--- title: Ben Carson and Homosexuality: How Science Proves Him Wrong description: No, Dr. Carson, it's not a choice canonical: https://time.com/3733480/ben-carson-gay-choice-science/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-05T17:35:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:13.336Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Science Proves Ben Carson Wrong on Homosexuality og:description: It is not a choice og:url: https://time.com/3733480/ben-carson-gay-choice-science/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8bb535f5d9abc2a/6987824f5f570f9b10b1599c/ben-carson.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pointing the wrong way: Carson is just plain wrong on the science og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Science Proves Ben Carson Wrong on Homosexuality twitter:description: It is not a choice twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8bb535f5d9abc2a/6987824f5f570f9b10b1599c/ben-carson.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # No Ben Carson, Homosexuality Is _Not_ a Choice ## Video: Science Cop: Chris Christie's Bad Vaccine Advice [Watch (HLS stream): Science Cop: Chris Christie's Bad Vaccine Advice](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bNqPpjwK.m3u8) (2:54)  _Published 2015-02-05. Chris Christie's bad advice on vaccines gets him in to trouble with TIME's Science Cop Jeffrey Kluger._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 5, 2015 5:35 PM UTC  Pointing the wrong way: Carson is just plain wrong on the science Pointing the wrong way: Carson is just plain wrong on the scienceRichard Ellis; Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 5, 2015 5:35 PM UTC If you’re a candidate dreaming of the White House with virtually no chance of actually winding up there, it sometimes helps to say something ridiculous—if only to get your name-recognition numbers up. That is the very best and most charitable explanation for comments by Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon, on CNN, [arguing that homosexuality is “absolutely” a choice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA4DxAZHLTU). His evidence? Prison. “A lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight and when they come out, they’re gay,” he said. “So did something happen while they were in there?” Prison, of course, is the worst of all possible examples Carson could have chosen—conflating sexuality with circumstance. Men confined together for years without women remain sexual beings and may take whatever outlet is available to them. Something similar was true in a less enlightened era of gay men and women who were forced to marry people of the opposite sex, and who dutifully produced children and tried to satisfy their partners despite the fact that they were getting little satisfaction themselves. Carson, who was blowtorched in both social and mainstream media for his remarks, quickly [walked them back](http://time.com/3733184/ben-carson-gay-prison/), issuing a statement that, in some ways, only made things worse. “I’m a doctor trained in multiple fields of medicine, who was blessed to work at perhaps the finest institution of medical knowledge in the world,” he wrote. “Some of our brightest minds have looked at this debate, and up until this point there have been no definitive studies that people are born into a specific sexuality.” That statement could indeed have the virtue of being true—provided it was issued in 1990\. But since then, there’s been a steady accumulation of evidence that sexuality—like eye color, nose size, blood type and more—is baked in long before birth. The first great breakthrough was the [1991 study by neuroscientist Simon LeVay](http://www.simonlevay.com/) finding that a region in the hypothalamus related to sexuality known as INAH3 is smaller in gay men and women than it is in straight men. The following year, [investigators at UCLA found](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/7199.full.pdf) that another brain region associated with sexuality, the midsagittal plane of the anterior commissure, is 18% larger in gay men than in straight women and 34% larger than in straight men. One cause of the differences could be genetic. In 1993, one small study suggested a connection between sexual orientation and a section on the X chromosome called Xq28, which could predispose men toward homosexuality. The small size of the study—only 38 pairs of gay brothers—made it less than entirely reliable. [But a study released just last year](http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/11/study-gay-brothers-may-confirm-x-chromosome-link-homosexuality) expanded the sample group to 409 pairs of brothers and reached similar conclusions. Genes are not the only biological roots for homosexuality. Womb environment is thought to play a significant role too, since part of what determines development of a fetus is the level and mix of hormones to which it is exposed during gestation. In 2006, psychologist Anthony Bogaert of Brock University in Canada looked into the never-explained phenomenon of birth order appearing to shape sexuality, with gay males tending to have more older brothers than straight males. Working with a sample group of 944 homosexual and heterosexual males, Bogaert found that indeed, a first born male has about a 3% chance of being gay, a number that goes up 1% at a time for each subsequent boy until it doubles to 6% for a fourth son. The explanation likely involves the mother’s immune system. Any baby, male or female, is initially treated as an invader by the mother’s body, but multiple mechanisms engage to prevent her system from rejecting the fetus. Male babies, with their male proteins, are perceived as slightly more alien than females, so the mother’s body produces more gender-specific antibodies against them. Over multiple pregnancies with male babies, the womb becomes more “feminized,” and that can shape sexuality. A range of other physical differences among gay men and lesbians also argue against Carson’s thinking—finger length for instance. In heterosexual men, the index finger is significantly shorter than the ring finger. In straight women, the index and ring fingers are close to the same length. Lesbian finger length is often more similar to that of straight males. This, too, had been informally observed for a long time, but in 2000 a study at the University of California, Berkeley, seemed to validate it. Lesbians also seem to have differences in the inner ear—of all unlikely places. In all people, sound not only enters the ear but leaves it, in the form of what are known as otoacoustic emissions—vibrations that are produced by the interaction of the cochlea and eardrum and can be detected by instruments. Heterosexual women tend to have higher frequency otoacoustic emissions than men, but gay women don’t. Still other studies have explored a link between [homosexuality and handedness ](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10900997)(with gays having a greater likelihood of being left-handed or ambidextrous) [as well as hair whorl](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19331448) (with the hair at the crown of gay men’s heads tending to grow counterclockwise), though there are differing views on these last two. Clearly, none of us choose our genetics or finger length or birth order or ear structure, and none of us choose our sexuality either. As with so many cases of politicians saying scientifically block-headed things, Carson either doesn’t know any of this (and as a doctor, he certainly should) or he does know it and is pretending he doesn’t. Neither answer reflects well on his fitness for political office. ### See the 2016 Candidates Looking Very Presidential  Sen. Ted Cruz is surrounded by stars and stripes at the 2014 Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. on September 26, 2014. Mark Peterson—Redux  Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton gazes pensively into the distance at Iowa Senator Tom Harken'a annual Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa on September 14, 2014. Brooks Kraft—Corbis for TIME  Jeb Bush Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush flashes a power watch before giving his keynote address at the National Summit on Education Reform in Washington on Nov. 20, 2014. Susan Walsh—AP  Bernie Sanders waves to supporters after officially announcing his candidacy for the U.S. presidency during an event at Waterfront Park in Burlington, Vermont, on May 26, 2015. Win McNamee—Getty Images  Chris Christie New Jersey Governor Chris Christie strikes a presidential power stance at the ceremony for the opening of the 206 bypass in Hillsborough, New Jersey on October 28, 2013. Mark Peterson—Redux  Former Hewlett-Packard Co Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina listens to her introduction from the side of the stage at the Freedom Summit in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 24, 2015. Jim Young—Reuters  Rand Paul Sen. Rand Paul works a crowd during a campaign stop on October 24, 2014 in McDonough, Georgia. Jessica McGowan—Getty Images  Rick Perry Texas Gov. Rick Perry looks powerfully patriotic during the National Anthem before an NCAA college football game on Nov. 27, 2014, in College Station, Texas. David J. Phillip—AP  Bobby Jindal Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal looks to the future during The Family Leadership Summit on Aug. 9, 2014, in Ames, Iowa. Charlie Neibergall—AP  Martin O'Malley Maryland Governor Martin OíMalley ponders decorating ideas in front of his possible future home on CBS's Face the Nation on Feb. 23, 2014. Chris Usher—AP  Marco Rubio Sen. Marco Rubio looks determined the morning after the State of the Union address in Washington, D.C. on January 29, 2014. Melissa Golden—Redux  Ben CarsonBen Carson at the Conservative Political Action Committee annual conference on March 8, 2014. Susan Walsh—AP  Jim Webb Retiring Sen. Jim Webb imitates the presidential wave during a rally in Virginia Beach, Va. on Sept. 27, 2012. Steve Helber—AP  John Kasich Ohio Gov. John Kasich practices his presidential victory pose at the Ohio Republican Party celebration on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014, in Columbus, Ohio. Tony Dejak—AP  Rick Santorum Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum looks resolute at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 7, 2014. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Scott Walker Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker practices the presidential point on March 3, 2014 in Milwaukee. Jeffrey Phelps—AP  Mike Huckabee Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee fine-tunes his presidential oratory at the Conservative Political Action Committee annual conference in National Harbor, Md. on March 7, 2014. Susan Walsh—AP  Lincoln Chafee, Former Rhode Island Governor, poses for a selfie with a student after announcing he will seek the Democratic nomination for president in Arlington, Va. on June 3, 2015. Jonathan Ernst—Reuters  Lindsey Graham Lindsey Graham announced his plans to join the 2016 presidential race. Alex Wong—Getty Images  George Pataki Former New York governor George Pataki listens to a question at the First in the Nation Republican Leadership Conference in Nashua, New Hampshire, in this April 17, 2015 file photo. Brian Snyder—Reuters ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3733480/ben-carson-gay-choice-science/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3733480/ben-carson-gay-choice-science/"},"headline":"No Ben Carson, Homosexuality Is Not a Choice","datePublished":"2015-03-05T17:35:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:05:13.336Z","description":"A presidential hopeful (and a doctor) gets the science all wrong—and makes things worse when he tries to explain himself","url":"https://time.com/3733480/ben-carson-gay-choice-science/","keywords":["sexuality","Genetics","Brain","Homosexuality","Prison","Dr. Benjamin S. 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