The 32 Sexual Orientations

In researching the management systems that operate the brain, I have pursued a special focus on understanding how the right and left hemispheres act to inform consciousness, including special attention to their role in shaping our sexual orientation. I’ve discovered that hemispheric dominance plays a much larger function in determining gender and sexual orientation than we have previously realized.

There’s a reason why we need to understand the fundamentals of gender and its effects on sexual orientation. We need to quit thinking that we are able to psychologically change who we are. We need to stop divisive, destructive, and unproductive attempts to change people’s innate gender identifications and sexual behaviors. If the public were to understand that responses such as same-sex attraction and bisexuality are genetically determined, and thus a normal part of the enormous diversity of life, they would lose much of their justification for trying to change or condemn those who don’t conform to the binary model of straight masculine and feminine.

If we recognized that gender is a function of the brain’s operating systems and determined by genetics, people would finally understand that no one chooses the sex to which they are attracted, and their fears and opposition would be significantly lessened. Our gender wars could then start to wind down.

The basis of the discovery I describe here is that each brain hemisphere houses its own independent system of management with its own clearly-defined operational characteristics. Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Roger Sperry described the two hemispheric systems as “autonomous.” It is in the operation of these two systems that we experience the qualities we associate with gender. For example, the system that operates the right hemisphere (in most people) values caring for others and is gentle in action. The left hemisphere’s job, which complements that of the right, is to care for us. In protecting us, is sometimes rough in its behavior. Of course, our gender, in combination with the sex characteristics of our body, is what creates our sexual orientation.

The brain is capable of producing 32 variations in sexual orientation. The various combinations are a result of there being 16 possible variations in how the brain feeds consciousness in females and 16 in males. To explain how it is that the brain produces16 variations in consciousness is rather simple to do. I’ll summarize. 

The brain uses one of four different operating systems to gather and manage information, inform consciousness, and orchestrate the brain’s many other activities. The four are a left-brain-dominant system, a right-brain-dominant system, a hybrid integration of the two, and a team-based system.

There are two things that the brain does constantly, regardless of the brain-operating-system type we might have inherited: it gathers information and it responds to that information. As gathering information and responding are separate events, it is possible to have one operating system process information input—the gathering of information—and have a different operating system process output—a response. Because any one of the four can govern input, and any one of the four can govern output, 16 different combination systems are produced, some of which are fluid. What determines the type of operating systems that we inherit? Something called genetic dominance. We’ll get to genetic dominance in a moment.

Sexual orientation is a consequence of a combination of qualities we commonly think of as body and mind, or sex and gender, respectively. The challenge of understanding sexual orientation is to correctly understand its underlying force, gender. Gender is a consequence of the type of brain operating system or systems that we have inherited. If we are to understand the basic structure of gender it is essential that we understand the four brain-operating systems.

Most of us will inherit a brain operating system that causes one hemisphere to be dominant and the other to be recessive and unconscious. Considering how radically different the two operating systems are, one of the two must act as master control and harmonize the two dissimilar systems. If this were not the case, the two sides of the body that the brain must orchestrate would not be in synch. Thus, even though the left half gives us our masculine characteristics and the right half gives us our feminine characteristics, if we inherit genetic complete dominance, one of the two genders will dominate and the other will be recessive and we will be unconscious of it. We will experience either masculine or feminine behavior as a dominant force.

When our left-brain and right-brain systems are genetically integrated, our gender characteristics are genetically integrated. Integration produces two more gender variations. Under genetic incomplete dominance for example, the operating systems of the right and left hemispheres combine to form an operating system that acts as a single entity such as we are familiar with in hybrid systems. In contrast, under genetic codominance, the right and left hemispheres and their gender characteristics cooperate to work together as a team. Because the two combination systems draw more or less equally from the whole of the brain rather than being directed by a dominant half, they are capable of a relatively wide range of variation. 

Typically, men are left-brain dominant. They are detail-oriented, highly competitive, and aggressive. I say “typically” because—as your experience probably tells you—not all are. This brings up the question, what happens when a normally left-brain male is right-brain-dominant and therefore inherits a global, big picture view of the world, as is common among females? And how does having a right-brain-dominant orientation affect the sexual behavior of that man? Imagine the confusion this must create at times for such men. A similar situation occurs when women are left-brain-dominant and thus guided by a brain-operating system inherently designed to cause them to be attracted to women.

What I have discovered from my research into the behaviors of the left and right hemispheres is that same-sex attraction is the result of a masculine operating system in a female body or a feminine operating system in a male body. Although controversial, this is not a new idea; nevertheless, I have found substantial evidence to support it, as reported in my book, How Whole Brain Thinking Can Save the Future. A female that views the world through a dominant left hemisphere experiences same-sex attraction because her dominant operating system, a heterosexual masculine system, causes her to be attracted to female bodies.

Let’s now look at what happens to sexual orientation when genetic incomplete dominance and genetic codominance determine our operating system and gender. When genetic incomplete dominance selects our gender for us, whether we are male or female, our gender is the product of a hybrid system. The variable nature of hybrid systems means that they can take a number of forms and thus are capable of producing a range of gender behaviors. As such, hybrid systems clearly contribute to gender fluidity. I refer to those who inherit a hybrid gender as polysexual.

Let’s say genetic codominance is responsible for determining our brain dominance. In that case, whether we find ourselves in a male or a female body, we have two hemispheres that are dominant. This means that both of our operating systems, one masculine- and one feminine-oriented system—each of them heterosexual—are demanding sexual satisfaction. This causes us to be attracted to both sexes since our left-brain drives us to have sex with females and our right-brain is sexually attracted to male bodies. This makes us bisexual. 

What creates the transgender experience? In trying to comprehend what happens to someone who identifies as transgender, it is critical that we take into consideration the energetic intensity of gender. The intensity of gender is a variable. Thus, when the intensity of the feeling of one’s gender is weak or moderate, a person who is transgender might find that their internal sexual-orientation conflicts are easily manageable. On the other hand, when one’s gender energy is strong and is in combination with a body that does not match—for example, a person living in a male body accompanied by an overpowering feeling of being feminine—it then becomes difficult to reconcile the conflicts that exists between body and mind. As you might imagine, that situation tends to produce an almost constant state of cognitive dissonance in some individuals. Faced with this difficult experience, people sometimes seek relief by changing their body to match the gender they identify with.

In addition, whether gay, straight, or transgender we can inherit two different genders. The information we take in is processed through a gendered system. So is the information we present to the world, our behavior. In many cases, information input and output are processed by the same hemisphere, so we experience only one gender. But not always. There are many exceptions. If our default view of the world is feminine, and our default response is masculine, and both are strong, it can create a confusing experience.  In this example, we feel feminine but act masculine.

More and more we are hearing it said that gender is not binary, it is fluid. Actually, it is both. In closing, let’s review how gender acquires its fluidity.

As we have observed, the brain produces at least 16 variations in gender. This alone establishes a range of fluidity. But within each of the 16 gender variations we find more variation.

Within bisexuals, for example, not only is there interplay between their masculine and feminine components creating variation, but also within their masculine and feminine components—variation ranging from weak to strong—variation such as occurs in the masculinity of straight men and the femininity of straight women. The hybridizing effect of genetic incomplete dominance also contributes to fluidity. Just as hybrid flowers produced by red and white parents come in various shades of pink, we can expect that, as incomplete dominance serves to integrate masculine and feminine characteristics, the process will produce a range of variation in gender as masculine and feminine traits are integrated in a variety of ways.

If you would like more information on gender, check out my two videos, Gender’s Four Variations and Gender’s Sixteen Variations, or my book, How Whole Brain Thinking Can Save the Future: Why Left Hemisphere Dominance Has Brought Humanity to the Brink of Disaster and How We Can Think Our Way to Peace and Healing