Personal Views: The search for the gay gene - PMC

Contents:

• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• THE LIFE OF THE GAY GENE: OM HYPOTHETIL GEIC MARKER TO SOCIAL REALY
• NO ‘GAY GENE’: MASSIVE STUDY HOM ON GEIC BASIS OF HUMAN SEXUALY
• SEARCH FOR 'GAY GEN' COM UP SHORT IN LARGE NEW STUDY
• THE REAL STORY ON GAY GEN
• THE SEARCH FOR THE GAY GENE
• WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A TOTAL MYTH, MASSIVE STUDY CONCLUS
• SCIENTISTS QUASH IA OF SGLE 'GAY GENE'
• THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE
• MANY GEN INFLUENCE SAME-SEX SEXUALY, NOT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’

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

The news this week that the largt study of s kd failed to nfirm the existence of a "gay gene" is not so much a disappotment for those lookg to unrstand the LGBTQ muny, as is an acknowledgement that science do not need to tell what should be plaly obv: gays, lbians, bisexuals and pansexuals are who they are.

"There is no ‘gay gene’ that term whether someone has same-sex partners, ” said Ganna, who is also a geicist at the Broad Instute of MIT and Harvard as well as the Universy of Helski. While the variatns the gen are not enough to raise a rabow flag and label anyone as unqutnably gay, the rearchers say the blogil variants may at the very least partly fluence sexual behavr.

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

This new rearch, he said “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. Geics nnot tell "the whole story, " as Eric Vila, director of the Center for Geic Medice Rearch at Children’s Natnal Health System, told the Post, about what "mak" somebody gay.

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. 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.

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

“[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. 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.

Rears would do well to discern and distst every variety of psdo-science, whether voked to jtify a relig philosophy (as evolutn for philosophil humanism), a polil iology (as evolutn for both Nazism and Socialism), or a qutnable human behavr (as the ‘gay gene’ myth for homosexual nduct). In an effort to affect public policy and ga acceptance, the assertn often is ma that homosexuals serve equal rights jt as other mory groups—and should not be punished for, or forbidn om, exprsg their homosexualy.

E., full and equal cizenship of racial mori), social liberals, femists, and homosexual activists were provid wh the perfect “at tail” to ri to advance their agenda. The perceptn is that the dividuals share the same apartment buildgs, offic, clubs, etc., wh heterosexual people, and that we need to realize jt how prevalent homosexualy is. If we were to start a new televisn s, and wanted to accurately portray homosexual rats society, we would need 199 heterosexual actors before we fally troduced one homosexual actor.

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

Prr to 1973, homosexualy appeared the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM), the official reference book ed by the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn for diagnosg mental disorrs Ameri and throughout much of the rt of the world.

Today, there is no mentn of homosexualy the DSM-IV (asi om a sectn scribg genr inty disorr), ditg that dividuals wh this ndn are not suable ndidat for therapy (see Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, 2000). Several thors have argued that clicians who attempt to help their clients change their homosexual orientatn are vlatg profsnal ethil s by providg a “treatment” that is effective, often harmful, and rerc their clients the false belief that homosexualy is a disorr and needs treatment (2003, 32:403).

The first “signifint” published study that dited a possible blogil role for homosexualy me om Simon LeVay, who was then at the Salk Instute for Blogil Studi San Diego, California.

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

LeVay measured a particular regn of the bra (the terstial nuclei of the anterr hypothalam—INAH) postmortem tissue of three distct groups: (1) women; (2) men who were prumed to be heterosexual; (3) and homosexual men.

LeVay reported that clters of the nrons (INAH) homosexual men were the same size as clters women, both of which were signifintly smaller than clters heterosexual men. Though, on average, the size of the hypothalamic nucls LeVay nsired signifint was ed smaller the men he intified as homosexual, his published data show that the range of siz of the dividual sampl was virtually the same as for the heterosexual men. The fact that aternal tws of gay men were roughly twice as likely to be gay as other blogil brothers shows that environmental factors are volved, sce aternal tws are no more siar blogilly than are other blogil brothers.

THE REAL STORY ON GAY GEN

While the thors terpreted their fdgs as evince for a geic basis for homosexualy, we thk that the data fact provi strong evince for the fluence of the environment (1993, p. Hamer and his lleagu llected fay history rmatn om 76 gay male dividuals and 40 gay brother pairs as they searched for cinc of homosexualy among relativ of gay men. Of the 40 pairs of homosexual brothers he analyzed, Hamer found that 33 exhibed a matchg DNA regn lled q28—a gene loted at the tip of the long arm of the X chromosome.

”] Ironilly, however, the removal of homosexualy as a signatn om the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Psychiatric Disorrs by the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn has kept many physicians om attemptg to provi reparative therapy to homosexuals. Robert Spzer nducted a study on 200 self-selected dividuals (143 mal, 57 femal) an effort to see if participants uld change their sexual orientatn om homosexual to heterosexual (2003, 32:403-417).

The majory of participants gave reports of change om a predomantly or exclively homosexual orientatn before therapy to a predomantly or exclively heterosexual orientatn the past year (p.

THE SEARCH FOR THE GAY GENE

In summarizg his fdgs, Spzer clared: “Th, there is evince that change sexual orientatn followg some form of reparative therapy do occur some gay men and lbians. Before treatment, 68 percent of the rponnts perceived themselv as exclively or almost entirely homosexual, wh another 22 percent statg that they were more homosexual than heterosexual.

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

After treatment, only 13 percent perceived themselv as exclively or almost entirely homosexual, while 33 percent scribed themselv as eher exclively or almost entirely heterosexual (see Nilosi, 2000, 86:1071).

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

Although 83 percent of rponnts dited that they entered therapy primarily bee of homosexualy, 99 percent of those who participated the survey said they now believe treatment to change homosexualy n be effective and valuable (p.

SCIENTISTS QUASH IA OF SGLE 'GAY GENE'

On the one hand, they are told that is “uhil” for a clician to provi reparative therapy bee homosexualy is not a diagnosable disorr, and th one should not seek to change. But even given the ser shortgs om behavral studi such as the, there are sufficient data to dite that an dividual n change his or her sexual orientatn om homosexual to heterosexual—somethg that would be an impossibily if homosexualy were ed by geics. Consir the obv problem of survival for dividuals who allegedly posss a gay gene: dividuals who have partners of the same sex are blogilly unable to reproduce (whout rortg to artificial means).

THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE

Dean Byrd, and Richard Potts (2000), “Retrospective Self-reports of Chang Homosexual Orientatn: A Consumer Survey of Conversn Therapy Clients, ” Psychologil Reports, 86:1071-1088, June. “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. 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.

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. 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.

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.

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

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.

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. Still others, backg the same e, disurage any vtigatn to the blogil origs of sexual orientatn, fearful that posive rults will lead to attempts to rid the world of potential homosexuals. For them, the disvery of how an dividual be gay is likely to shed light on how sexualy-related gen build bras, how people of any persuasn are attracted to each other, and perhaps even how homosexualy evolved.