Dr NE Whitehead, PhD (research scientist), is the author of the book My Genes Made Me Do It - Homosexuality and the Scientific Evidence, and over 150 published scientific papers.
The 1st edition of the book in 2000 was based on an exhaustive review of thousands of scientific research papers and publications. This 6th and latest edition (2020) takes account of research undertaken between 2000 - 2017. We found the more recent the research the more it strengthened the book's original conclusions.
My Genes Made Me Do It (2016) - the title is facetious - takes a position based on an objective, orthodox and extremely comprehensive 20+-year review - undertaken with a high level of integrity - of more than 10,000 scientific papers and publications on homosexuality. Our conclusions are the only ones possible having reviewed such a body of evidence: homosexuality is overwhelmingly environmental. Any biological contribution to homosexuality is weak and indirect.
Of course homosexuality is partly genetic, but so is throwing a ball, because without genes we cannot act in the environment. The genetic component in throwing the ball doesn't mean we are compelled to throw the ball. In other words, nothing about our genes - or biological makeup - compels homosexuality.
The homosexual orientation is not biologically innate or fixed. There are many former homosexuals around. Genetic homosexuality has been a convenient untruth promoted by gay activism for decades, but the burden of proof is now squarely in the court of those who maintain gays cannot change. In view of the evidence this is either an ignorant or blatantly dishonest position.
We are no-one's enemy but our research has run headlong into opposition from many quarters, particularly from the mental health profession, which has increasingly followed the lead of the American Psychological Association, which - following the recommendations of its gay and lesbian caucus - has instructed for years that to change homosexual orientation is to do harm. The APA needs to seriously ask itself if it is not intentionally mispresenting the science and there are a few small signs that it is now beginning to listen to scientific facts. Our own view - after years of research and talking to many people with unwanted homosexuality - is that to leave someone in this situation without help is an abdication of care, like making sure that a patient with a broken leg never recovers in case the process of healing harms him. In some quarters we have been called perpetrators of "hate science."
We are:
Neil Whitehead: PhD in biochemistry, 1971, New Zealand, employed as a scientist with the NZ Govt (24 years), the United Nations (4 years), and more recently as a scientific research consultant. Dr Whitehead has lived and worked in New Zealand, the United States, France, Japan and other countries.
Briar Whitehead, B.A; Dip J., Journalist, writer, internationally published author, and editor of My Genes Made Me Do It!
Why did we take this on?
We found ourselves in the late 1980s with the training and skills to understand and unravel the scientific literature at a time when few people understood homosexuality and activists were pressing for gay rights and looking for any evidence they could to support their campaign. As we continued our research the societal view developed and prevailed that people were born that way and could not change - a view, not only promulgated by the American Psychological Association but also partly informed by an intense decades-long focus on the human genome and a search for links between genes and human diseases and behaviours. Many gay researchers turned their research grants into a search for links between genes and homosexuality and the media and gay activism turned their fumbling attempts into misleading global headlines that informed the drive for gay rights and protections. But genetic and biological innateness was never proved and now the scientific facts are impossible to refute. No-one is born gay and no one has to stay gay. But in the meantime the misinformation that same-sex orientation is intrinsic has made deep and wide inroads in Western institutions which have largely become hostile to contrary views based on established facts.
Although the debate has now moved on - or has it? - to rights of self-determination, self-expression, and identity politics, many people remain confused or misinformed about the origins of homosexuality and unsure where to turn for unbiased information.
We hope these research findings will be elucidating. They have tended to be used by people wanting to change their orientation because they show without doubt that the homosexual orientation is not biologically imprinted or unchangeable.