There is an astonishing article in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurology. Its title is “Altered Sexual Orientation Following Dominant Hemisphere Infarct.” (An infarct is dead tissue caused by a lack of blood supply.) The article gives the case history of a happily homosexual man who, after this “cerebral accident,” underwent a complete reversal in sexual orientation.
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… [After his recovery, he was fine] until he sustained the second cerebral vascular accident in the left middle cerebral artery region at age 53.
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… 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.
Our patient was aware of his homosexual orientation beginning in his early teens. He always enjoyed his gay relationships and had had at some point a live-in partner… 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.
Taking into consideration the interval between his first and second stroke, it is likely that an organic process within the left middle cerebral artery region is the cause of his altered sexual orientation.
While there is a great deal of debate about whether it is nature and/or nurture that determines sexual orientation, the one thing you never quite imagine is that gender preferences can be flipped on or off like a light switch. When a gay person comes out, it generally appears to be a matter of learning to accept the social consequences of a pre-existing orientation. This is reinforced by the fact that gays — and straights — often know their orientation at a very young age. It seems hard-wired.
But what if sexual orientation is as simple as that — a switch in the brain? How would you feel to know that a good bop in the head might cause you to wake up the next day with a desire for something you never desired before? And what if it weren’t just a matter of gay or straight but of a variety of sexual types? For example, it is known that various types of head injury can result in hypersexuality. What if you were to have a stroke and suddenly find yourself with an irresistible fetish for feet or puppies? Is it possible that perverts are not sexually liberated (as they like to think) or mentally ill (as some like to think) but rather victims of cerebral events? What if perversion is nothing more than a symptom in the same class as slurred speech or blurry vision?
Of course, if it turns out that sexual orientation is a switch, there will be those who want to flip others’ switches — puritans who want to straighten the queer, or maybe militant queers who want to undermine the straight. On the bright side, there will also arise a class of people who flip their switch back and forth just for kicks. “Now what sexual orientation matches my shoes tonight? Hmmm…” Gender hackers… Sexual proclivity tinkerers… Pansexual dilettantes… Is it possible that the future of fun lies in the hands of neuroscientists?
Well, that’s a relief. All this time thought I was mental and it’s just that fall off the ladder when I was a kid.
Sounds a bit like ” Total Recall ” with sexuality involved.
So sexual orientation can be changed by the death of certain regions of the brain. Hmm…this gives a whole new meaning to the term “brain-dead.”
I’d volunteer for a clinical trial.
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