Quote:Scientists have come up with a way to turn 'straight' rats 'gay' by using happy-making chemicals.


A group of researchers in Mexico have been working for four years to come up with the best way of making rats gay with their experiments.


Using mind-altering drugs, they stimulated the male rats' brains to make them feel good when they were put together.


They also covered the rats with almond oil which they had made them associate with sex.


The result was that male rats whose brain chemistry they had played with using feel-good chemicals started to associate gay rat sex with pleasure.


And then when the drugs were taken away, they would prefer only having sex with another male rat than with a female rat.


The researchers say they were successful in 'turning' rats gay as they showed same-sex behavior for days and even weeks after the last injection of drugs.


'The results indicate that putative heterosexual adult male rats can readily develop a conditioned same-sex socio/sexual partner preference by cohabiting with another male under the effects of [these chemicals],' they concluded.


The study, however, is flawed in two ways.


First, the ethics of using animals in research to achieve this sort of result of highly questionable. Some rats already engage in same-sex behavior, so it is arguably unnecessary.


And second, while it's true rats do share most of our DNA, they are obviously not the same as humans.


It would be highly illegal and even less ethical to play with human brains in the same way, meaning this test has no immediate relevance to our own sexuality.


The study was published in this month's Behavioral Brain Research.

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/scientists-turn-straight-rats-gay-using-brain-altering-drugs230415

I saw a guy turn a gerbil gay once.

What's going to happen when the conversion therapy people get a hold of this?

Yeah, but doesn't it say

the article Wrote:The researchers say they were successful in 'turning' rats gay as they showed same-sex behavior for days and even weeks after the last injection of drugs.

so the effects wore off either way?

Almond oil ????????


Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Brace yourselves, gorcery stores, vorlon is coming

I can see why its relevance is limited. There are no gay rats. There were probably no gay people either until we recognized an element of personal identity through the medium of culture.

When the article claims that "some rats already engage in same-sex behavior", do you not consider that gay within this context?

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Sorry, I could pose that question better- Are you differentiating between gay and all that implies (love, relationships, monogamy, etc.), and "engaging in same-sex behavior"?

(April 23, 2015 at 12:18 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: What's going to happen when the conversion therapy people get a hold of this?

The same thing they do whenever anything that can be spun to confirm what they already believe gets into their hands. It's not like a lack of scientific evidence has ever stopped them trying to look scientific before.

(April 23, 2015 at 11:14 pm)Exian Wrote: When the article claims that "some rats already engage in same-sex behavior", do you not consider that gay within this context?

Sorry, I could pose that question better- Are you differentiating between gay and all that implies (love, relationships, monogamy, etc.), and "engaging in same-sex behavior"?

When two guys loved each other, they just, well, loved each other. Whether for a long time or just a day. Simple. Today, we have to classify by what they are  instead of what they are feeling and doing. Useful for research, but it does put people and their emotions into little boxes. I'm not a rat, but I imagine I would be irritated if I were getting injected and handled and all that stuff.  

(April 24, 2015 at 12:03 am)Esquilax Wrote:

(April 23, 2015 at 12:18 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: What's going to happen when the conversion therapy people get a hold of this?

The same thing they do whenever anything ... can be spun...

...for cash. Conversion therapy is a quack and I wish the profession would step on it.