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

Contents:

• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• SEARCH FOR 'GAY GEN' COM UP SHORT IN LARGE NEW STUDY
• NO ‘GAY GENE’: MASSIVE STUDY HOM ON GEIC BASIS OF HUMAN SEXUALY
• THE LIFE OF THE GAY GENE: OM HYPOTHETIL GEIC MARKER TO SOCIAL REALY
• WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A TOTAL MYTH, MASSIVE STUDY CONCLUS
• THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE
• THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT GEICS ARE LKED TO SAME-SEX BEHAVR, NEW STUDY SAYS
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS
• SCIENTISTS QUASH IA OF 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. 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. “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.

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

“[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.

In an terview, she said the study is further evince that prev reports of a "gay gene" on the X chromosome are wrong.

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

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. “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.

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

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.

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

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. 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. Gay uncl and nts, for example, are “helpers the nt” that help raise other fay members’ children to nurture the fay tree.

WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

” 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.

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. Latterly, the gay gene has entered to the onle bmedil databas of the 21st century wh the same pattern of persistence and dimishg crique. Prs and onle databas to reprent the procs through which the addrs of the gay gene has shifted and bee an x of bmedilizatn.

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

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. 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.

Alan Sanrs at North Shore Universy, Illois, and his team ppoted the gen by parg DNA om 1077 gay and 1231 straight men.

THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE

Intertgly, this bra regn ntas the hypothalam, which was intified 1991 as differg size between gay and straight men.

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

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. There have been studi suggtg that there is a geic element to homosexualy women, but more rearch has been done men, says Sanrs. 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.

Those who nsir beg gay a disadvantage life (which still is, certa societi), might regard gay people differently if they knew that beg gay was an hered tra, rather than a nsequence of life events, such as a particular type of upbrgg, or mixg wh certa sorts of iends or even a liberate cisn. The law also might take a different view those untri (aga, there are still many) which beg gay is a crimal offense.

An early study claimed that if one pair of (male) intil tws (who have intil geic patterns) was gay, there was a 100 percent chance of the other one also beg gay.

THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS

It was quickly shown that, fact, the real chance of two intil tws beg gay was around 40-50 percent, whereas was ls non-intil on, though still somewhat greater than the general populatn. There was another, much smaller, group who said they were entirely gay (about 6 percent), and a stterg of even smaller numbers who claimed to be bisexual. Firstly, they found very few gen whose variatns were rrelated wh beg gay, or even havg a sgle same-sex partner.

Estimat as to the number of gay people the populatn range om 1--20 to 1--10, so why are some people gay? In other words, 5-10% of people experience same-sex sexual attractn or behavr; of urse, this don't speak to what mak people gay.

No one knows for certa why any dividual is gay, but the current thought is that beg gay is not a choice. Morn science is workg to show that geics is one of the of beg gay, although some science nflicts this area. Study of fay history reveals that homosexual men have more homosexuals their fay tree than do heterosexuals.

SCIENTISTS QUASH IA OF SGLE 'GAY GENE'

While psychologil factors may crease the likelihood that someone is gay, no sgle factor is known to e homosexualy. It very much appears that same-sex sexual attractn is not a choice but actg on is; so if you fe gay as the mere prence of same-sex attractn, then om everythg we unrstand, beg gay is not a choice. If, on the other hand, you nsir someone to be gay only if they act on their same-sex attractn then beg gay n be nsired a choice pendg on an dividual's behavr.

Whether science n ultimately prove the blogy of beg gay or not, 's important to support all adults their choic no matter how they intify. Wisns has long been a forenner LGBTQ+ advocy, ever sce was the first state to pass anti-discrimatn legislatn for the LGBTQ muny 1982, givg the tle of "the first gay rights state.