'Gay Gene' Rearch Com Up Short : Shots - Health News : NPR

Contents:

• SEARCH FOR 'GAY GEN' COM UP SHORT IN LARGE NEW STUDY
• A NEW AGE OF GAY GENOMICS IS HERE. ARE WE READY FOR THE CONSEQUENC?
• A SCIENTIFIC STUDY HAS TABLISHED THAT THERE IS NO “GAY GENE”
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A TOTAL MYTH, MASSIVE STUDY CONCLUS
• THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE

SEARCH FOR 'GAY GEN' COM UP SHORT IN LARGE NEW STUDY

While our rearchers did not fd – nor did they expect to fd – a “gay gene” or even a geic variant that has a strong associatn wh homosexualy, they did fd some tertg rout of quiry.

A NEW AGE OF GAY GENOMICS IS HERE. ARE WE READY FOR THE CONSEQUENC?

A ltle more than five percent of those people who took the survey intify themselv as solely homosexual, while about 74 percent intified themselv as solely heterosexual.

The remar intified themselv as eher mostly, or somewhat homosexual or mostly or somewhat heterosexual, or they intified themselv as bisexual. A few of the studi have poted to possible ndidate gen associated wh homosexualy found on the X chromosome, specifilly on band Xq28, but the studi have been small and only men. As a scientist, I am fascated by the new ternatnal study that found thoands of geic variants associated wh same-sex sexual behavr, and not a mythil “gay gene.

A SCIENTIFIC STUDY HAS TABLISHED THAT THERE IS NO “GAY GENE”

There Is No ‘Gay Gene’. This rearch did not fd a “gay gene, ” and ankly, human blogy don’t work that way. In an terview, she said the study is further evince that prev reports of a "gay gene" on the X chromosome are wrong.

And bee the rearchers didn't fd gene variants that rrelated wh a gradient of sexual behavr, she says, unrcuts Aled Ksey's s-old sle, which ranked people on a spectm of sexualy, om exclively heterosexual to exclively homosexual. A New Age of Gay Genomics Is Here. The notn of a “gay gene”—a geic basis for same-sex attractn—has preoccupied scientists, gay civilians, and folks who’d rather queers didn’t exist for s.

But today, we took an important step toward real-world gay genomics: The rults of the largt-ever project signed to harns morn genome sequencg to unrstand the origs of human sexual orientatn have been published, and ’s a remarkable document—illumatg, admirable, and troublg turn. Purely terms of a search for “gay gen, ” is kd of a flop, though do shed new light on the blogy and evolutn of human sexual diversy (more on that shortly).

THE 'GAY GENE' IS A TOTAL MYTH, MASSIVE STUDY CONCLUS

At the loc wh the strongt associatn to same-sex behavr, a man rryg what we might ll the “gay variant” has a 10 percent greater chance of havg had sex wh other men.

If the basele probabily of this is about 4 percent (the equency of gay men the U.

THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE

For parison, somethg like 154 out of 1, 000 men livg San Francis intify as gay or bisexual—which means simply knowg a guy who liv that ZIP is as much as three tim more ditive that he might be gay than knowg he rri the right variant at this one loc.