There’s no evince that a sgle ‘gay gene’ exists

(The Guardian) 'Gay gen': science is on the right track, we're born this way. Let’s al wh .. Associated rearch fdgs om the Natnal Library of Medice. * gay gene not *

“There is no sgle gay gene, but rather the ntributn of many small geic effects sttered across the genome, ” he emphasized. “We know that smell has a strong tie to sexual attractn, but s lks to sexual behavrs are not clear, ” said -thor Andrea Ganna, an stctor at HMS and Massachetts General Hospal om the Instute for Molecular Medice study is part a rponse to gay, lbian, and bisexual people’s cursy about themselv, said Fah Sathirapongsasuti, a senr scientist at 23andMe and -thor on the study, who is himself gay. Sathirapongsasuti wasn’t the only one lookg to the putative “gay gene” for self-unrstandg or validatn.

Michael Bronski, profsor of the practice media and activism wh the mtee on studi of women, genr, and sexualy, and thor of A Queer History of the Uned Stat, says the allure of a “gay gene” grew om the flourishg gay-rights movement the after the Stonewall rts 1969.

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

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 * gay gene not *

Conservative opponents of the movement claimed that “homosexual acts are a choice, people choose to m them, or people are sced to the gay liftyle, ” he explas. ’77, then a rearcher at the Natnal Instut of Health, published rults showg a rrelatn between male homosexual behavr and a clter of gen, lled Xq28, at the tip of the X chromosome.

IS THERE A "GAY GENE"? MAJOR NEW STUDY SAYS NO

Exactly which gene this clter may be volved has proven elive—the current study found no signifint associatn between the X chromosome and same-sex sexual behavr—but the ia that a “gay gene” might lie somewhere Xq28—or elsewhere—was ptivatg.

Zeke Stok, chief programs officer of the LGBTQ advocy anizatn GLAAD, ncurred an emailed statement: “This new study provis even more evince that beg gay or lbian is a natural part of human life, a ncln that has been drawn by rearchers and scientists time and aga. ”Not everyone has embraced the approach of legimizg homosexualy through geics, however. Others have warned that the search for a geic e would pathologize homosexualy the same way psychology did the twentieth century: efforts by psychoanalysts such as Irvg Bieber led to the cln of homosexualy the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs until 1972.

As noted above, the gen that rrelated wh same-sex sexual behavr also rrelated wh willgns to take risks, a nnectn that might not hold up cultur where homosexualy is ls stigmatized and those who are ls risk tolerant would therefore feel more able to act openly.

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

Muny there said they were worried the fdgs uld give ammunn to people who seek to e science to bolster bias and discrimatn agast gay ncern is that evince that gen fluence same-sex behavr uld e anti-gay activists to ll for gene edg or embryo selectn, even if that would be technilly impossible. Another fear is that evince that gen play only a partial role uld emboln people who sist beg gay is a choice and who advote tactics like nversn therapy.

Dpe s limatns, the rearch was much larger and more varied than prev studi, which generally foced on gay men, often those who were tws or were otherwise related. “That right there is the big issue wh lookg for the geics of sexual orientatn — social ntext uld be a big part of the exprsn of the tra, ” said Jeremy Yor, an assistant profsor of blogy at California State Universy, Northridge, who is gay and follows geic rearch the field. He and others noted that olr participants me of age when homosexual behavr was crimalized Bra and that for much of their life homosexualy was classified as a psychiatric Reilly and others said such stark differenc between olr and younger participants show the tricks of tryg to draw reprentative blogil rmatn om a study populatn so strongly fluenced by society’s changg attus.

Dean Hamer, a former Natnal Instut of Health scientist who led the first high-profile study intifyg a geic lk to beg gay 1993, said he was happy to see such a large rearch effort. “Havg said that, I’d like to emphasize that ’s not a gay gene study — ’s a study of what mak people have a sgle same-sex experience or more, ” said Dr. More about Pam BelluckA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 1 of the New York edn wh the headle: Rearch Fds Not One ‘Gay Gene, ’ but a Multu of Influenc.

THE LIFE OF THE GAY GENE: OM HYPOTHETIL GEIC MARKER TO SOCIAL REALY

There's no such thg as a sgle "gay gene" that driv a person's sexual behavr, nclus the largt geic study ever nducted on the issue.

"This new study provis even more evince that that beg gay or lbian is a natural part of human life, a ncln that has been drawn by rearchers and scientists time and aga, " said GLAAD Chief Programs Officer Zeke Stok. This new rearch also renfirms the long-tablished unrstandg that there is no nclive gree to which nature or nurture fluence how a gay or lbian person behav. "This reflects voic om the LGBTQ+ (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer+) muny argug that a range of sexuali exist, " Mills wrote.

NO SGLE ‘GAY GENE’ TERM SAME-SEX SEXUAL BEHAVR, DNA ANALYSIS FDS

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. But here's the quote that will light opponents of LGBTQ rights, some of whom sist they n "nvert" gay people to choose to be straight by prayg the gay away:.

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

"There is no ‘gay gene’ that term whether someone has same-sex partners,” said Ganna, who is also a geicist at the Broad Instute of MIT and Harvard as well as the Universy of Helski. While the variatns the gen are not enough to raise a rabow flag and label anyone as unqutnably gay, the rearchers say the blogil variants may at the very least partly fluence sexual behavr. This new rearch, he said “provis even more evince that beg gay or lbian is a natural part of human life, a ncln that has been drawn by rearchers and scientists time and aga.

This new rearch also renfirms the long tablished unrstandg that there is no nclive gree to which nature or nurture fluence how a gay or lbian person behav.”. Geics nnot tell "the whole story," as Eric Vila, director of the Center for Geic Medice Rearch at Children’s Natnal Health System, told the Post, about what "mak" somebody gay.

WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?

But even if people are not "Born This Way," as Lady Gaga sang, at last now we n jo Gloria Gaynor sgg, "I Am What I Am.".

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. The 2019 study is the latt a hunt for “gay gen” that began 1993, when Dean Hamer lked male homosexualy to a sectn of the X chromosome.

IS THERE A “GAY GENE"?

As the ease and affordabily of genome sequencg creased, addnal gene ndidat have emerged wh potential lks to homosexual behavr. 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. Wh multiple gene ndidat beg lked to homosexualy, seemed highly unlikely that a sgle “gay” gene exists.

In rats, manipulatn of hormon durg pregnancy produc offsprg that exhib homosexual behavr.

Several hypoth have been advanced to expla how homosexualy n be beneficial perpetuatg faial gen. Gay uncl and nts, for example, are “helpers the nt” that help raise other fay members’ children to nurture the fay tree.

IS THERE A 'GAY GENE'? THE PROBLEM WH STUDI NNECTG GEICS AND LGBTQ INTY

” For example, certa gen women help crease their fertily, but if the gen are exprsed a male, they predispose him toward homosexualy. 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. 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. “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.

There’s no evince that a sgle ‘gay gene’ exists

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Contents:

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

NO ‘GAY GENE’: MASSIVE STUDY HOM ON GEIC BASIS OF HUMAN SEXUALY

THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE