What Science Knows About Why People Are Gay

Contents:

• WHAT SCIENCE KNOWS ABOUT WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• THE SCIENCE OF GAY
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS
• MANY GEN INFLUENCE SAME-SEX SEXUALY, NOT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’
• GAY SCIENCE
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

WHAT SCIENCE KNOWS ABOUT WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY

Marchers walk down 5th Avenue durg the 2014 Gay Pri March on June 29, 2014 New York Cy. Recently, scientists announced that they found some gen that might be associated wh sexual orientatn and a blogil explanatn for the reason gay men tend to have olr the field of sexual orientatn rearch is far broar and more plited than two studi—and Lisa Diamond, a psychologist and sexual orientatn rearcher at the Universy of Utah, knows that better than most. In other words, geics rais the chanc of you beg gay, but don't fish the job.

People rry rabow flags durg the Gay Pri para on September 17, 2017 Belgra, Serbia.

THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS

Well, the other systematic bias that was troduced the rearch was to foc on exclively gay dividuals. Bisexualy is actually more mon than exclive gay or lbian sexualy. I remember I gave a talk at a high school, and the parents asked, "At what age I will know for sure whether my kid is gay?

If they don't turn out to be gay by 18, n I pretty much know, okay, they aren't gay?

I n't guarantee you that at age 18, if you child hasn't exprsed same-sex attractns that they won't the future—and ankly ma'am, I n't guarantee you that you are not gog to end up gay eher. “I didn’t really feel like I need to ph the gayns forward bee that’s already reprented the arts, ” he said, to a round of lghter. Edgardo Sanabria-Valent grew up feelg different om his peers – a suatn he n now make light of as Associate Director of the Program for Rearch Iniativ Science and Math (PRISM) at John Jay College of the Cy Universy of New York (CUNY):I e om a very Catholic background Puerto Ri, so I went to Catholic school, and — let’s jt say that no matter what, I n activate gaydars wh 50 feet.

THE SCIENCE OF GAY

So there was no way I uld ever pass (as straight) Catholic School and high school, no one wanted to be iends wh the gay kid, so I end up havg no iends. “I grew up gay a small town Rochter, but my fay’s om the Domin Republic, ” he said.

WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

”His other inty was beg gay.

”For Edgardo, the journey has meant tegratg his var inti:I feel like we want to make sure we’re active the different aspects of our liv and for a while, I tried to keep them separate: I was Puerto Rin, I was gay, I was a scientist. A clear geic lk would suggt that gay people are “born this way, ” as opposed to havg ma a liftyle choice. Yet some fear that such a fdg uld be mised “cure” homosexualy, and most rearch teams have shied away om tacklg the topic.

They asked more than 477, 000 participants whether they had ever had sex wh someone of the same sex, and also qutns about sexual fantasi and the gree to which they intified as gay or straight. Dpe the associatns, the thors say that the geic siari still nnot show whether a given dividual is gay. “It’s the end of the ’gay gene, ’” says Eric Vila, a geicist at Children’s Natnal Health System Washgton, D.

THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS

“A lot of people want to unrstand the blogy of homosexualy, and science has lagged behd that human tert, ” says William Rice, an evolutnary geicist at the Universy of California, Santa Barbara, who also was not volved the work. The study will not be the last word on the vexg qutn of what homosexualy, however.

Natnal Cancer Instute and his lleagu published a paper suggtg that an area on the X chromosome lled Xq28 uld nta a “gay gene. His study, which analysed the genom of 40 pairs of gay brothers, looked exclively at people who intified as homosexual. They’re honor of Pri month, we wanted to explore what ’s like to be both a scientist and a person who intifi as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, or beg LGBTQ prent unique challeng to one’s reer as a scientist?

I me out as gay my senr year of llege, at Virgia Tech. But beg gay was not somethg many straight people were personally faiar wh or unrstood at the time, and almost all of the scientists I knew were I terviewed for a job at MSK 1997, one of the very first thgs my terviewer — Ken Marians, then the Molecular Blogy Program Chair — and I talked about was the fact that MSK didn’t have domtic partner benefs. They were homophobic, sexist, and everythg else.

MANY GEN INFLUENCE SAME-SEX SEXUALY, NOT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’

Homosexualy is still crimalized India, and the gay muny is very unrground.

GAY SCIENCE

I refer to my hband and then everyone jt fay still don’t know that I’m gay or that I’m married. I grew up Mlim so ’s a ltle more difficult to be open about homosexualy that relig ntext.

I’ve been able to live the life I tly reason why visibily of LGBTQ people science is so important is bee we serve as exampl to gay teens, who go through a lot. Fortunately, beg gay science has never really been an issue for me.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

There is no sgle gene rponsible for a person beg gay or a lbian.

The study of nearly a half ln people clos the door on the bate around the existence of a so-lled “gay gene. In s stead, the report fds that human DNA nnot predict who is gay or heterosexual. It is worth keepg md that this study only vers some typ of sexualy — gay, lbian and cis-straight — but don’t offer many sights to genr inty.