Gay geics - BBC Science Foc Magaze

Contents:

• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• THE GAY GENE: NEW EVINCE SUPPORTS AN OLD HYPOTHIS
• THERE’S NO EVINCE THAT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’ EXISTS
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• 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
• WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
• NO ‘GAY GENE’: MASSIVE STUDY HOM ON GEIC BASIS OF HUMAN SEXUALY
• THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT GEICS ARE LKED TO SAME-SEX BEHAVR, NEW STUDY SAYS
• HOW OUR GEN ULD MAKE GAY OR STRAIGHT
• 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

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.

“[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 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.

IS BEG GAY GEIC?

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. 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. None of the variatns seemed to greatly affect sexual behavur on s own, backg up prev rearch that has found no sign of a ‘gay gene’.

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. First and foremost, before I start, I want to state that I am no way homophobic or have anythg agast gay people.

THE GAY GENE: NEW EVINCE SUPPORTS AN OLD HYPOTHIS

I support the gay rights movement, but I have been thkg this for a while, and don't know where I n ask this qutn asi om r/askscience.

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

Speakg om an evolutnary standpot, 's not humany's bt tert to be gay bee by beg gay, you n't pass on your gen to your offsprg.

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. As the ease and affordabily of genome sequencg creased, addnal gene ndidat have emerged wh potential lks to homosexual behavr.

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

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.

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

Gay uncl and nts, for example, are “helpers the nt” that help raise other fay members’ children to nurture the fay tree. ” For example, certa gen women help crease their fertily, but if the gen are exprsed a male, they predispose him toward homosexualy.

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

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. For que a long time rearchers and the general populatn everywhere have discsed whether gay people are nceived or ma-whether their sexual troductn is the nsequence of a heredary toll of the bon or a mix of velopment factors their childhood. Acrdg to the article “Innate-Immutable” one rearcher stat “our sexual bodi were signed for reproductn…No one is born gay.

It uld me beg happy, or lighthearted or reee, and even homosexual, But today we e the word for only one meang and that’s towards people that have the same attractn to the same genr. Simon LeVay is a nroscientist that was tryg to fd a gene that would prove that beg gay is somethg that you are born wh. I have a few gay iends that say they don’t believe ’s a gene bee as you get old and start to h puberty, you start seeg and explorg new thgs.

There are a lot of rearchers that are dog all this rearch and still do not have enough evince to prove that there is a gene gay people are born wh. ” Bieber explas that beg a homosexual is a choice and a liftyle that men or woman pick to live and that has nothg to do wh a gene. Also acrdg to the article stat “LeVay termed that a ty area believed to ntrol sexual activy was ls than half the size the gay men than the heterosexual.

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

After all, you would expect that homosexuals would have fewer children than heterosexuals, so that any geic e of homosexualy would have been selected out of the gene pool a long time ago. The mothers and maternal nts of gay men have “creased fecundy pared wh rrpondg maternal female relativ of heterosexual men, ” the thors of the study wre.

” The gay gene — or gen — are thought to exist on the X chromosome, and “crease the reproductive value” of the female relativ. Not only are the maternal relativ of gay men more attractive, more fertile and subject to fewer plitns durg pregnancy, the study also found the women are extroverts and generally happier.

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

” And yet, Syk’s view, is highly unlikely there exists “a simple gay gene” that you eher have or don’t have.

To put another way, the ia that a simple gay gene exists “as a kd of mutatn” is downright ludicro, acrdg to Syk. However, Syk also pots out that there is some evince that suggts the possibily of a geic associatn wh homosexualy whout the existence of a mutated gene.

HOW OUR GEN ULD MAKE GAY OR STRAIGHT

I thk there’s a possibily, at least ’s somethg to argue about, that a siar thg is operatg humans as regards male homosexualy. If the existence of the ‘gay gene’ is ever proven nclively, is unlikely to have much of an impact on the beliefs of some people who reject homosexualy as a “liftyle. Ined, there are some people who want to bury their heads the sand, and that is an issue that impacts the field of geics general, gay gene or no gay gene.

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. Study of fay history reveals that homosexual men have more homosexuals their fay tree than do heterosexuals.

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.

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

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. It’s held aloft by Dr Alan Sanrs and a group of lleagu om NorthShore Universy near Chigo who are attendg a gay pri ftival.

Sanrs is now analysg that data and the rults uld tell once and for all whether there’s such a thg as a ‘gay gene’. The search for ‘gay gen’ go back to 1993, when a US team led by Dr Dean Hamer scribed a regn of DNA loted on the X chromosome lled Xq28. “Conservative, right-wg people hated bee they felt that was sayg that beg gay is like beg black, that was -born, that would somehow ‘exce’ gay people or give them more rights, ” says Hamer.