One of the bleaker moments during last night’s vice-presidential debate was when both Palin and Biden refused to support same-sex marriage. Biden tried to tiptoe around the issue by arguing that gay couples are entitled to the same constitutional benefits that hetero couples enjoy, but when it comes to legally redefining the institution of marriage to include gay couples, Biden locked arms with Palin, put his foot down, and said no.

Palin indicated during one of her mind-blowing sessions with Katie Couric that homosexuality is a “choice.” This, of course, is a highly controversial answer that refutes the testimony of homosexual men and women who claim they have no control over their sexual orientation. It also fails to acknowledge recent scientific advances that support the inherent nature of a homosexual lifestyle.

One such advance was made by Simon LeVay in the early ’90s. When comparing the brains of homosexual men with those of heterosexual women, LeVay made an interesting discovery.

The hypothalamus, which is in charge of the system that oversees the functions we don’t consciously control, is the same size in these two demographic groups. Normally, the male hypothalamus is larger in size than the female version.

Furthermore, a recent article in Time magazine reported that scientists at the Karolinska Institute studied brain scans and discovered another similarity in the size of the two halves of the brains found in homosexual men and hetero women—that is, the two halves were the same size for both groups. Heterosexual men normally have a larger right hemisphere than women, which wasn’t the case with homosexual men.

While researchers keep searching for “a gay gene,” Dr. Eric Vilain, a UCLA professor of genetics, admits that he doesn’t think there is one. So is the lifestyle simply a “choice,” as Palin would have us believe, or can Vilain say for sure that homosexuality is genetically influenced?

“There is [genetic] evidence. I can say that,” he said during a lecture for the LGBT crowd at USC on Thursday. “But it’s indirect evidence—not the smoking gun.”

So what does this all mean?

These advances mean different things to different people. To Palin, they probably don’t mean much at all. But to the folks at Thursday’s lecture, this scientific backing amounts to validation and a profound understanding of self. But will it ever amount to marriage?

That’s the question.