Immutability

Immutability is the inability of a thing to be changed. For example, it is impossible to change a dog into a cat. Likewise, it is impossible to changes one's race, although with makeup, plastic surgery etc. it is possible to conceal it or masquerade as a different race.

There is some debate over whether a "sex-change" operation is valid as regards whether one's sex is immutable or not.

There has been much debate over whether homosexuality is immutable. There is political and legal motivation for claiming it is immutable: then it can be treated as a "civil right" classification, like race, for the granting of special protection and even affirmative action. If immutable, one would expect to find "gay gene", but no such gene has ever been identified.

Simon LeVay wrote: "It's important to stress what I didn't find. I did not prove that homosexuality is genetic, or find a genetic cause for being gay. I didn't show that gay men are born that way, the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work. Nor did I locate a gay center in the brain. ... Since I look at adult brains, we don't know if the differences I found were there at birth or if they appeared later."