News: There’s no one ‘gay gene,’ but... (The Washgton Post) - Behd the headl - NLM

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
• THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT GEICS ARE LKED TO SAME-SEX BEHAVR, NEW STUDY SAYS
• IS THERE A "GAY GENE"? MAJOR NEW STUDY SAYS NO
• NO SGLE GENE ASSOCIATED WH BEG GAY
• THERE’S NO EVINCE THAT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’ EXISTS
• NO SGLE ‘GAY GENE’ TERM SAME-SEX SEXUAL BEHAVR, DNA ANALYSIS FDS
• SEARCH FOR 'GAY GEN' COM UP SHORT IN LARGE NEW STUDY
• NO 'GAY GENE', BUT STUDY FDS GEIC LKS TO SEXUAL BEHAVR
• NO 'GAY GENE': MASSIVE STUDY HOM ON GEIC BASIS OF HUMAN SEXUALY
• NEWS: THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT... (THE WASHGTON POST) - BEHD THE HEADL
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A TOTAL MYTH, MASSIVE STUDY CONCLUS
• MANY GEN INFLUENCE SAME-SEX SEXUALY, NOT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’

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

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.

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

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.

THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE

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

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.

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

“[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 ‘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 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.

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

“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. 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.

NO SGLE GENE ASSOCIATED WH BEG GAY

’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. 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.

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

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.

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

The rearchers say that, although variatns the gen nnot predict whether a person is gay, the variants may partly fluence sexual Ganna, lead thor and European Molecular Blogy Laboratory group lear at the Instute of Molecular Medice Fland, said the rearch rerc the unrstandg that same-sex sexual behavr is simply “a natural part of our diversy as a speci. Some of the variants were rrelated wh same-sex sexual behavr men, others women, and some Vila, director of the Center for Geic Medice Rearch at Children’s Natnal Health System, said the study marks the end of “the simplistic ncept of the ‘gay gene.

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

For stance, rearch has shown patterns fai wh multiple men the same fay intifyg as gay. Environmental effects may be a factor for some people; for stance, havg olr brothers creas the odds that younger brothers will be gay, which rearchers spect may have to do wh chang to the mother’s immune system rponse to the earlier Stok, chief programs officer for GLAAD, said a statement that the new rearch on the geics “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.

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

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': MASSIVE STUDY HOM ON GEIC BASIS OF HUMAN SEXUALY

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. "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. "This reflects voic om the LGBTQ+ (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer+) muny argug that a range of sexuali exist, " Mills wrote. Image source, Getty ImagA geic analysis of almost half a ln people has nclud there is no sgle "gay gene" study, published Science, ed data om the UK Bbank and 23andMe, and found some geic variants associated wh same-sex geic factors acunted for, at most, 25% of same-sex behavur.

Advocy group GLAAD said the study nfirmed "no nclive gree to which nature or nurture fluenced how a gay or lbian person behav. "There is no sgle gay gene, and a geic tt for if you're gog to have a same-sex relatnship is not gog to work. "Fah Sathirapongsasuti, senr scientist at 23andMe, add; "This is a natural and normal part of the variatn our speci and that should also support precisely the posn that we shouldn't try and velop gay 'curism'.

NEWS: THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT... (THE WASHGTON POST) - BEHD THE HEADL

"David Curtis, honorary profsor at the UCL Geics Instute, Universy College London, said: "This study clearly shows that there is no such thg as a 'gay gene'.

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

"Even if homosexualy is not geilly termed, as this study shows, that do not mean that is not some way an nate and dispensable part of an dividual's personaly. "Zeke Stok, om the LGBT media advocy anisatn GLAAD, said: "This new rearch re-nfirms the long-tablished unrstandg that there is no nclive gree to which nature or nurture fluence how a gay or lbian person behav. 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.

“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. Dpe the numbers, many people still nsir homosexual behavr to be an anomalo choice.

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

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.