Two gene variants have been found to be more mon gay men. New Scientist looks at what this tells about the way blogy shap our sexualy
Contents:
- WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
- THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
Didn’t we already know there were “gay gen”? We have known for s that sexual orientatn is partly herable men, thanks to studi of fai which some people are straight and some people are gay. In 1993, geic variatns a regn on the X chromosome men were lked to whether they were heterosexual or homosexual, and 1995, a regn on chromosome 8 was intified.
Both fdgs were nfirmed a study of gay and straight brothers 2014. Alan Sanrs at North Shore Universy, Illois, and his team ppoted the gen by parg DNA om 1077 gay and 1231 straight men. Intertgly, this bra regn ntas the hypothalam, which was intified 1991 as differg size between gay and straight men.
Grave’s disease is more mon gay than straight men, and some rearch suggts that gay men tend to be thner – which might possibly be a rult of thyroid overdrive. Are all men who have the “gay” variants of the gen gay?
THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
“There will be men who have the form of gene that creas the chance of beg gay, but they won’t be gay. What about women who are gay?
Our blogil unrstandg of homosexualy women lags behd.
There have been studi suggtg that there is a geic element to homosexualy women, but more rearch has been done men, says Sanrs. Why should we re about the geics of beg gay? The latt fdgs open the prospect to intifyg the whole pathway of gen volved both homosexual and heterosexual orientatn, says Dean Hamer at the US Natnal Instut of Health, who led the study that ppoted chromosome X back 1993.