Monday, January 18, 2010

Can Homosexuality kill itself ?

I've been hooked onto evolution and natural selection and genetics after reading "The Selfish Gene". Its enlightening and a bit depressing at the same time. Once you are done with the book, if you really get the implications of the ideas in the book, I am sure you'll think differently about everything in the world around you.

Once can see that Homosexuality is getting a lot of attention these days. Many of us are disgusted by the idea, some couldn't care less, some are neutral, some think its as normal as heterosexuality and some think its a disease(Ram Dev Baba ?) which can be cured. When you see two males/2 females holding hands or giving some indications of PDA(Public Display of Affection), you do tend to have a few observers jokingly(if not seriously) utter the slangs "homo" or "lesbo" or "gay" or "fag", at-least in their minds.

The idea doesn't disgust me as such. Male to male, may be a little bit odd, but as a guy, I can never be disgusted by the idea of 2 girls making out :D . This of-course comes from somebody who is/thinks heterosexual. I can never know what "homosexual" attraction is like and I am sure i don't want to know.

If you think from a slightly different POV, the normal act of heterosexual human reproduction itself is quite weird. Here are two people who claim/think they "love" each other, and what is the ultimate expression of their love (often called "making love") ? => one individual(the male) repeatedly sticks/stabs a temporarily blood inflated rod like extension into the opening of the another individual of a different type (female), in an attempt to deposit these tiny swimmers into the female, out of which ONE(in most normal cases) gets to parasite the female for the next 9 months, to produce another individual will do the exact same thing with an other individual when they are ready. And because the whole process is so so pleasurable(almost every time to the male), the male wishes to do it(and does it) very often, even when he doesn't want his swimmers to turn into small, mutated clones of himself.

Now, contrast that with one individual(male) doing the same thing with an individual of the same type(male). But, this time its a completely different hole, the one that disposes waste from their body, coz the males don't have any other. It certainly looks like a deviation from the "normal" stabbing process in the sense that the intent is only pleasure and not to release swimmers and hook them onto the other individual.

Of course, Sexual reproduction is not the only way to reproduce. There are millions of organisms on earth who still survive beautifully with asexual reproduction(cloning, fission) from tiny bacterias to ants to some plants. We do it probably because the method of reproduction of our ancestors(way way before) was itself under the pressure of natural selection. Sexual reproduction might have helped our ancestors survive better. The clear distinction that we think we now have between males and females might have been absent in the early times. Richard Dawkins has explained this beautifully in "The Selfish Gene".

Back to Homosexuality. Its currently known that sexual attraction is not as black and white as homo or hetero. Even bi-sexual, bi- curious isn't quite right. Its more like a percentage. Most "normal" ppl are largely attracted to the opposite sex(>90%) . Bisexuals are 50%-50% and on the other side of the spectrum , we've got homosexuals (e.g 90%-10%)

Now, imagine the first few generations when homosexuality just arrives at the scene in the form of some early mutations. After a few generations, when the percentage(of homosexual attraction) is significant enough, individuals will be first confused(since heterosexuality is what is all around them). Some might communicate it to others, most will be suppressed, laughed at, or even punished. So, these individuals, with non-negligible amounts of homosexual attraction live(or try to) their lives as false heteros. They are capable of reproduction since they are still attracted to the opposite sex or at least are able to engage in the act of sexual intercourse as per the demands of the time. Now, there wont be any selection pressure against these genes (that increase the attraction towards the same sex) since they are not detrimental to survival. These genes will be passed on generation after generation. In some generations, they will be switched off, but they might be suddenly activated in the next(like any other gene). Somewhere down the line, the number of people reporting homosexual attraction would be large enough for orthodox heterosexual leaders/influential people to declare homosexuality as an abomination or may be even a crime with death as punishment. Hence, it is suppressed even more and homosexuals(with varying degrees of attraction to the same sex) continue to reproduce heterosexually and pass on their genes.

Now, fast forward to present when homosexuality is slowly getting accepted, albeit with a lot of resistance. Imagine that, after a few generations, everybody(almost) learns to accept homosexuality without any attached social stigma. It becomes normal to be homosexual. So, the homosexuals in that generation wont pass on their genes to the next(Assuming we don't figure out a way for homosexuals to reproduce). Whenever the suppressed genes become active in any future generation, those individual pair up with their kind and end the run of their genes. So, the more the people come out of the closet, the lesser the chances of them passing on their genes(including the homosexual genes) to the next generation and slowly, the prevalence of homosexuality will probably reduce considerably. It might return, but again will be wiped out as long as it is accepted and as long as the individuals cant reproduce.

So, for the people who wanna get rid of Homosexuality(for whatever reasons), the best way is to encourage more and more homosexuals to come out of the closet and live the way they want to live.

Now, the assumption that i make is that Homosexuality is passed on via genes. But, I think its probably a safe one, because it certainly isn't memetic.

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