The 'gay gene' is back on the scene | The Inpennt | The Inpennt

Contents:

• WHY SOME PEOPLE ARE GAY: NEW STUDY CLAIMS TRA IS PASSED OM MOTHERS TO SONS AND OM FATHERS TO DGHTERS
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• DO GAY N  FAI?
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS BACK ON THE SCENE
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS

WHY SOME PEOPLE ARE GAY: NEW STUDY CLAIMS TRA IS PASSED OM MOTHERS TO SONS AND OM FATHERS TO DGHTERS

Y, a growg body of knowledge is ditg that homosexualy n n fai, although this often has been hidn many s and not discsed openly.

Acrdg to thors Barbara and Allan Pease, there is a greater chance of a male beg gay if he has brothers, uncl, s, or parents (more on the mother’s si) who are also gay. A iend of me recently disvered—to his great surprise—that his mother was lbian and that two maternal s are gay (one male and one female) along wh a paternal uncle.

Psychologist Anthony Bogaert of Brock Universy Ontar Canada reported that the risk of beg gay creas wh the number of olr brothers. A 1995 news release om Stanford Universy dited that the probabily that the brother of a gay man is gay is about four tim higher than normal. However, male homosexualy and lbianism tend to n different fai: sisters wh gay brothers are not more likely than normal to be lbian.

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

A 1993 study that traced the pedigree of pairs of gay brothers found that homosexualy tends to n on the maternal si of the fay tree: the brothers had a higher than average number of maternal nephews and uncl who are gay. Scientists, led by Dean Hamer, an Aids rearcher at the US Natnal Cancer Instute, studied the fay histori of 114 gay mal and found that 13.

5 percent of the gay men's brothers were also homosexual, pared wh 2 percent the general populatn.

New study answers puzzle of why homosexualy seems to n faiIt would not be expected to persist given Darwian natural selectnRearchers show is an epigeic rather than a geic tra Published: 14:26 BST, 12 December 2012 | Updated: 14:26 BST, 12 December 2012 Homosexualy is passed down through the generatns om mother to son and om father to dghter, a new study an evolutnary standpot, homosexualy is a tra that would not be expected to velop and persist the face of Darwian natural selectn. It is neverthels mon for men and women most cultur and prev studi have shown that homosexualy ns fai, leadg most rearchers to prume a geic unrpng of sexual preference.

DO GAY N  FAI?

Puzzle: Scientists had long puzzled over why homosexualy appears to n fai when as a geic tra would not be expected to velop and persist the face of Darwian natural selectn However, no major gene for homosexualy has been found spe numero studi searchg for a geic a study published yterday the Quarterly Review of Blogy, rearchers om the U. Natnal Instute of Mathematil and Blogil Synthis suggt homosexualy has an epigeic lk, not a geic one.

Gay marriage: A study suggts homosexualy has an epigeic lk, not a geic one, allowg to nfound the ual l of evolutn Epi-marks are ually produced anew each generatn, but recent evince monstrat that they sometim rryover between generatns and th n ntribute to siary among relativ, remblg the effect of shared gen.

William Rice, an an evolutnary blogist at the Universy of California Santa Barbara and lead thor of the study, says epi-marks n terme the velopment of homosexualy the offsprg of heterosexual parents.

THE 'GAY GENE' IS BACK ON THE SCENE

'There is pellg evince that epi-marks ntribute to both the siary and dissiary of fay members, and n therefore feasibly ntribute to the observed faial herance of homosexualy and s low nrdance between [intil] tws, ' he told U. However, when the epi-marks are transmted across generatns om fathers to dghters or mothers to sons, they may e reversed effects, such as the femisatn of some tras sons, such as sexual preference, and siarly a partial masculisatn of study solv the evolutnary riddle of homosexualy, fdg that 'sexually antagonistic' epi-marks, which normally protect parents om natural variatn sex hormone levels durg foetal velopment, sometim rry over across generatns and e homosexualy oppose-sex offsprg.

'Transmissn of sexually antagonistic epi-marks between generatns is the most plsible evolutnary mechanism of the phenomenon of human homosexualy, ' said study -thor Sergey Gavrilets, a profsor at the Universy of Tennsee-Knoxville. 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.

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

Study of fay history reveals that homosexual men have more homosexuals their fay tree than do heterosexuals. The precise gen volved the of beg gay have not yet been intified but they appear to e om the mother. 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.