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:
- THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
- WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
- IS BEG GAY GEIC?
- THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT GEICS ARE LKED TO SAME-SEX BEHAVR, NEW STUDY SAYS
- WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
- THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS
- MANY GEN INFLUENCE SAME-SEX SEXUALY, NOT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’
- DO HAVG OLR BROTHERS INCREASE MEN’S CHANC OF BEG GAY? HERE’S WHAT THE STUDI SAY
- GAY GEICSMOST OF BELIEVE THAT WE WERE BORN THAT WAY, BUT IS SEXUAL ORIENTATN OUR DNA? JV CHAMARY GO SEARCH OF THE GAY GENEJV CHAMARYPUBLISHED: MAY 31, 2009 AT 11:00 PMGAY GEICS
THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
Why are people gay? Are they gay by choice or is beg gay geic? Are they born gay? Learn about the and reasons for beg gay. * is gay hereditary *
Humans have tried to unrstand human sexualy for centuri — and geics rearchers joed the ay the early 1990s after a seri of studi on tws suggted homosexualy ran fai. “As a teenager tryg to unrstand myself and unrstand my sexualy, I looked at the ter for “the gay gene” and obvly me across Xq28, ” said Fah Sathirapongsasuti, a study -thor and senr scientist at 23andMe, which he joked once led him to believe he hered his gayns om his mother. The rearchers had members of the same-sex muny review the study’s sign and language, and they adm that their termology and fns for gay, lbian and heterosexual do not reflect the full nature of the sexualy ntuum.
WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
The largt study of s kd found new evince that gen ntribute to same-sex sexual behavr, but echo rearch that says there are no specific gen that make people gay. The genome-wi rearch on DNA om nearly half a ln U.S. and U.K. adults intified five geic variants not prevly lked wh gay or lbian sexualy. The rearchers said thoands more geic variants likely are volved and teract wh factors that aren't hered, but that none of them e the behavr nor n predict whether someone will be gay. * is gay hereditary *
“[Our study] unrsr an important role for the environment shapg human sexual behavr and perhaps most importantly there is no sgle gay gene but rather the ntributn of many small geic effects sttered across the genome, ” Neale said. It very much appears that same-sex sexual attractn is not a choice but actg on is; so if you fe gay as the mere prence of same-sex attractn, then om everythg we unrstand, beg gay is not a choice.
If, on the other hand, you nsir someone to be gay only if they act on their same-sex attractn then beg gay n be nsired a choice pendg on an dividual's behavr. However, blogists have documented homosexual behavr more than 450 speci, argug that same-sex behavr is not an unnatural choice, and may fact play a val role wh populatns.
IS BEG GAY GEIC?
* is gay hereditary *
So-lled genome-wi associatn studi intified a gene lled SLITRK6, which is active a bra regn lled the diencephalon that differs size between people who are homosexual or heterosexual. While there is no sgle “gay gene, ” there is overwhelmg evince of a blogil basis for sexual orientatn that is programmed to the bra before birth based on a mix of geics and prenatal ndns, none of which the fet choos. Those who nsir beg gay a disadvantage life (which still is, certa societi), might regard gay people differently if they knew that beg gay was an hered tra, rather than a nsequence of life events, such as a particular type of upbrgg, or mixg wh certa sorts of iends or even a liberate cisn.
THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT GEICS ARE LKED TO SAME-SEX BEHAVR, NEW STUDY SAYS
You’re a nversatn and someone says, “People n’t help beg gay. It’s part of their geic makp.”What would you say? * is gay hereditary *
An early study claimed that if one pair of (male) intil tws (who have intil geic patterns) was gay, there was a 100 percent chance of the other one also beg gay. It was quickly shown that, fact, the real chance of two intil tws beg gay was around 40-50 percent, whereas was ls non-intil on, though still somewhat greater than the general populatn.
There was another, much smaller, group who said they were entirely gay (about 6 percent), and a stterg of even smaller numbers who claimed to be bisexual. Notice to Rear: "The Boards of both CERC Canada and CERC USA are aware that the topic of homosexualy is a ntroversial one that eply affects the personal liv of many North Amerins. Both Boards strongly reerate the Catechism's teachg that people who self-intify as gays and lbians mt be treated wh 'rpect, passn, and sensivy' (CCC #2358).
WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
Demonstratg that any behavral state, let alone one so plex, diverse s maniftatns, and nuanced as homosexualy, is not only blogil but geic is well beyond our prent rearch pacy. "To measure the relatnship between beliefs about the termants of homosexual orientatn and attus toward homosexuals, we asked 745 rponnts four societi about their beliefs ncerng the origs of homosexual orientatn. Analysis dited that subjects who believed that homosexuals are "born that way" held signifintly more posive attus toward homosexuals than subjects who believed that homosexuals choose to be that way and/or learn to be that way [2].
THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS
It reported his fdg that a lolized clter (a "nucls") of cells the bras of "homosexual" men was twice as large by volume on topsy as "heterosexual" men. [5] ("Homosexual" and "heterosexual" are quotatns bee this study the fns of each were extremely imprecise, nor was there any way of verifyg sexual orientatn as the subjects were ad.
MANY GEN INFLUENCE SAME-SEX SEXUALY, NOT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’
We know om animal studi that early experience and pecially trmatic experience that pecially appli to the childhood histori of many homosexuals, alters the bra and body measurable ways. Bee all human behavr is related some way to gen, we n nohels gus that one day higher qualy rearch will fd geic factors that rrelate to homosexualy. Wh rpect to whatever geic or blogil factors are rrelated to homosexualy we will need to be very reful to unrstand what they mean and ed, how limed the implitns really are.
(1989) Blogil Explanatn, Psychologil Explanatn, and Tolerance of Homosexuals: A Cross-Natnal Analysis of Beliefs and Attus, Psychologil Reports 65, pp.
DO HAVG OLR BROTHERS INCREASE MEN’S CHANC OF BEG GAY? HERE’S WHAT THE STUDI SAY
Lansg Homosexualy: Theori of Csatn, Reorientatn and the Polics and Ethics Involved, Proceedgs of the 1993 Annual Scientific Meetg of the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Treatment of Homosexualy, p.
"Former Natnal Instut of Health geicist Dean Hamer said the study nfirms "that sexualy is plex and there are a lot of gen volved, " but isn't really about gay people.
Scientists may have fally solved the puzzle of what mak a person gay, and how is passed om parents to their children.A group of scientists suggted Tuday that homosexuals get that tra om their oppose-sex parents: A lbian will almost always get the tra om her father, while a gay man will get the tra om his mother.The heredary lk of homosexualy has long been tablished, but scientists knew was not a strictly geic lk, bee there are many pairs of intil tws who have differg sexuali. Scientists om the Natnal Instute for Mathematil and Blogil Synthis say homosexualy seems to have an epigeic, not a geic lk.Long thought to have some sort of heredary lk, a group of scientists suggted Tuday that homosexualy is lked to epi-marks — extra layers of rmatn that ntrol how certa gen are exprsed. In homosexuals, the epi-marks aren't erased — they're passed om father-to-dghter or mother-to-son, explas William Rice, an evolutnary blogist at the Universy of California Santa Barbara and lead thor of the study."There is pellg evince that epi-marks ntribute to both the siary and dissiary of fay members, and n therefore feasibly ntribute to the observed faial herance of homosexualy and s low nrdance between [intil] tws," Rice not.Rice and his team created a mathematil mol that explas why homosexualy is passed through epi-marks, not geics.
GAY GEICSMOST OF BELIEVE THAT WE WERE BORN THAT WAY, BUT IS SEXUAL ORIENTATN OUR DNA? JV CHAMARY GO SEARCH OF THE GAY GENEJV CHAMARYPUBLISHED: MAY 31, 2009 AT 11:00 PMGAY GEICS
Evolutnarily speakg, if homosexualy was solely a geic tra, scientists would expect the tra to eventually disappear bee homosexuals wouldn't be expected to reproduce. But bee the epi-marks provi an evolutnary advantage for the parents of homosexuals: They protect fathers of homosexuals om unrexposure to ttosterone and mothers of homosexuals om overexposure to ttosterone while they are gtatn."The epi-marks protect fathers and mothers om excs or unrexposure to ttosterone — when they rry over to oppose-sex offsprg, n e the masculizatn of femal or the femizatn of mal," Rice says, which n lead to a child beg gay. Rice not that the markers are "highly variable" and that only strong epi-marks will rult a homosexual offsprg.Though scientists have long spected some sort of geic lk, Rice says studi attemptg to expla why people are gay have been few and far between."Most mastream blogists have shied away om studyg bee of the social stigma," he says.
Well there are many exampl of homosexualy nature, 's very mon." Homosexual behavr has been observed black swans, pengus, sheep, and other animals, he says.Rice's mol still needs to be tted on real-life parent-offsprg pairs, but he says this epigeic lk mak more sense than any other explanatn, and that his team has mapped out a way for other scientists to tt their work."We've found a story that looks really good," he says. The rearchers say that, although variatns the gen nnot predict whether a person is gay, the variants may partly fluence sexual Ganna, lead thor and European Molecular Blogy Laboratory group lear at the Instute of Molecular Medice Fland, said the rearch rerc the unrstandg that same-sex sexual behavr is simply “a natural part of our diversy as a speci.