help clarify the issue. Dr. Goldstein is beginning long-term studies of identical twins, who will undergo MRI, functional MRI and PET scans to create "brain maps."
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