Molestations by homosexual foster parents: newspaper accounts vs official
records.

Not so fast, Doc.

You're shifting gears from a cite war over whether or not a genetic basis for
homosexuality is BS to reports of anti-social behavior by some homosexuals.

Let me help you get back on track:



Published: Thursday, April 2, 1998
Research links inner ear and sexual preference

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Tara Tongco
Staff Reporter

A new discovery adds support to the theory that sexual orientation may be
predisposed before birth.

The auditory systems of homosexual women are different than those of
heterosexual women, according to a study done by Dennis McFadden and Edward
Pasanen, both of University of Texas at Austin.

The study was published March 3 in "The Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences."

McFadden, professor for experimental psychology, said they found the inner ears
of homosexual females have undergone "masculinization" caused by a prenatal
effect.

"Their auditory centers have been masculinized, and the presumption is that so
have the sites in the brain that direct sexual preference," he said

Previous research already has established that women have more sensitive
hearing than men, but UT research discovered that the inner ears of homosexual
women worked more like those of men, McFadden said.

"Normal inner ears make sounds under certain circumstances," he said, "and
these sounds are known as otoacoustic emissions or OAEs."

One type of OAE is an echo-like sound that the inner ear makes in response to a
clicking sound, McFadden said.

Microphones were put in ears to record the echoes, and the OAEs of the studied
61 homosexual and bisexual women were significantly weaker than the 57
heterosexual women also tested, McFadden said.

"This is the first evidence of physiological differences we know of in
homosexual/bisexual females and heterosexual females," he said. "But what we
have observed are group differences. It is not possible to tell individually by
looking at ears whether a woman is a lesbian."

The inner ear will serve as a window for prenatal developmental processes and
sexual differentiation, McFadden said.

"Research on the inner ear seems like a bizarre, weird thing to do, but it has
some history," McFadden said. "Studies have been done showing females who have
male twins have OAEs that are more masculine because the female fetus was
exposed to higher-than-normal level of testosterone from the male fetus in the
womb."

He said incidents of homosexuality are not higher in women having male twins
than in other women, but the earlier findings suggest homosexual women also may
have been exposed to higher levels of a testosterone-like substance during some
prenatal development stage.

"It's not enough to masculinize the body, but enough to partially masculinize
the brain and one of its primary sense organs — the inner ear," McFadden
said.

He said research is continuing.

"We're investigating other auditory measures to see if we get similar results,"
he said.

DeAnna Browne, English and journalism junior at Oklahoma State University, said
the research doesn't really matter to her.

"When I figured out I was gay, it didn't occur to me to dwell on what
biological or physical differences I had from straight people," Browne said.
"If (the research) is well backed up and proven, that's great, but it doesn't
matter why to me, it just matters that I am."

She said after she turned 19 or 20 years old she quit trying to find an answer
and accepted who she was.

"There are many factors in my life that could have contributed to my becoming
gay," Browne said. "I could dwell for hours on the factors, but there comes a
time when those factors become secondary to just living life."

Browne said most everyone has heard about the male gay gene, but there were
never any biological answers for lesbianism.

"If the research is correct, then lesbians consistently and constantly seeking
a reason for their homosexuality will have a base by which they can say, 'This
is why I'm gay,'" she said.

Cheryl Rice, history senior, said it took her 34 years to admit she was a
lesbian.

"I didn't want to admit it, because society said I was supposed to get married
to a man and have kids," Rice said. "When I finally did admit it, I felt so
relieved that I didn't even think about a reason why."

She said several people in her family are gay.

"I tend to believe that (homosexuality) is genetic," she said.