There's No Such Thg as a 'Gay Gene,' Massive Study Conclus | Live Science

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 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.

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

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. 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.

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

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).

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.

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. Such a tt uld, prciple, be ed to screen embryos or as evince agast adults acced of homosexual activy a untry where ’s illegal. Will we see nversn therapists drawg on rults om this paper, maybe tryg to preempt homosexualy children too young to even articulate a sexual orientatn?

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

The geic ponent is not due to a sgle “gay gene. Journal of Homosexualy, 63:1, 1–27, DOI: 10.

To evolutnary blogists, the geics of homosexualy seems like a paradox. In theory, humans and other animals who are exclively attracted to others of the same sex should be unlikely to produce many blogil children, so any gen that predispose people to homosexualy would rarely be passed on to future generatns. Yet same-sex attractn is wispread humans, and rearch suggts that is partly a study of data om hundreds of thoands of people, rearchers have now intified geic patterns that uld be associated wh homosexual behavur, and showed how the might also help people to fd different-sex mat, and reproduce.

THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE

The thors say their fdgs, published on 23 Augt Nature Human Behavur1, uld help to expla why gen that predispose people to homosexualy ntue to be passed down. No ‘gay gene’: Massive study hom on geic basis of human sexualy. None of the variatns seemed to greatly affect sexual behavur on s own, backg up prev rearch that has found no sign of a ‘gay gene’.

Most of the participants were born durg a time when homosexualy was eher illegal or culturally taboo their untri, so many people who were attracted to others of the same sex might never have actually acted on their attractn, and uld therefore have end up the wrong group the Monk, an elogist and evolutnary blogist at Yale Universy New Haven, Connecticut, thks that the veats are so important that the paper n’t draw any real nclns about geics and sexual orientatn. Instead, he thks the rearchers have found geic markers associated wh openns to new experienc, which uld expla the overlap between people who have had a homosexual partner and heterosexual people who have had many partners. And he adms that g a sgle homosexual experience as an ditn of sexual orientatn isn’t ial, but says that the UK Bbank didn’t provi data on attractn.

But blogy do part terme sexual orientatnIN 1993 A regn of the human genome lled Xq28 was lked to male homosexualy, and the ntroversial notn of a “gay gene” was born. The figur the GWAS produced, therefore, relate only to a sgle act, not to whether someone intifi as rearchers found five geic markers that were signifintly associated wh a reported homosexual act by one of the participants the study. Tottg up all the thoands of tted geic variants acunted for between 8% and 25% of the variatn people’s self-reported homosexual acts.