If being gay hasn't been concluded to be genetically based, why does it feel so permanent and ingrained?
You might rephrase the question: If being gay hasn't been concluded to be heritable, why does it feel so permanent and ingrained?Because what we once thought of as being genetically determined has turned out to have at least three influences, maybe more: Genetics (DNA/genes), Epigenetics (which genes are expressed, perhaps how their expressed), and Exogenetics (developmental influences in utero).Then you might rephrase the question again: If being gay hasn't been concluded to be heritable yet, why does it feel so permanent and ingrained?(I’m sorry for the awkward phrasing, best I can do on short notice)Because we’re really at the very beginning of understanding heritability, it is far far more complex than we thought after the discovery of the DNA molecule and its relation to genes.Then again the answer involves the brain/mind and what it means in structural/functional terms when you say “gay”, or “permanent”, or “ingrained”. Again, we’re at the very beginning, so much so that we really can’t even frame a question that might give you an honest answer.So, I’m terribly sorry, your question doesn’t exist at the moment. I truly wish it did, because whatever the answer would be for sexuality, I suspect it would similar to the answer for transgender, which, being same, I am curious about.
Have you been considered both ugly and beautiful at different times in your life? How has the way people treat you changed?
Take a gander at this gem.This was me in middle school. Thankfully, this photo makes me laugh now, I was just a little kid, but at the time I was mortified. I had such a poor sense of self, even back then.Kids are cruel. They kinda just blurt out what ever it is they want to say, and let me just tell you they don’t hold anything back! I was teased and isolated because of the way I looked. Girls just seemed to feel the need to pick on me and guys would call me fat. One teacher made the girls hang out with me, but I think the worst was when my teacher would sit with me at lunch out of pity . . . good grief!Just two years laterThe transition from 8th grade to high school brought many changes. I switched schools and decided I wasn't going to get picked on. Then I got attention in all the wrong ways.I will never call myself beautiful, but I will say many people who knew me in middle school couldn't believe it was me when I visited for a few parties. Suddenly they were all nice, well, the girls who had bullied me were still snobs, but who really cares.Even though I’ve changed physically, people haven’t. They are just as mean, just not to your face. A lot of people will use you, and finding someone to trust is an awfully hard thing.People don’t want to hear that attractive people have problems. It hurts me when I hear that being said because no matter what, we’re all just people who struggle with their own issues.For example, I have an eating disorder (among others things) and around the time the above picture was taken I became so ill that I could not return to school for my junior or senior year.I have an eating disorder because regardless of what I look like now, I still have wounds from things that happened before. I’m still that little girl who eats alone at lunch, and I’m still suffering from all those years of being terrified of my peers.