There's No Such Thg as a 'Gay Gene,' a New Study Argu | Time

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
• WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
• NO SGLE ‘GAY GENE’ TERM SAME-SEX SEXUAL BEHAVR, DNA ANALYSIS FDS
• THE LIFE OF THE GAY GENE: OM HYPOTHETIL GEIC MARKER TO SOCIAL REALY
• THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE
• GAY GEICSMOST OF BELIEVE THAT WE WERE BORN THAT WAY, BUT IS SEXUAL ORIENTATN OUR DNA? JV CHAMARY GO SEARCH OF THE GAY GENEJV CHAMARYPUBLISHED: MAY 31, 2009 AT 11:00 PMGAY GEICS
• SCIENTISTS FD DNA DIFFERENC BETWEEN GAY MEN AND THEIR STRAIGHT TW BROTHERS
• IS BEG GAY YOUR DNA? SCIENTISTS KEEP TRYG TO FD A GEIC BASIS FOR SEXUAL ORIENTATN
• 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
• IS THERE A 'GAY GENE'? THE PROBLEM WH STUDI NNECTG GEICS AND LGBTQ INTY
• THERE'S NO SUCH THG AS A 'GAY GENE,' A NEW STUDY ARGU
• CONTROVERSIAL ‘GAY GENE’ APP PROVOK FEARS OF A GEIC WILD WT

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

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. 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.

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

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. “[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.

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

“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. Some people who have had sex wh a same-sex partner don’t nsir themselv gay and aren’t exclively attracted to people of the same sex, Bailey says. Men the new study who said they have had same-sex partners, tend to be more exclively homosexual than women were, Ganna and lleagu found.

Bbank dataset, for example, younger people reported havg same-sex partners more often than olr people did, probably bee homosexual activy was illegal the Uned Kgdom until 1967. In the new study, the more exclively homosexual partners men had, the fewer children they had; up to 80 percent fewer children than heterosexual men.

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

We have known for s that sexual orientatn is partly herable men, thanks to studi of fai which some people are straight and some people are gay. In 1993, geic variatns a regn on the X chromosome men were lked to whether they were heterosexual or homosexual, and 1995, a regn on chromosome 8 was intified. Grave’s disease is more mon gay than straight men, and some rearch suggts that gay men tend to be thner – which might possibly be a rult of thyroid overdrive.

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

The latt fdgs open the prospect to intifyg the whole pathway of gen volved both homosexual and heterosexual orientatn, says Dean Hamer at the US Natnal Instut of Health, who led the study that ppoted chromosome X back 1993. 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.

GAY GEICSMOST OF BELIEVE THAT WE WERE BORN THAT WAY, BUT IS SEXUAL ORIENTATN OUR DNA? JV CHAMARY GO SEARCH OF THE GAY GENEJV CHAMARYPUBLISHED: MAY 31, 2009 AT 11:00 PMGAY GEICS

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.

SCIENTISTS FD DNA DIFFERENC BETWEEN GAY MEN AND THEIR STRAIGHT TW BROTHERS

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.

IS BEG GAY YOUR DNA? SCIENTISTS KEEP TRYG TO FD A GEIC BASIS FOR SEXUAL ORIENTATN

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. 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.

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.

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

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. Your gen terme your sexual orientatn, study suggtsA NEW study parg the DNA of homosexual and heterosexual men uld prove that sexual orientatn is rooted a person’s HAS long been bated whether sexual orientatn is a rult of a person’s blogy or is termed by environmental factors and outsi fluenc.

Scientists pared the whole genom of around 1000 homosexual men and 1200 heterosexual men and found there were two specific DNA regns that differed between the of the regns alt wh a gene that plays an important role bra velopment and hormone productn, which uld also be lked to a person’s sexual other gene is lked to thyroid functn, which is an area prevly been lked wh sexual orientatn, acrdg to the thors of the some geic differenc were found the areas, the rearchers have utned that the rults are “bt scribed as speculative”, but still leave rearchers a step closer to unrstandg how sexual preferenc velop.

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

“As this study was rried out European men, we do not know whether the fdgs will apply to homosexualy women, or even to homosexualy non-European men. “All that is required to see a geic associatn this study is for slightly more homosexual men to rry the geic variant than heterosexual men, and many tim this will simply be due to chance.

It is important to note that the same-sex soc-sexual behavr observed the study is distct om homosexual behavr bee s motivatn and purpose are social, said Jean-Baptiste Le, who studi primate behavr at the Universy of Lethbridge Canada and was not volved the new rearch.

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

However, spe such tenuo provenance, the gay gene has persisted as a reference science news, popular science wrgs, and prs releas and edorials about bmedil rearch. News media monstrat that the gay gene has bee an assumed back-story to geic sexualy rearch over time, and that the crique of s very existence has been dimished.

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

The nsequent unmoorg of the gay gene om acuntabily and accuracy monstrat that the anizatn of bmedil databas uld benef om greater cross-disciplary attentn.

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.

CONTROVERSIAL ‘GAY GENE’ APP PROVOK FEARS OF A GEIC WILD WT

“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.