by Simon LeVay

About the author: Simon LeVay, a neurobiologist, has authored several books, including The Science of Sex and Queer Science. In 1991, LeVay claimed to have found a link between brain structure and homosexuality.

Sexual orientation, like any other durable aspect of our mental lives, must have some structural or chemical representation within the brain, for it survives the temporary extinction of all brain activity (as when the brain is cooled to near-freezing for certain surgical procedures). In that sense, sexual orientation must be “biological”—as must our preference for one soccer team over another, which also survives brain cooling. The question, though, is whether one can best understand how some people end up gay, some straight, and some bisexual by looking for these brain representations and how they develop. In the case of soccer...