THE ‘FEMININE’ GAY BRAIN

New scientific research suggests that the brains of homosexuals have structural differences to those of ‘straight’ people of the same gender, providing further evidence that sexual preference is caused by nature, not nurture.

After investigating brain-scans of 90 volunteers, scientists at the Stockholm Brain Institute have noticed a trend in the functional and structural differences between homosexual and heterosexual brains.

While straight men tend to have asymmetrical brains, with the right hemisphere being slightly larger than the left, the study showed that homosexual men tend to have symmetrical brains, similar to those of straight women.

Another shared characteristic between gay men and heterosexual women is the two groups’ powerful response to sex hormones released in male sweat.

Lesbians also provide weight to this theory, exhibiting an attribute usually associated with the male brain. A lower proportion of grey matter (the cells that process signals from the senses), as found in scans of heterosexual men, was also evident among the lesbian test subjects.

The research suggests sexual orientation is largely programmed into people early in life, but the question remains as to whether or not these similarities are genetic or developed in the womb.

While the patterns have not been proved to determine sexuality, the team now plans to carry out a study of newborn babies to investigate whether the trends can be used to predict future sexual orientation.