Mutant Planet

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How Many U.S. Americans Aren't Heterosexual?

^^That is probably a better title for the concept behind the original story, but anyhow... I digress.

Read this article first:

Study Asks How Many Americans Are Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender

And here are a few thoughts concerning this discussion.

According to Alfred Kinsey's 1948 report on the Sexuality of the Human Male, he puts the number at 10%. This was largely the generic figure held throughout most of the rest of the century. Now, however, according to a Gallup poll, about 70% of Americans now believe that number is as high as 25%. Of course, statistically speaking, that it nigh unto impossible (meaning 1 in every 4 people is GLBT).

The problems inherent in the study are many, mainly: The UCLA study presupposes that the people the polled were A) willing to admit to any sort of non-traditional sexual desire or practice; B) largely representative of the actual ratio between GLBTQ and strictly heterosexual-identifying people. Also, women are more likely than men to have same-gender attraction, and this is also a trend likely reflected in the data: whereas 6-8% of all men may identify as GLBTQ, it jumps to between 11-13% for women. 

Furthermore, many women that ID as hetero admit to having had feelings of same-gender attraction, and it is likely that as many as 40% of all women have had such desire. (For an in-depth look at why this stimulation/behavior occurs in adult women, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wi​ki/Women_who_have_sex_with​_women) This is a largely a hormonal phenomenon (and largely unsurprising), as estrogen and testosterone levels vary widely among adults, and in specific concentrations play a significant part in the individual's perception of their own sexual impulses, as well as social, religious, and emotional values.

Women are likely to develop a psycho-sexual relationship with other women very, very easily. For instance, among groups of women, after having been grouped together for some time, many may begin to menstruate at the same time, in regular intervals, due to the exchange in testosterone and estrogen levels between the women. In short, they are wired to become emotionally and physically stimulated by both men and women, and this is largely a anachronistic feature of reproductive necessity in order to propagate the species and assure its continued genetic survival. As a rule, women find strength, comfort, and understanding among female compatriots. The likelihood is that women band together to survive more effectively, efficiently, and affluently, as well as to increase the quality of childcare by closely sharing the physical as well as emotional duties with close female friends. It is then small wonder that these emotional and psycho-sexual relationships may transcend into physical as well as emotional sexual desire (or that they are often acted upon).

Strangely enough, the determination of human sexuality and of one's own sexual identity are largely disconnected from the person's libido, or sex drive. Though these hormones (testosterone and estrogen) play a significant role in sexual attraction, they do not get the real credit for the determination of sexual identity, as this ID is determined from a host of physical, emotional, and psycho-social factors, as well as socio-cultural ones.

In general, the trends of less traditional human sexuality have curved sharply upward after the mainstreaming and public acceptance of the discourse concerning bi/homo/trans sexualities, and only in the last decade have we been able and willing to ask ourselves pertinent questions about human sexuality on a credible scientific basis.

Still, it makes you think. Truth be told, the whole of human sexuality is a continuum, the parameters of which continue to grow and mold to fit our collective culture. It is also more than simply a biological phenomenon, and to try to narrow any one cause is like saying the only thing that makes a pizza a pizza is to have pepperoni on it.

An interesting thought is that as secular humanism continues to define the at-large philosophical theory of the young'uns, the broad acceptance of various forms of human sexuality will continue to spurn the opportunity for the human organism to be able and willing to allow the general populous to get freaky however they damn well please (as long as it doesn't really hurt anybody). The absence of a real need as a species for the majority of the population to reproduce in order to secure the continuation of said species, as well as the socio-cultural factors enumerated above, will likely continue to contribute to the rise in diverse human sexualities.

Boost Your Immune System: Breed With An Extinct Human Species

Boost your Immune System: Breed with an Extinct Human Species

via Anthropology.net

Last week at the Royal Society in London, research was presented suggesting that Neandertals not only interbred with H. sapiens sapiens, but that their genes were helpful to modern people moving out of Africa.

This pioneering study was led by Peter Parham of Stanford University, and was only possible after the draft genome of H. neanderthalensis was published. The researchers looked at human leukocyte antigens (HLAs), genes important to the functioning of the immune system.

Different regions of the world are known to have unique HLAs, because different variations create specific disease resistances. It would have been advantageous for the earliest modern humans to breed with a species (or subspecies) already adapted to living in a different climate. Moderns could have picked up helpful genes that were already in existence from Neandertal populations, which would have possibly allowed their populations to expand more rapidly. Why wait for random mutation when you can interbreed with a people already successfully adapted to an area?

Neandertal Child Reconstruction

While only approximately 6% of the modern European genome was contributed from earlier hominins, around half of specific HLAs can be attributed to these earlier forms of people. As a form of further substantiation, Europeans have HLA variations present within the Neandertal genome not found in Africans. Interestingly, Asian populations today also have a variation not present anywhere else, which could indicate Denisovan (mystery Siberian hominin) admixture.

As if the draft sequence showing interbreeding was not enough last year– this study has raised the bar on the type of information we can hope to glean from looking at ancient DNA. There was a time when archaeology and anatomy were the only windows we had into our ancestral relatives. It will be exciting to see what is uncovered next.

By Matthew Magnani