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wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone decipher ?

Discussion in 'Sexual Orientation' started by lowkey, Sep 21, 2013.

  1. lowkey

    lowkey Guest

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    "I have dealt with very similar feelings. I am married to a woman but still have homosexual attractions and have at times masturbated and looked at gay porn. I consider myself heterosexual as I don't think, and some might lynch me for saying this, that anyone is homosexual. I believe all people are heterosexual but some have a homosexual problem. let me explain.

    There is a common belief that homosexuality is inborn, biological, and therefore unchangeable, which there is no evidence to prove. The American Psychological Association (2008) in a statementabout homosexuality stated:

    "Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles; most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation."

    While there are no conclusive studies on the topic I believe, as stated above that nature and nurture play significant roles in the development of homosexuality.

    Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, a Psychologist who specializes in “reparative therapy” states in his book Shame and Attachment Loss (2009) that there is in fact a genetic piece which he believes to be a certain personality type, that given the right conditions, will develop into a homosexual problem. Generally those who develop homosexual feelings have similar personalities. It is usually a boy who is more sensitive, emotional, and caring. This coupled with certain environmental factors can create homosexual feelings within an individual.

    Nicolosi also discusses the role that environment plays in homosexual development. He explains what he calls the triadic family system. This system is a general model but many variations of this model can emerge and create the same result, but almost across the board there is some variation of this model in the past of people experiencing homosexual attraction. The triadic family system consists of the sensitive boy mentioned above, a mother with a dominant personality and a father who is either physically or emotionally distant or absent in the eyes of the boy. However, as I stated above there are many variations of this and this does not necessarily mean that the individual had an asshole for a father or a crazy person for a mother. This is where a lot of people become defensive, saying "I know someone who is gay but his dad is the nicest guy, a really good dad." The key in all this is perception. It is how the boy sees it. It doesn't matter how anyone else sees it. Sometimes the mother has some strong opinions but it is the sensitive nature of the boy, who always wants to please his mother, that causes him to do what she says and always tries to please her, often resulting in an unhealthy enmeshment between mother and son. This attachment to mother is usually preceded by an emotional disconnect from the father.

    Every child when born is attached to his or her mother. In our gender identity development stage we develop our gender identity through observations of the parent that we see ourselves most like. Girls have this easier because they are already very attached to the same sex parent but boys have to make a shift around the age of 18 months to three years. During this time the boy starts to see the difference between mommy and daddy and begins to realize mommy is a girl, daddy is a boy, I’m a boy and daddy and I are the same. This is when we see little boys copying there dads, wanting to put shaving cream on, wanting to mow the lawn with dad or help with the car. For boys experiencing homosexual feelings this transition did not happen the way it was intended. This can either be because the father was absent completely, traveled or worked a lot, or for many other reasons. Somewhere along the line the boy felt rejected by the father. This could be a very small event that the sensitive boy took very personally such as dad yelling at him in anger or frustration, even if it only happened once, or a large event such as the death of the father or a very abusive father, or a series of events that lead the boy feeling this way. He begins to feel that “dad doesn’t like or accept me.” As stated above it is a perception, not necessarily a reality, But a person's perception defines his reality. So the boy feels rejected and therefore the boy moves to what he is comfortable with and the person who he feels accepted and protected by, this is generally the mother and because of this the boy doesn’t make the shift. Without this shift the boy never really learns how to relate to men or learns how to be a man.

    When the boys starts school this becomes a bigger issue as this boy is generally the boy who stands at a distance on the playground watching the other boys playing sports wishing he could be part of them, because deep down he knows he is and wants to be a "boy", but not feeling equal to them or adequate enough to participate. He typically looks at these other boys wondering “what is wrong with me?” “How come I’m not like them?” He will study them trying to figure out how to be more like them usually resulting in ridicule and further alienation from his gender. This is an important time in the development of a boy. During this time of life the whole girls have coodies and the typical separation of genders that naturally happens with young children is an important part of development. During this time people normally become comfortable with their own gender so that when puberty hits they start noticing the opposite sex because their own gender isn’t interesting anymore, they want to see what's up with girls because they are now the mystery. Boys are now boring they’ve been hanging around them for years. So they begin asking themselves “what's up with girls?” This process of switching focus to the opposite sex does not happen for the youth experiencing homosexual feelings. For a boy struggling with homosexual thoughts he is still fixating on the other boys. They continue to be the mystery. They are ones he has been looking at trying to figure out and that fascination becomes sexualized as puberty hits.


    So what is typically under this attraction is one of two things. Either a feeling that the individual has that he is somehow deficient or inadequate in being “male” or a feeling of wanting to be accepted by other men. In a subconscious way the individual feels that he is very different from other men and can somehow gain what he wants in himself through sexual contact with other men. For the individual who feels that desire to be accepted by men and to be close to them subconsciously feels that need met when he is accepted sexually by another man.

    In a nutshell homosexuality is just a man needing to feel accepted by other men, and/or a man needing to accept his own masculine potential.

    This has my take on it. I have studied a lot on the topic and have been able to diminish and almost completely get rid of my attractions towards men. Like I said some people will adamantly oppose what I am saying it I am only saying what has been my experience, the experience of hundreds of individuals and what psychological studies have shown for a hundred years.

    some of the information for this post was taken from the following sources.

    Narth.com
    homosexuality101.com
    mapcounseling.org
    The American Psychological Association
    Shame and Attachment Loss By Joseph Nicolosi

    "
     
  2. Gen

    Gen
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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    I believe that this entire post is a quote from an outside source? Correct?

    Dr. Joseph Nicolosi is a founder of National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). Regardless, I won't even begin to waste my breath pointing out the pure ignorance that comes from the 'research' and understands of psychology in this quotation. Though, truthfully, I wouldn't even need to spend the time as NARTH has already been nearly exclusively discredited by the leading associations of mental health because their positions are contrary to science and have been consistently refuted by the entire international psychiatric community.

    Although its discovery is still in its beginning stages, modern sciences have found countless evidence to support the biology of sexuality. NARTH presents itself as a organization that is widely supported by the mental health community because they have members who held high level positions in those associations, but the key word is held. Its very founders began the organization after the American Psychiatric Association and countless others denounced homosexuality as a mental disorder in the late 20th century and NARTH's founders ran away to start their own club.

    NARTH is essentially Westboro Baptist Church with better college degrees. This is the organizations whose member is the man who claimed that African Americans were better off because of slavery and deemed the Civil Rights and Women's Rights Movements as irrational and destructive.
     
  3. Chip

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    Gen stated it quite well. NARTH has zero credibility with any credible scientific, psychological, psychiatric, or medical association. The Westboro analogy is a good one, and I'd say that the objective accuracy of their scholarship/research is on par with the Weekly World News, LandoverBaptist.org or The Onion. (Except that the last two are intentionally satire; everyone laughs at NARTH, but they, at least publicly, put their stuff out as credible.)

    As for Nicolosi himself... he is most certainly not considered a credible research on the subject of shame (or, for that matter, any other topic) by anyone recognized in the field.

    And as for the APA statement... that statement was a political compromise between the ignorant bigot non-scientists that are part of APA and promoted a "homosexuality can be cured" agenda in spite of the fact that none of the credible studies done in the past 60 years supported that idea. If you read the actual APA report, it is far less equivocal than the wishy-washy statement that was a product of compromise.

    Anyone who takes anything NARTH or Nicolosi says seriously... well, all I can say is, wow.
     
  4. lowkey

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    okay, are you both, saying though, that "sexuality is genetically pre-determine." or that "nurture - traumas/experiences/reactions can play a role, but that how the info was presented is a little outdated."

    for example, can a bi-sexual person who went through a trauma with a fellow gay guy, have a psychological trauma, that combines the idea of men with anxiety, thus, eliminating or Severely limiting an attraction due to conflict and stress.

    is that far-fetched or logically possible?

    moving on, there are other things i would love for you guys to debunk - as to clear my mind and alot of others on the internet who search for similiar things when questioning and asking 'why'
     
    #4 lowkey, Sep 21, 2013
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2013
  5. Lexington

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    There doesn't appear to be much support for "nuture" over "nature". There ARE people who emerge from rather severe emotional turmoil and/or abuse who may turn to the same sex to avoid contact with the opposite, but those cases are few and far between, and don't truly fall under the category of "gay" in any event.

    I've talked to a couple gay people who seemed very insistent that homosexuality came about via nurture, or at least it did in their particular case. And of those I've talked to in depth, they invariably were people who hadn't really accepted their sexuality. They actively didn't want to be gay. And it seemed to me that they held tight to the "nurture not nature" belief because (1) it meant that their sexuality wasn't actually "real" - something just made them LOOK like they were gay, and (2) it left open the possibility, no matter how slight, that the process could be reversed. So if they came to the conclusion that they were gay because they had an overbearing mother, a distant father, or not enough strong male role models (to pick a couple examples)...well, then, once they grew to completely understand what was going on, and come to grips with this "mistake" in their upbringing, then maybe the gay stuff will all go away!

    Thing is - it doesn't.

    Lex
     
  6. lowkey

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    well, few and far between, i do think im a great candidate. listen to my drama' life story, and tell me what you think.

    i grew up being told my mom is crazy by friends and family, i've seen it myself. its humiliating and embarrassing. ive been told by a therapist I do have PTSD because of things related with my mom, like seeing her naked a few times.

    the last time i remember enjoying female contact sexually was 'anything' before this one summer when i got back with the 'first' whom i still cared about but i honestly was sort of fucking a girl who was head over heals for another dude while i was head over heals for her. , n i genuninely felt insecure and compared to because of this, like i was in the shadows of another guy, she ended up playing me, she would talk about her ex, then fuck me, n then hinted at a new beginning for me n her, n then one day i was in another state for a sporting event and she fucked her ex, and i found out. i knew by her text.

    anxiety that one summer was a whole nother beast. to be specific, i felt compared to and the most during sex, like i would think to myself she is thinking about him when she closes her eyes or shes thinkin of him n if he was better at fuckin her like this, an shit.
     
    #6 lowkey, Sep 21, 2013
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2013
  7. Chip

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    In all of the credible literature on sexual abuse/molestation, there is no evidence that sexual abuse alters sexual orientation. Even Exodus, the largest ex-gay ministry, publicly apologized for harming people with bullshit treatments that didn't work for many years and shut itself down. Its founder had left several years earlier, realizing that the whole basis of what they were offering didn't work and was based on faulty science.

    What sexual abuse can do is bring about earlier awareness of sexuality and sexual experience, and accelerate the questioning that many people go through. And certainly, the unwanted sexual activity can cause various types of confusion. But the important piece here is... the underlying sexual orientation is unchanged. If the person is straight, s/he will not feel sexual attraction to people of the same sex. If gay, s/he will not feel attraction to people of the opposite sex, and the confusion doesn't last, because even if there's a conscious level of uncertainty, the body and unconscious responses are still consistent with whatever the underlying orientation is.
     
  8. lowkey

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    darn, this is very depressing, a depressing realization. i have nothing wrong with other people being gay at all, im an atheist myself, religion doesnt play a role. i guess MAYBE movies, and story-telling in general could of played a role, but its hard to believe i wouldnt feel the same way even without cultural norms. i see woman as beautiful creatures of a great 'light' but not in a sexual way. they to me are much more desirable mentally, just not physically, although id rather cuddle with a women and kiss a women, n have sex with a guy and skip the kissing part with guys.

    i personally, like the 'idea' of a woman and a man, i see man and woman, wives and husband and get a dreamy feeling, like i wish i was like that. its retarded honestly, that i cant just choose my destiny, its retard honestly how hard it is to accept being gay and accept being seen in public with a gay man while a beautiful woman walks by me. and shutting out all possible futures with beautiful and dreamy/intelligent woman. :[
     
  9. RainyViolinist

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    I personally believe that homosexuality stems from a mixture of both genetic and/or environmental factors. For example, I think there's a gene that makes it more likely to become homosexual, and when a child carrying this gene is developing through the early stages of life, environmental factors, whether it be emotional/psychological, chemical, or the like, have the ability to trigger the gene to make someone homosexual, or the gene can simply make the child homosexual at birth. Because of this, I believe both nature AND nurture can cause homosexuality, not just one or the other. However, I wouldn't believe the organizations you put up for the reasons the others above have said.
     
  10. Straight ally

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    I believe homosexuality can have multiples origins who can either manifest one of them only, or a mixture of origins. Maybe some homosexuals where born from the beginning like that, maybe others had some sort of predisposition, maybe others had a fluid sexuality but due to certain life events ended prefering one gender over the other, maybe in other cases it was some hormonal process, in other cases maybe a mutation. Or it could be a mixture of many of these' or whatever.

    There doestn have to exist an unique only way of homosexuality originating. What im sure is something complex and hard to predict.
     
  11. Just Jess

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    It doesn't have to be.

    The grass is not really greener for one thing. I can say from experience that getting into a cis straight "normal" life can be a kind of prison for the wrong person. It seems nice from the outside, but constantly lying to yourself and everyone around you is no way to live. The guilt alone from getting into a relationship with someone I really had no business being with was eating me alive. Some of us even go so far as to have kids, and when you're with someone, you have to depend on each other. The movies and supermarket magazines about celebrities are the only places where people can just break up whenever they feel like it. In reality you have joint bank accounts, other people that don't even think of you as individuals any more but as a couple, and when you finally spill the beans you have a spouse who is a human being.

    But if you find the right guy, love changes everything. Just having someone on your side who really understands you and can go through everything with you is amazing. I guarantee there are people just like you out there that want all the things you want. White picket fences aren't just for straight people. Heck this is the internet, look at how happy George Takei and his husband are.

    As far as nature and nurture... whatever caused you to be gay, if you are, you are. Your choice is whether to accept it or fight it. And I can also say from experience that life doesn't really make sense or start being worthwhile until you aren't at war with yourself.
     
  12. lowkey

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    lol, no like, i like the way woman act more than men also, its like everything. i like who they are more. i can kiss a girl,. i dont like to kiss guys, i really just do not. i like there dick and ass at times in porn, in person im not sure if i liked it, when i closed my eyes and use my imagination i can usually get off....
    ive only had crushes on girls really. i crushed on one guy in my life.
     
  13. Gen

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    This are the key words here. Nurture cannot change a biological disposition; however, nurture can alter an individuals psychological dispositions.

    To begin, it is impossible for nurture to fabricate new genuine attractions. Regardless of past trauma, the minds process of coping with trauma is not fabrication, rather suppression. For example, it is possible for someone to deal with so much trauma with a certain type or sex of people that the subconscious will create roadblocks and attempt to sway the individual from continuing to seek individuals that resemble those figures by suppressing its attraction to them. In contrast, the mind will not fabricate genuine attraction to a certain sex because of past trauma. Living environments and 'nurture' can cause the suppression of attraction, but it will never fabricate it. Many try, but the suppression and fabrication will never be genuine and will therefore unravel and fall apart as time passes.

    In your situation, the issue I am seeing is that you seem to have fallen for the idea of a woman more then the reality. This is not to say that a women can not be the things that you dream of, only that the characteristics you have describe your idea of them with aren't at all exclusive to them.

    Since you don't find them as physically desirable as men, as you have said, then what would happen if you found all of those qualities of intelligence and care in a men, hypothetically? What then would be the reason behind your preference of a woman?
     
  14. blueberrymuffin

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    I wonder what got into your head to put NARTH and "reparative therapy" filth on here. That's what i'd like to decipher. These comments are exactly why progress is so slow. With 'questioning' people drinking the hateraid, how can we expect to ever win over the public? To the extent that environment has a role, it's clearly prenatal, not this "overbearing mother" BS.
     
  15. lowkey

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    :sleep:
     
  16. Zac

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    Seriously??
    I have a good relationship with both my father and mother and all my brothers. However I want to be male, so therefore I'm gay (I like men). My bothers and I where nurtured and raised the same and they're all straight and happy to be male...

    (Couldn't be bothered reading the whole thing)
     
  17. lowkey

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    to add on, because i forgot to save my edit.
    imo, its a informative post. if anything, clears things up.

    you have a soft spot and the end result causes douchebaggery, your also that guy; who acts like he's been here for a long time, and even if so- as if its something to be proud about, which leads to proud enough to prowl people for there questions on a forum where people ask questions commonly in search for answers. its very typical. i dont understand why you would post here if your not open to debate and questions honestly. troll
     
  18. Just Jess

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    With respect, this is a support forum. And you've dodged and refused any attempts to address your situation directly.

    If you are just here to promote your views, or "debate" as you put it, and are finally dropping all pretense of coming here for help, then I'd like to thank you for your honesty, and simply point out that you've already made your point, and any further bashing other people is simply going to make you look worse and detract from your message.
     
  19. Gen

    Gen
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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    Just who is trolling here? If you came here for a discussion that is fine, but you have yet to respond to any of the thorough responses that have been presented here. I don't know what isn't being seen here. We have tried to explain to you the flaw in this, biased, individuals logic; why him and his organization have been long discredited by national psychiatric organizations for his unsupported ideals, yet you are still insistent that this passage is 'informative'.

    I'm not exactly sure why you are so dead set on the validity of these ideas, but being truculent and dismissive to those that respond isn't going to get you anywhere. If you don't care for our opinions, then what is the point of this thread?
     
  20. Tightrope

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    Re: wow, so now i believe nurture over nature is what made me gay, can someone deciph

    I think nurture and a conditioned response could accelerate the situation for some people who already had the predisposition. A friend of mine, sitting at a garden variety backyard barbeque, got on the topic of homosexuality and mentioned her non-sectarian college professor said it was a "conditioned response." I wonder to this day how the conversation went that direction, since I don't remember a lead-in by anybody present. I would have wanted to know why this professor said that, but the barbeque wasn't the place to keep the topic going. Daryl Bem proffered the "Exotic Becomes Erotic" theory. I believe he was secular, but he was a psychology professor at some well known schools. He was married to Sandra Lipsitz, another prominent psychology professor, whom he later divorced after an unconventional marriage. A lot of her work deals with androgyny, gender roles, and sexuality. While I don't think the arousal response could ever be fully "deconditioned," as some mistakenly believe, I believe in certain aspects of the notion of "exotic becomes erotic" because I feel like I have gone through some of that myself.
     
    #20 Tightrope, Sep 22, 2013
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2013