Biological Research on Homosexuality

Ansell's Cow or Occam's Razor

Bibliographic Data

ID3608152
AuthorsWendell Ricketts (San Francisco State University, corresponding author)
Year1984
Volume9
Issue4
Pages65-93
Publication date1984-09-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Homosexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0091-8369 • E-ISSN: 1540-3602
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1300/j082v09n04_06
PMID6386979
OpenAlexW1881247817
LanguageEN
Citations received8

Research based on the assumption that homosexuality can be traced to heredity, prenatal brain differentiation, or effects of gonadotropins in adulthood is reviewed. From a biological standpoint the studies are deficient in several respects: More or less accurate methods of hormone assay, uncertainty over the process of brain sexual differentiation in humans, lack of agreement regarding the role of various gonadotropins in human behavior, small samples, and lack of controls. Moreover, the biological research is based on unwarranted assumptions about human sexuality, sex differences, and sexual orientation that have been imported from the social sciences and popular beliefs. The article questions why a biological basis for sexual orientation is expected, why biologists try to explain homosexuality but not heterosexuality, and what biologists mean by "homosexual." The author concludes that the biological research on homosexuality shows the ineluctable taint on "objective" science of personal beliefs and cultural prejudices

Homosexuality · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) · Male Homosexuality · Men who have sex with men · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Syphilis · Medicine · Psychology · Reproductive tract infections research · Virology

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