'Gay gen': science is on the right track, we're born this way. Let’s al wh . | Qazi Rahman | The Guardian

Contents:

• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• 'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK, WE'RE BORN THIS WAY. LET’S AL WH .
• JOHNS HOPKS REARCH: NO EVINCE PEOPLE ARE BORN GAY OR TRANSGENR
• IS ANYONE BORN GAY?
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• ARE WE BORN GAY?
• IS A PERSON ‘BORN GAY’, OR IS BEG GAY A LEARNED BEHAVR?
• SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY
• ARE YOU BORN GAY OR IS A CHOICE? SCIENTISTS MIGHT HAVE FOUND THE ANSWER
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS
• ARE HOMOSEXUAL PEOPLE REALLY “BORN GAY”?
• NEWS: 'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT... (THE GUARDIAN) - BEHD THE HEADL
• WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?
• ARE SOME PEOPLE BORN GAY?
• CAN A PERSON BE BORN GAY?

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

“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. “[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.

“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. Fdg evince for a blogil basis should not sre or unrme gay, lbian and bisexual (LGB) rights (the studi I refer to do not clu transgenred dividuals, so I’ll nfe my ments to lbian, gay and bisexual people). Gen uld themselv nudge one towards a particular sexual orientatn or gen may simply teract wh other environmental factors (such as sex hormon the womb environment) to fluence later sexual bras of gay and heterosexual people also appear to be anised differently.

'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK, WE'RE BORN THIS WAY. LET’S AL WH .

The fluence of blogy ns throughout our sexual and genred liv and those differenc, that diversy, is surely to be wrers tend to wave off the scientific evince by urgg to look to the history of sexualy or claim that homosexualy is a social nstctn (cue Michel Fouult and the like). Surely our choic are the rult of thgs we didn’t choose (our gen, personali, upbrgg, and culture) worry that scientific rearch will lead to “cur” for homosexualy (which is an odd worry to have if you don’t believe the “born this way” argument). We are who we are, and our sexuali are part of human worry about the claims of social nstctn, choice and such like is that plays to the hands of homophobic iology, to the hands of the “aversn therapists”, and to the hands of a growg culture which seeks to mimise gay differenc.

Scholars at Johns Hopks Universy released a new report on Monday which argu that there is not sufficient evince to suggt that lbian, gay, or transgenr people are born wh this sexual orientatn or genr inty. Mayer and his -thor Pl McHugh, a profsor of psychiatry and behavral scienc at Johns Hopks, challenged the claim that discrimatn and social stigma are the only reasons why homosexual and transgenr people suffer higher rat of mental health problems and are more likely to m suici. “Studi of the bras of homosexuals and heterosexuals have found some differenc, but have not monstrated that the differenc are born rather than the rult of environmental factors that fluenced both psychologil and nroblogil tras, ” the report explaed.

JOHNS HOPKS REARCH: NO EVINCE PEOPLE ARE BORN GAY OR TRANSGENR

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. 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 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 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 and his team created a mathematil mol that explas why homosexualy is passed through epi-marks, not geics. 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.

IS ANYONE BORN GAY?

"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 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. " Homosexual behavr has been observed black swans, pengus, sheep, and other animals, he '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.

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

Many homosexuals hold to the belief that they were born that way, and there are some rearchers who suggt, on the basis of several recent studi, that there may be a geic predisposn toward homosexualy some people. “Y, we have a choice life, to be ourselv or to nform to someone else’s ia of normaly, but beg straight, bisexual or gay, or none of the, is a central part of who we are, thanks part to the DNA we were born wh. Richard Lane of Stonewall told the Inpennt: “While some people may choose to foc on the ntug bate of whether people are born gay or not, we’ll ntue to foc on makg sure everyone has the same rights and opportuni regardls of who they love.

The news this week that the largt study of s kd failed to nfirm the existence of a "gay gene" is not so much a disappotment for those lookg to unrstand the LGBTQ muny, as is an acknowledgement that science do not need to tell what should be plaly obv: gays, lbians, bisexuals and pansexuals are who they are. Scholars at the teemed Johns Hopks Universy studied the origs of homosexualy and found there is sufficient evince to say gay, lbian, or transgenr people are born this way (sexual orientatn or genr inty). “Studi of the bras of homosexuals and heterosexuals have found some differenc, but have not monstrated that the differenc are born rather than the rult of environmental factors that fluenced both psychologil and nroblogil tras, ” the report reads.

ARE WE BORN GAY?

The three-part, 143-page report, which appeared the Fall 2016 edn of The New Atlantis, also challeng the ia that discrimatn and social stigma are the only reasons gays and transgenrs suffer higher rat of mental health problems an suicis. In 1976, 9% reportedly claimed to be born gay, the figure creased to 35% by 1989, and by 2004, one gay muny, more than 90% of gays reported that they believe gen are a signifint factor their orientatn— which would suggt a ten-fold crease  28 years.

By repeatg this claim over and over aga for s now, gay activists have managed to w over a large percentage of heterosexual “believers” to their e, whout any substantial basis fact to validate the claim that they were “born that way.

” “Born gay” is, fact, a hoax of mammoth proportns that has been accepted by many stutns, anizatns and dividuals  our culture, even by those the “Christian church” and even by many apparently “born-aga Christians” (1). The cril qutn is whether homosexualy is already termed at birth by blogil factors and is immutable (unchangeable), or velops later as a rult of post-natal experienc and fluenc, and is fluid (changeable).

IS A PERSON ‘BORN GAY’, OR IS BEG GAY A LEARNED BEHAVR?

As you will see, the evince strongly supports the view that homosexualy velops primarily as a rult of post-natal experienc and fluenc, and is fluid (changeable); all pre-natal fluenc bed (cludg geics, epi-geics and hormon) have, at most, a weak and non-termative role.

This rearch has foced primarily on possible geic ntributns to the velopment of homosexualy, but other potential blogil factors, such as epi-geics and pre-natal hormon, have received nsirable attentn as well and rema viable theori. In this regard, is important to note at the outset that if homosexualy were geilly termed (as opposed to merely beg geilly fluenced), most likely would have been bred out of existence only several generatns.

Acrdg to this theory, durg a cril stage of fetal velopment, exposure of a male fet to a high level of ttosterone would lead to typil heterosexual orientatn, whereas exposure to a sufficiently lower level would lead to homosexualy. Support for this theory primarily om direct evince rived om animal studi, speculatn based on hormone effects on other aspects of sexual differentiatn humans, bra studi that fail to show any signifint chang bra stcture before the ag of 8-11 years old (32) and clil ndns wh signifint prenatal hormone chang that are associated wh creased cinc of homosexualy.

SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY

The mol would expla homosexualy on the basis of epi-mark-ntrolled prenatal ttosterone (a sex hormone) levels, to the virtual excln of a role for eher a strictly geic fluence or post-natal environmental fluenc.

Acrdg to the mol, when this mistake is ma, epi-mark regulated ttosterone overexposure a female fet would rult a masculized female who will prefer femal (a lbian), whereas epi-mark regulated ttosterone unrexposure a male fet would rult a femized male who will prefer mal (a gay). The low nrdance tw studi would be explaed not by a low-level geic fluence, as is ually assumed, but by the ocsnal passg of ttosterone-enhancg epi-marks om father to dghter (creatg a lbian) and of ttosterone-limg epi-marks om mother to son (creatg a gay man).

ARE YOU BORN GAY OR IS A CHOICE? SCIENTISTS MIGHT HAVE FOUND THE ANSWER

It is tertg to note that this mol poss homosexualy as an aberrant accint of nature, which normal prenatal velopment of a fet produc the tend effect (heterosexualy), and abnormal prenatal velopment produc an untend effect (homosexualy) by mistake. Abnormal prenatal velopment rults when a mistake is ma and an epi-mark  a parent is not erased, but is, stead, passed on to the offsprg, where s effect (homosexualy) is seen the subsequent generatn. Although this mol is highly speculative and prently has very ltle, if any, direct experimental support, do have mer as a scientific hypothis, bee 1) would expla both male and female homosexualy, 2) uld expla the low nrdance for homosexualy found tw studi, 3) seems to provi a feasible explanatn for the long-term survival of a reproductively leter tra the human populatn, and 4) is, at least to some extent, ttable.

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

Tw Studi Overview: As dited above, most of the more recent rearch has foced on the gree to which gen, along wh other prenatal factors such as hormon and epi-geics, may fluence the velopment of homosexualy. The former approach of recg intil tws via advertisements gay and lbian publitns is now known to have a very strong “volunteer effect” that produced the appearance of relatively large geic effects (8). Whehead and Whehead (8) have prented and discsed, some tail, the and other problems herent tw studi of homosexualy and have prented reasons to expect that the geic fluence on, or ntributn to, homosexualy will eventually be agreed to be the 10%-15% range (i.

They studied 46 tw pairs havg homosexualy prent one or both of the tws each pair and found that 54% of the tw pairs had discsed their sexual orientatn wh each other, 89% had “shared knowledge” of each other’s sexual orientatn, and 30% of the tw pairs had actually had sex wh each other. Bee intil tws intify so closely wh each other, and post-natal experienc – pecially close fay relatnships – strongly affect the velopment of homosexualy, seems plsible, if not likely, that a homosexual member of a tw pair would fluence the other member of that pair to embrace and explore homosexualy also, th flatg the apparent geic fluence reported intil tw studi. That is to say, a signifint portn of what may appear, intil tw studi, to be a geic fluence on the velopment of homosexualy may turn out to be, stead, a post-natal, environmental fluence volvg shared knowledge of sexual orientatn and shared sexual experienc wh intil tw pairs.

Now, pare this rult to the range of theoretilly possible out where no tw pairs would both be homosexual (= 0%) and where all tw pairs would both be homosexual (= 100%) and you n see, tuively, that a pair-wise nrdance of only 13. Therefore, on the basis of pair-wise nrdance intil tws, seems appropriate to nclu that there is, at the most, only a mor geic ntributn to the velopment of homosexualy, and that this relatively mor fluence n be overe (i. Classil Tw Studi: While pair-wise nrdance giv an tuive ditn of the geic fluence on homosexualy as exprsed intil tws, do not provi rmatn on what factors may provi the remag, non-geic fluence.

ARE HOMOSEXUAL PEOPLE REALLY “BORN GAY”?

In a meta-analysis, Whehead (18), g the rults om seven of the recent tw registry studi that were signed to reveal ntributns of both geic and non-geic factors to homosexualy, found that the mean ntributn of geics to male homosexualy was around 22%, and to female homosexualy, around 33%.

Furthermore, the non-shared, post-natal environmental ntributn to homosexualy is morate to strong, around 64%-78%, has a relatively small standard viatn and is nsistently around the same percentage (18), ditg that homosexualy is fluenced primarily by post-natal environmental factors and experienc that are not directly related to prenatal ntributns of any kd or batn.

) on the velopment of homosexualy adults is only weak to morate, is important to unrstand that all of the blogil theori discsed above n addrs only this weak to morate fluence, while ignorg the far more important post-natal fluenc (discsed below). Furthermore, the rults clearly support the ference, based on rults obtaed through therapy and unselg (14, 20, 21, 22), that post-natal, environmental fluenc have a far greater role the velopment of homosexualy than do pre-natal fluenc. Homosexualy do not nform to any geilly prcribed mol, but do appear to have an overwhelmgly cultural ponent, ebbg and flowg wh chang cultural valu and expectatns and wh personal experienc (4).

NEWS: 'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT... (THE GUARDIAN) - BEHD THE HEADL

In addn to the cultural fluenc on the velopment and practice of homosexualy mentned above, there are several other social and experiential factors that have been shown to have an important role.

WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?

” For example, men whose parents divorced before their sixth birthday were 39% more likely to “marry” homosexually than peers om tact parental marriag, and the figure for men whose habatn wh both parents end before age 18 years was the range of 55%-76% (30). In a related study, Wells, et al., (37) found that habg wh two heterosexual, non-blogil parents until the age of 16 was associated wh a two-fold crease homosexualy adulthood, pared to habg wh both blogil parents.

Schumm (26) found that adults wh a homosexual parent are 12 to 15 tim as likely to self-intify as homosexual or bisexual as are adults whout a homosexual parent, which dit that post-natal environmental factors associated wh havg a homosexual parent (such as havg a homosexual adult role mol and unequivol acceptance of homosexualy) n play a major role the velopment of a homosexual orientatn.

Numero studi have shown that both religly and secularly mediated change sexual orientatn occurs highly motivated, dissatisfied homosexuals at a rate that is parable to the succs rat generally achieved by therapists and unselors for psychologil disorrs and behavral problems, such as alholism. And send, the fact that therapy and unselg are succsful at a rate that is parable to the succs rat generally achieved by therapists and unselors for psychologil disorrs and behavral problems, such as alholism, nfirms that any predisposn to homosexualy that may be prent at birth is so weak that n be nullified by subsequent terventn.

ARE SOME PEOPLE BORN GAY?

There seems to be some nsens that homosexual people do not choose to have the same-sex attractns and sexual feelgs that they experience ially, but that don’t mean that livg a homosexual life-style do not volve choic. And the fluidy sexual orientatn, found pecially lbians but also gays, speaks to the choice of sexual orientatn available to many, if not most, homosexual people, at least until their late teens (10).

This n lead to rejectn by peers (even other peers who are homosexual) leadg to feelgs of beg different, genr non-nformy and a growg drive to make up the sensed fic through a strong nnectn wh an dividual of the same sex, which be eroticized and then manifted as homosexual behavr (3). ) It should not be surprisg, therefore, that will take a seri of very difficult personal choic and cisns ma repeatedly over a long perd of time to achieve a reversal of homosexual orientatn and/or behavr, but is possible; many exclively homosexual people have managed to do so (10, 19). No polician, church lear or member, judge, teacher or unselor, or homosexual person, or iend or fay of a homosexual person, needs to feel forced to a posn on homosexualy based on the apparent immutabily of homosexual orientatn.

So, the next time a homosexualy advote tri to nvce you that homosexual people are born gay, that God ma them that way, that their homosexualy is “natural” and/or that their homosexual orientatn nnot change, do not believe them. In 1991, a study published the journal Science seemed to show that the hypothalam, which ntrols the release of sex hormon om the puary gland, gay men differs om the hypothalam straight men. If we fe beg gay as engagg homosexual behavr (the ncept of “gay” as an inty is a Wtern cultural ncept – people who have sex wh both men and women may ll themselv gay, straight or bisexual, pendg on the l of their culture or subculture), then people stop beg gay as soon as they stop engagg this behavr.

CAN A PERSON BE BORN GAY?

If sexual preference n be altered, then people who support gay rights n’t rely on the argument that gay people should be protected om discrimatn bee gay people have no choice but to be gay – an argument that seems like an apology for homosexualy, as if homosexualy is a disease for which there is no cure. Jt as gay people who are happy as they are should not be forced to change their sexual orientatn, gay people who want to be straight should have the right to change if they n – and the rrect word is “change” – not “cure”.

Photo creds: Vanuver Gay Pri Para 2008 by edallaluna on Wikimedia Commons; DNA by ynse on Wikimedia Commons; Bra fMRI by views exprsed are those of the thor(s) and are not necsarily those of Scientific Amerin.