Sex Researchers:

Background

Simon LeVay is a neuroanatomist, a writer and a gay activist born in England in1943. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in natural sciences at the University of Cambridge (1966), his master’s degree in neuroanatomy at the University of Gottingen (1971) and was a postdoctoral research fellow from 1972-74 at Harvard Medical School. He is the founder of West Hollywood Institute of Gay and Lesbian Education. Levay has coauthored several books and papers on various subjects such as Parkinson’s disease, earthquakes and extraterrestrial life.

Research

LeVay was inspired to research into the determinants of a person’s sexual orientation after the findings of a study by Roger Gorski and Laura Allen in 1989. They had studied the differences in male and female brains of rats for years and concluded that the third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus (INAH3), a tiny cell cluster in the brain, in humans was twice as large in men as in women.
He reasoned that such differences might also show between the INAH3 in straight and gay men. He examined the hypothalamic tissue from 19 gay men (all of whom had died of AIDS), 16 heterosexual men (6 of whom had died of AIDS) and 6 women of unknown sexual orientation. He found that INAG3 was two to three times larger in heterosexual men than in gay men. Gay men’s cell clusters were in the same size range as that of women. He therefore concluded that the basic shape of a person’s sexual orientation was biological and that the process was mediated by prenatal hormones and probably also by genes.

Commentary

LeVay’s view disagreed with that of earlier theories such as the Psychoanalytic theory (family dynamics influence a child’s ultimate sexual orientation) and Behaviorist theory (gender traits emerge from a conscious or unconscious “training regimen” imposed by parents, teachers and society in general).
Critics say his biological evidence is flawed and inconclusive. His controls were not adequate since diseases such as AIDS can affect the size of the hypothalamic tissue. Also there are many subtle shades of human sexuality to group them into a gay and straight dichotomy: how does he account for sexual behaviors that change over time in different circumstances.

Books and Awards

1. LeVay, S. (1993). The sexual brain. Cambridge: MIT Press. Also published in French (Flammarion), German (Spektrum), Spanish (Alianza), Italian (Laterza), Dutch (Bert Bakker), Japanese, Greek (Sunalma), and Portuguese (Institute Piaget) translations.

2. LeVay, S., and Nonas, E. (1995). City of friends: A portrait of the gay and lesbian community in America. Cambridge: MIT Press.

3. LeVay, S. (1996). Queer science: The use and abuse of research into homosexuality. Cambridge: MIT Press. Also published in Japanese (Keiso Shobo) translation.

4. LeVay, S., and Valente, S.M. (2002) Human sexuality. Sunderland: Sinauer Associates (distributed by Bedford, Freeman, Worth Publishers).

Awards received by him include:

1976-82 - Research Career Development Award, National Institute of Health

1993 - Community Service Award, Southern California Physicians for Human Rights.

1993, Howard Brown, Award, Christopher Street West

References

Andriette, B. (2004, February). Sex on the brain: Talking with Simon Levay. The Guide. Retrieved Oct 10, 2004 from http://www.guidemag.com/contents/index.cfm?ID=227

Finn, R. (1996, January 8). A “long tradition:” The biological basis of sexual orientation is a research area that is coming out of the closet. The Scientist 10(1). Retrieved Oct 10, 2004 from http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1996/jan/biodef_960108.html

Nimmons, D. (1994, March). Sex and the brain, Discover Archives. Retrieved Oct 10, 2004 from http://cas.bellarmine.edu/tietjen/Human%20Nature%205%201999/sex_and_the_brain_by_david_nimmo.htm

Roughgarden, J. (n.d.). Making connections regarding psychologist Simon LeVay. Retrieved Oct 10, 2004 from http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Bailey/Joan-re-LeVay.html

Simon LeVay’s Homepage. Retrieved Oct 10, 2004 from http://hometown.aol.com/slevay/