There’s (Still) No Gay Gene | Harvard Magaze

Contents:

• NO ‘GAY GENE’: MASSIVE STUDY HOM ON GEIC BASIS OF HUMAN SEXUALY
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE
• IS THERE A "GAY GENE"? MAJOR NEW STUDY SAYS NO
• NO SGLE ‘GAY GENE’ TERM SAME-SEX SEXUAL BEHAVR, DNA ANALYSIS FDS
• THERE’S NO EVINCE THAT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’ EXISTS
• NO 'GAY GENE', BUT STUDY FDS GEIC LKS TO SEXUAL BEHAVR
• NO 'GAY GENE': MASSIVE STUDY HOM ON GEIC BASIS OF HUMAN SEXUALY
• 'NO GAY GENE' SAYS MAJOR STUDY, BUT GEICS DO FLUENCE SEXUAL BEHAVUR
• THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT GEICS ARE LKED TO SAME-SEX BEHAVR, NEW STUDY SAYS
• THERE'S NO SUCH THG AS A 'GAY GENE,' A NEW STUDY ARGU

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

“There is no ‘gay gene’, ” says lead study thor Andrea Ganna, a geicist at the Broad Instute of MIT and Harvard Cambridge, and his lleagu also ed the analysis to timate that up to 25% of sexual behavur n be explaed by geics, wh the rt fluenced by environmental and cultural factors — a figure siar to the fdgs of smaller studi.

There is no sgle gene rponsible for a person beg gay or a lbian. The study of nearly a half ln people clos the door on the bate around the existence of a so-lled “gay gene. In s stead, the report fds that human DNA nnot predict who is gay or heterosexual.

It is worth keepg md that this study only vers some typ of sexualy — gay, lbian and cis-straight — but don’t offer many sights to genr inty.

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

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. “We worried a lot about volunteer bias, ” said Bailey, whose rearch clus a wily publicized study on Xq28 and gay brothers om 2018.

THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE

Sanrs llaborated wh Bailey on those earlier studi and said their work had always admted that there was no sgle “gay gene.

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

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.

In other words, tri to judge if a person leans gay, straight or bisexual. “[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. There is no one gene for beg gay, and though gen seem to play a role termg sexual orientatn and same-sex behavr, ’s small, plex, and anythg but termistic.

“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. I looked on the Inter for the ‘gay gene.

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

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.

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.

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.

THERE’S NO EVINCE THAT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’ EXISTS

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. New study fds there is no "gay" gene.

NO 'GAY GENE', BUT STUDY FDS GEIC LKS TO SEXUAL BEHAVR

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.

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

"That should also support the posn that we shouldn't try and velop gay cur.

"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.

'NO GAY GENE' SAYS MAJOR STUDY, BUT GEICS DO FLUENCE SEXUAL BEHAVUR

"This reflects voic om the LGBTQ+ (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer+) muny argug that a range of sexuali exist, " Mills wrote. A new study that analyzed the DNA of nearly half a ln people has found that, while geic differenc play a signifint role sexual behavr, there is no sgle gene fdgs, which looked at behavr and not sexual inty, bunk the notn of a sgular “gay gene.

THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT GEICS ARE LKED TO SAME-SEX BEHAVR, NEW STUDY SAYS

9% of men, scribed themselv as lbian or gay, and 5. “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, ” GLAAD Chief Programs Officer Zeke Stok said a statement. The work “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.

the rol of gen homosexual behavr is fanng the bate over whether. beg gay is due to gen or environment. “There is no ‘gay gene’ that term.

THERE'S NO SUCH THG AS A 'GAY GENE,' A NEW STUDY ARGU

geics acunt for about 32 percent of herabily of homosexual behavr. om pletely heterosexual to homosexual after all. By Kate KellandLONDON (Rters) - A large scientific study to the blogil basis of sexual behavr has nfirmed there is no sgle "gay gene" but that a plex mix of geics and environment affects whether a person has same-sex sexual rearch, which analyzed data on DNA and sexual experienc om almost half a ln people, found there are thoands of geic variants lked to same-sex sexual behavr, most wh very small of the geic markers were "signifintly" associated wh same-sex behavr, the rearchers said, but even the are far om beg predictive of a person's sexual preferenc.