We almost always boil the questions of human behavior down to “Is it in the genes, or is it conditioned by society?” This is the common ‘nature-nurture’ debate. We seldom pause to think that there is a third way that human behavior can be explained: what happens in the womb between conception and birth.
Here’s a simple example: cocaine babies. Wikipedia describes the effects as
Even more striking was the notorious ‘Thalidomide scandal’ back in the 1950s, in which some 10,000 babies were born with severe deformities due to the administration of the drug thalidomide to pregnant mothers. That was neither ‘nature’ nor ‘nurture’.
Thalidomide baby – neither nature (genes) nor nurture (environment)
I don’t think the effects of fetal brain chemistry during pregnancy have been adequately studied. This is undoubtedly because of our bias towards ‘nature-nurture’ thinking. ‘Nature-womb-nurture’ might be a better way of looking at it.
I believe that a lot of LGBTQ behavior can be linked to such changes in brain chemistry during pregnancy. While the body has been physically determined by the genes at conception, to be, say, male, the developing brain could conceivably turn out to have female characteristics, especially sexual orientation.
Almost all LGBTQ people will aver that they have felt that way as far back as they can remember. They do not ‘choose’ to be gay or transgender; that’s just the way they are.
For years, scientists have been searching for a ‘gay gene’, or at least some combination of genes that lead to LGBTQ behavior, but they have always come up empty handed. That is why so many binary-biased people claim, “See, if it isn’t genetic, it must be chosen or at least alterable behavior.”
There has been some research on the effect of brain chemistry on sexual orientation, and it supports pretty much what I have been saying. Here is an excerpt from an article from scitechdaily.com called Homosexuality Might Develop in the Womb Due to Epigenetic Changes
According to a newly released hypothesis, homosexuality might not lie in DNA itself. Instead, as an embryo develops, sex-related genes are turned on and off in response to fluctuating levels of hormones in the womb, produced by both mother and child. This benefits the unborn child, however if these epigenetic changes persist once the child is born, and has children of its own, some of these offspring may be homosexual.
The Wikipedia take on this is:
The hormonal theory of sexuality holds that, just as exposure to certain hormones plays a role in fetal sex differentiation, such exposure also influences the sexual orientation that emerges later in the individual. Prenatal hormones may be seen as the primary determinant of adult sexual orientation, or a co-factor.
An endocrinology study by Garcia-Falgueras and Swaab postulated that “In humans, the main mechanism responsible of [sic] sexual identity and orientation involves a direct effect of testosterone on the developing brain.”
This theory explains how many individuals experience gender dysphoria: their biological sex (determined by their genes at conception) does not match their gender (determined within their brain during pregnancy).
It follows that it may even be possible to determine the gender (not sex) of a fetus by looking at its brain chemistry, and by considering what chemical changes in the mother might have led to their gender.
Blood test to determine the gender of the baby? Why not? (from shrewdmommy.com)
I truly wish that people and countries around the world would start to appreciate that LGBTQ is not a choice – that’s the way people are born. When a country like Uganda executes homosexuals as common criminals, I weep. That’s like executing cocaine babies. Many past cultures have executed left-handed babies (origin of the word ‘sinister’).
The more we turn towards ‘nature-womb-nurture’ thinking, the more we will appreciate that there may be many, many more influences on human behavior that occur during that nine-month stay inside the mother, whose chemistry is constantly changing.