Name: 【TEDx】Homosexuality: It's about survival - not sex | James O'Keefe | TEDxTallaght
Uploaded: 2017-02-03T11:05:19.000Z
Duration: 17 min 26 s
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my eighteen-year-old son Jimmy said he wanted to talk.

So, after my wife Joan and I got his three much younger siblings tucked in

Jimmy came in and closed the door behind him.

And he sat down on a chair across from the bed where we were sitting,

and says, "Mom and Dad, I have something important to tell you,

and it's not a problem, it's not a bad thing, it's just different."

And he looked at us in earnest, and he said, "I'm gay."

So, after a few seconds of deafening silence,

Joan takes a deep breath and says, "Jimmy, we will love whoever you love."

That was about 12 years ago when he came out to us,

and I'll have to admit that, at the time,

Joan and I did think this could be a problem,

And as his father, I had this feeling that, somehow, I had failed him,

and maybe, because of that, he wouldn't have a chance to have kids of his own.

and I like to imagine the world through the eyes of a hunter-gatherer ancestor

for clues about how to thrive in the modern world,

homosexuality seems to be a real self-defeating non-productive strategy.

I mean, gays have 80% fewer kids than heterosexuals.

This is a trait that ought to go extinct in a few generations,

in every culture, and many animal species as well,

homosexuality's been a small, but distinct subgroup.

natural selection should have long ago called this from the gene pool.

this paradox about the natural origins of homosexuality,

Jimmy has three younger siblings who adore him.

He has this magnetism  and this charming wit

And one day, while contemplating this "Jimmy effect,"

it suddenly dawned on me: homosexuality is not so much about sex;

it's really more about survival, the family's survival.

So us, Homo sapiens, we are among the most social species on Earth.

For us, it's not just a kill-or-be-killed struggle for existence.

An ability to love our family and bond with our group

determines, in many cases, whether we survive or perish.

So it's the survival of the fittest family,

So, you share 50% of your DNA with your siblings.

Your nieces and nephews share 25% of your DNA.

you have the same genetic success if you raise one child on your own

or you enable a sibling to raise two children.

this is all about  cooperation and altruism.

Homosexuality is genetically-programmed altruism.

Gays are designed by nature to help us be kind to one another,

probably the greatest evolutionary biologist since Darwin himself,

says homosexuality gives advantages to the group by specialized talents

So, a society that condemns homosexuality harms itself.

So, what does professor Wilson mean by "unusual qualities of personality"?

Well, let me tell you about our dear family friend Jenny.

She was telling us she is looking for a man who's smart and funny,

And she says she occasionally meets a guy like that,

but she complains, "You know, he usually has a boyfriend already!"

So, although people tend to obsess over what gays do or don't do in a bedroom,

it's really this distinctive personality and a strong intellect

that are more critical, from evolution's perspective.

that people in the sexual minority tend to be intelligent,

particularly when it comes to emotional intelligence.

that boys and girls who scored in a very bright IQ range

were twice as likely to be homosexual as adults

as those children who scored in the low to average range.

And, among gay males, on psychological testing,

gay males tend to score higher in metrics of compassion and cooperation,

he might have just wallpapered the Sistine Chapel.

the truly gifted aren't burdened with children."

But today, in the US, about 2 out of every 25 people are in the sexual minority.

If all males were gay, that would be a problem,

but if all males were warriors, we'd always be at war.

The recipe for a successful human culture

is a synergy of many  different ingredients.

to help emotionally connect groups of people together.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

【TEDx】Homosexuality: It's about survival - not sex | James O'Keefe | TEDxTallaght

perspective

straight

tend

doubt