Oh, right. I meant to post about this yesterday.

Scientific American's Study Says Brains of Gay Men and Women Are Similar:

The team next used PET (positron emission tomography) scans to measure the blood flow to the amygdala, that part of the brain controlling emotion, fear and aggression. The images showed how the amygdala connects to other parts of the brain, giving them clues as to how this might influence behavior. They scanned subjects' brains when they at rest and did not show them photos or introduce other behavior that might have been learned.

They found that in gay men and women, the blood flowed to areas involved in fear and anxiety, whereas in straight men and lesbians it tended to flow to pockets linked to aggression.

Robert Epstein, emeritus director of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies in Concord, Mass., agrees that the study offers compelling evidence that sexual orientation is a biologically fixed characteristic. But he cautions that these findings may vary in different people whose sexual orientation is not that clear-cut, which his own research shows includes a majority of the population.

I am not at all sure how I feel about this. My general opinion on finding a biological basis for sexuality is that while it would be really, really awesome scientifically, in the end it would do no good. This article exemplifies a lot of the problems that arise -- in just this one quote, I can see extrapolations in which lesbians could be labeled 'masculine' and 'aggressive', while gay men are 'fearful' and 'effeminate'.

Yet, at the same time it makes me wonder what they'd find in my brain -- after all, I fit into that last category of 'people whose sexual orientation is not that clear-cut' -- I guess it's the scientist in me.

But this is one place in which I think science edges pretty close to touching on topics that could become morally dangerous if the general public became aware of them. I'd like to think that people wouldn't want to use information like this to make sure they had straight children, or to 'fix' gayness... but people are still killed for their sexual orientation and prevented from marrying the people they love.

Sometimes I wonder if I should go into scientific ethics rather than journalism, since my brain never, EVER lets this stuff go. >.>


ETA: This article by National Geographic is much better written and I think if I'd read it first, it wouldn't have made me quite so worried about the ethics part (or maybe it would have, idk). Thanks to sporkyadrasteia for pointing it out.

SDLFKJLSGDFLHGFDKJHJSD I AM SO SICK OF HAVING TO AVOID MY F-LIST TO PREVENT GETTING SPOILED.

STOP IT WITH THE SPOILERY ICONS AND THE PUTTING REACTIONS OUTSIDE OF LJ-CUTS, F-LIST. PLEASE. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE AN LJ-CUT, LEARN.

I JUST SPENT A LOT OF TIME WAITING FOR THE FINALE AND GETTING ALMOST SPOILED AND I AM NOTNOTNOT HAPPY. AT ALL. NO, THAT IS NOT A SPOILER, I'M UNHAPPY WITH THE SPOILERS.

I AM SO FUCKING TEMPTED TO CUT EVERYONE WITH THE BAD SPOILERS AND FILTER THE ONES THAT AREN'T QUITE AS BAD. IF I CUT YOU FROM MY F-LIST, THAT IS WHY.

JUST LEARN SOME FUCKING MANNERS AND BE COURTEOUS ENOUGH NOT TO RUIN IT FOR EVERYONE ELSE. *STABS THINGS*


on a side note, i have downloaded the finale and am watching it for the second time tonight. if you want to talk to me about it i am on AIM/Y!M/MSN NVM, forget it, I'm exhausted and pissy and you probably want to talk to me about as much as I want to stay awake.

Just in case... THERE MAY BE SPOILERS FOR 3x16 IN THE COMMENTS. That's how you do it, bitches.

I made a list of upset things earlier but I'm feeling fairly optimistic at the moment. I feel like I whine at my f-list a lot and never really tell you much, but that's just sort of the way I cope with things; I don't usually like bitching about my problems, I just like being around awesome people to cheer me up. And my f-list is fantastic at that. But you can tell me to stop whinging if I'm getting on your nerves, because I annoy myself too.

ANYWHO.

So, some of you may have heard me talk about Tamar; she's the daughter of my parents' close friends and I've basically known her (and her little sister) as long as she was born. We see them so often that they're really practically family: I guess the universe decided that since I have one awesome sibling, I have to have a couple of annoying ones to balance it out.

That's mean, and I don't mean to offend Tamar, but she IS annoying in a little kid sort of way. She has an entirely different personality from me: she's more the "popular" girl, who's already having sex (at thirteen! and younger!), likes makeup and dressing up and stuff and I'm just... well. I can be girly, but I'm really just a dorky tomboy.

It sort of surprised me, then, that Tamar invited me to go to a meeting of a group called LOUD (i've forgotten what that stands for, but it was something about love and diversity) at a center in Berkeley that's been really big on queer activism. I agreed to go and... was surprised to really find it enjoyable. Tamar was one of the younger people there and liked to say things that I found annoying like "Am I the only straight person here?" and "Wait, so how many people here are Latino?" (but everyone else there loves her to death, for some reason I can't quite fathom; she was getting on my nerves even more than usual.)

The main thing that irritated me was when she got to asking people how they defined themselves, I said "pansexual" and she said "eewwww, that means you like inanimate objects!" Which was uncomfortable, because I had to explain how I defined it and... I should really just go by people-sexual. Sigh.

On the other hand, I really liked the other people there. I felt comfortable, and I got to talk about what's been going on with me, so I'm considering going back. They do fun things, and I could really use a support group of sorts.

Also, I found my water bottle (it's only been TWO FUCKING WEEKS)!!! So that's another happy thing.

SUPERNATURAL IN TWO HOURS!!!!! + download time, but still. XP