Turning Homosexuality On and Off

[typomaniac]

We've recently been able to accomplish this with fruit flies. Someday it could be possible with humans. What are your thoughts on whether that would be a good idea?


What if you could take a drug that would quickly alter your sexual orientation from straight to gay, or vice versa?

To their surprise, neurobiologists have discovered that homosexuality can be turned on or off in fruit flies. They’d known that sexual orientation can be genetically programmed, but they didn’t realize it could also be altered by giving a drug that changes the way the flies’ sensory circuits react to pheromones.

Within hours of the treatment, previously heterosexual male fruit flies would be courting other males, and treatment could also cause flies who had been engaging in homosexual behavior to become exclusively heterosexual, the neurobiologists report in Nature Neuroscience (http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nn2019.html). You can read a summary of it here (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/uoia-iff120407.php) from the University of Illinois at Chicago, the home of one of the researchers, David Featherstone.

Source (http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/turning-homosexuality-on-and-off/)

[Abbey Marie]

Are you sure those male fruit flies that turned gay weren't put in tiny jail cells first?

On a serious note, I think it would be fascinating, but it could turn into the new Rohypnol.

[Said1]

I had a professor who thought the world of fruit flies. There interesting little pests, but he used to go on and on and on about human similarities and cutting edge experiments and research.....blah, blah.


Similarity to humans
About 75% of known human disease genes have a recognizable match in the genetic code of fruit flies (Reiter et al (2001) Genome Research: 11(6):1114-25), and 50% of fly protein sequences have mammalian analogues. An online database called Homophila [2] is available to search for human disease gene homologues in flies and vice versa. Drosophila is being used as a genetic model for several human diseases including the neurodegenerative disorders Parkinson's, Huntington's, spinocerebellar ataxia and Alzheimer's disease. The fly is also being used to study mechanisms underlying immunity, diabetes, and cancer, as well as drug abuse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila_melanogaster#Similarity_to_humans :laugh2:

[Trigg]

We've recently been able to accomplish this with fruit flies. Someday it could be possible with humans. What are your thoughts on whether that would be a good idea?



Source (http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/turning-homosexuality-on-and-off/)

Offered as a choice some might choose it. Although the gay and lesbian alliance would be completely against it, since to them it is "normal" and not a problem to be fixed.

Honestly when I read this the first thing I thought of was the movie X-men and the mutant "cure". Some chose to change and the others were insulted at the suggestion they weren't "normal".

[typomaniac]

If it truly were easy to go back and forth over a short time span, I can envision a lot of young adults experimenting with both kinds of sex and trying to compare which they prefer.

[82Marine89]

Fruit flies gay? Who'd of thought?

[gabosaurus]

Can they do the same thing with ignorance, bigotry and religious intolerance? Would be a huge hit at the next Republican caucuses.

[Cheyenne]

If it truly were easy to go back and forth over a short time span, I can envision a lot of young adults experimenting with both kinds of sex and trying to compare which they prefer.
Therefore homosexuality is a choice.

[Hagbard Celine]

Therefore homosexuality is a choice.

I guess you'd have absolutely zero credibility on the subject unless you had actually gone through making the "choice" and/or had fraternized with multiple homosexual people. :slap:

[82Marine89]

I guess you'd have absolutely zero credibility on the subject unless you had actually gone through making the "choice" and/or had fraternized with multiple homosexual people. :slap:

Well, I have two sisters that are rug munchers. May I comment?

[typomaniac]

Therefore homosexuality is a choice.

Having sex is a choice. Being aroused is just a reflex.

[avatar4321]

Can they do the same thing with ignorance, bigotry and religious intolerance? Would be a huge hit at the next Republican caucuses.

you're right. All the liberals becoming conservative would overwhelm the Republican caucuses.

[Mr. P]

Therefore homosexuality is a choice.

And you were how old when you made your choice?

Just wondering.

[CockySOB]

I've said it before, I believe that homosexuality is the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain, and like any other instability, should be treated to return the individual to normalcy. Looks like science is getting much closer to affirming my belief. Next step is to undo the brainwashing and propaganda pushed by the homosexual lobby.

Here's to better living through chemistry!

[manu1959]

Can they do the same thing with ignorance, bigotry and religious intolerance? Would be a huge hit at the next Republican caucuses.

you should really look in a mirror once in awhile......

[Cheyenne]

I guess you'd have absolutely zero credibility on the subject unless you had actually gone through making the "choice" and/or had fraternized with multiple homosexual people. :slap:

As a matter of fact I have been quite close to homosexuals, lesbians & even transgenders. I know two different women in two different relationships who have been married, had families and have chosen the lesbian affairs/relationships.


Having sex is a choice. Being aroused is just a reflex. But do you think you have to act on that arousal? Do you think a pedophile must act on his arousal? Sexual response is still a choice.

[Pale Rider]

We've recently been able to accomplish this with fruit flies. Someday it could be possible with humans. What are your thoughts on whether that would be a good idea?

Source (http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/turning-homosexuality-on-and-off/)


They’d known that sexual orientation can be genetically programmed,

Seems pretty conclusive... homosexuality is a birth defect.

[typomaniac]

But do you think you have to act on that arousal? Do you think a pedophile must act on his arousal? Sexual response is still a choice.
Now you're confusing me. I thought that being aroused was, in fact, a "sexual response." :confused:

To your other point, of course people don't have to act on their arousals.

[darin]

Having sex is a choice. Being aroused is just a reflex.

Absolutely. This is about 'desire' - what makes somebody 'homosexual' or not, is merely their conduct, not their 'attraction'.

[Cheyenne]

Now you're confusing me. I thought that being aroused was, in fact, a "sexual response." :confused:
To your other point, of course people don't have to act on their arousals.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, I meant sexual response in this context as a willing & conscious reaction.

You are correct, we don't have to act on sin; controllable behavior. An emotional or physical reaction is just that, a reaction. Anger, love, excitement are all emotions that we possess. It's what we do with these, how we control these, that makes the difference.
It's not like retardation, schizophrenia, other mental illnesses, diabetes, heart failure, cancers.

[actsnoblemartin]

i think it should studied, there is no reasons gays shouldnt be given the choice to go straigh if they so choose.


We've recently been able to accomplish this with fruit flies. Someday it could be possible with humans. What are your thoughts on whether that would be a good idea?



Source (http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/turning-homosexuality-on-and-off/)