Gay Guy Has Stroke, Goes Straight

Warren Throckmorton mentioned this on his blog, and it is a rather curious case. Remember we recently talked about a case where someone's epileptic seizures caused them to believe they were the opposite gender. Of course that suggests that our sense of what sex we are is a physiological thing, there is a part of the brain that determines it, and since the modal structure of the brain is genetically determined, gender identity is, at least partly, genetic.

The anti-gay nuts love to say "there is no gay gene," as if to imply that gay people choose, when they hit puberty or before, to behave in a way that gets them beaten up, badmouthed, and discriminated against for life. It's a plausible hypothesis to a certain kind of mind, apparently.

But look at this case. A gay guy has a stroke, and all of a sudden he's straight. From the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences:

The patient, a 57-year-old right-handed man, sustained his first cerebral vascular accident in the right middle cerebral artery region at the age of 45, which resulted in right-sided hemiparesis that resolved completely within 3 months. He continued to run his private business successfully while living with his mother.

The patient lost his father in early childhood. There was no evidence of an emotional or conduct disorder during school years, and the patient eventually obtained his university degree. He continued to manage his successful practice until he sustained the second cerebral vascular accident in the left middle cerebral artery region at age 53.

The patient became aware of his homosexual orientation in his early teens and had several gay partners. He suffered a major depressive episode at age 26 that resolved within a few months. He also had a diagnosis of excessive harmful use of alcohol, but there was no evidence of dependence.

The patient started complaining of his changed personality and heterosexual orientation 6 months after his second stroke. At the same time he complained of excessive mood swings and changed interests. He became preoccupied with photography and had a successful photographic exhibition a year after his second stroke. His sexual orientation remained heterosexual 4 years following the second stroke, and he preferred to describe himself as bisexual because of his previous homosexual orientation. Altered Sexual Orientation Following Dominant Hemisphere Infract

Well, first of all, the doctors reading this can confirm, but I think the word is "Infarct," not "Infract." Also, the "distant father" references in the text (there are a couple of them) are unnecessary references to a pop-psych theory that has no support or credibility. Well, whatever, we'll assume the authors are experts on strokes, not sexual orientation.

So the guy was gay all his life, he had a stroke at forty-five and recovered, he was all right; he had another stroke at fifty-three and pretty soon he "started complaining" that he was straight. Can you imagine? All his life he's lived one way, by his fifties he's pretty well comfortable with who he is, he walks the walk and talks the talk, his friends all know him as a gay man, and all of a sudden it doesn't make sense any more. Would that be weird, or what?

The article says:

It is unlikely that his psychological reaction to his first and/or second stroke could explain his altered sexual orientation, and his sexuality was accepted by his social network and family members.

Our gay readers will note the irony of brain damage causing heterosexuality.

This article only mentions that an "organic process within the left middle cerebral artery region is the cause of his altered sexual orientation." It seems to me it would be of theoretical interest to know exactly what regions were affected by the event. Is there a place in the brain that determines sexual orientation? We'd like to know about that.