It has been two years since the historic judgment by the supreme court of India, decriminalizing the article 377. Since then, there has been groups of people supporting and opposing the judgment. So why was the article 377 decriminalized and why was an article 377 there in the first place?
To get this, we have to first think about the difference between sex and sexuality. Is there even a difference between sex and sexuality?
A Little History of Article 377
So before we dive deeper in the scientific parts regarding the sex and sexuality, let us look into a little bit of history of this specific article.
Section 377, of the Indian Penal Code was introduced by the British in the year 1861. This made the sexual activities that were against the order of the nature, illegal. Over the years, a lot of politicians have accepted the article 377, and have maintained that homosexuality or bisexuality or any other sexuality which was against the order of the nature was a criminal act.
In this article, I will try to give a scientific perspective of whether these different sexuality are in fact against the nature or if they are natural. Also we will look into whether, sexual orientations of a person are because of choice or by nature.
So for the convenience of writing and reading, I will henceforth address just homosexuality and heterosexuality. Once we understand the perspective of those two sexualities, we will be able to draw a line on bisexuality or pansexual or any other sexuality.
Most of the people attribute homosexuality to the environment that a person is brought up. They say that when the environment that a person grows up in becomes toxic, they usually take up homosexuality. But that is far from the truth.
A lot of medical and biological researchers, have done a lot of work on this topic, as to which factor singles out a person to orient a person towards the same sex. And out of these countless researches, people have given countless reasons like there is a genetic factor or there is a gay brain and so on.
But there is one specific reason, I recently saw a video on, that has made me write this article. That video is an episode from the very informative “The Nine months that made you” series from a leading scientific channel. It was an insightful episode which could change your perspective.
I do recommend you to view this series. It gives a very good insight on the growth of a baby right from the first week of pregnancy to the last week.
From this series, I have taken a specific episode to write this article. This episode talks about how the sexual orientation of the baby gets decided.
Now to the interesting part.
Sex and Sexuality
All the babies are born as girls initially. The human fetus is a girl. Then during the coming weeks, based on whether the father’s chromosome is X or Y, the fetus starts producing hormones. Based on the chromosome received from the father whether X or Y, the amount of the hormone called testosterone produced varies. This hormone actually decides whether the fetus is a boy or a girl.
This is where the nature plays its part in deciding the sexuality of the baby. The sex and sexuality of the baby are not determined in the same week. Initially, based on the amount of testosterone produced, the ovaries formed in the fetus will either stay and the baby is born a girl or the ovaries will, develop and descend as testis and the baby is born a boy.
If more amounts of the testosterone hormone is produced, the ovaries will develop into testis and a boy fetus is developed and if the amount of testosterone is lesser, then the ovaries will stay and the girl fetus stays into a girl fetus. This is what we call as the sex of a person
Now coming back to the hormones, as I had earlier mentioned, will now decide the sexuality of the baby. After the hormones decide the sex of the baby, that is after a week or two of the initiation of the development of either the male or female reproductive organs, the hormones now take a trip towards the brain.
Just similar to how the hormones changed the reproductive organs of the baby, the hormones will make a change in the brain. This change will then decide the sexuality of the baby. Normally, we would expect the brains to accept the same amount of the testosterone as was accepted by the body.
That is where the nature plays the trick. The brain may or may not accept the same amount of hormones accepted by the body.
Sometimes, the brain may accept more testosterone than the amount accepted by the body or it may accept lesser amounts of testosterone than the body. So how does this affect the sexuality of the baby?
The more the brain accepts the testosterone, the baby would have a sexual orientation towards a woman. The lesser the brain accepts the testosterone, the baby would have a sexual orientation towards a man.
Now that we know the difference between sex and sexuality, it is time to look at homosexuality through this difference.
Homosexuality through the difference between sex and sexuality
Suppose the body accepts more testosterone, and the brain accepts lesser amounts of the hormone, the baby born would be a boy, with a sexual inclination towards men, thus making the boy as Gay. Similarly if the body accepts lesser amounts of the hormone and brain accepts more of the hormone, the baby will be a girl with a sexual inclination towards women, thus making the girl as Lesbian.
Why would the brain accept lesser or more of the testosterone? Because that is what nature is. It is unpredictable.
This just comes back circling to the initial thought process. Is homosexuality really against the order of the nature? The answer is no. It is quite natural for people to be naturally homosexual.
In fact it is quite natural thing to happen. Even animals show homosexuality. Not one species of animals has been found which does not show homosexuality.
Now it is time for us to think are humans any different from animals? Science say humans are animals. We just developed an extra sense that made us different from other animals. But deep down, we are still animals.
The next time someone should say to you, that homosexuality is wrong and is a crime, please do educate them. And finally, it is a matter of privacy. What people do behind closed doors should not matter to anyone else on the other side of the door.
By all means, let us accept the judgment for our fellow brothers and sisters and welcome them wholeheartedly into this society.
We would love to know what you people think of this sex and sexuality article. Please do comment your views.
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