There is no ‘gay gene.’ There is no ‘straight gene.’ Sexualy is jt plex, study nfirms | PBS NewsHour

Contents:

• THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT GEICS ARE LKED TO SAME-SEX BEHAVR, NEW STUDY SAYS
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• GEN LKED TO BEG GAY MAY HELP STRAIGHT PEOPLE GET MORE SEX
• THERE’S NO ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT GEICS ARE LKED TO SAME-SEX BEHAVR, STUDY SAYS
• NEW STUDY FDS GEICS INFLUENCE LGBTQ SEXUALY, BUT 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
• MANY GEN INFLUENCE SAME-SEX SEXUALY, NOT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’
• NEWS: THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT... (THE WASHGTON POST) - BEHD THE HEADL

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

The rearchers say that, although variatns the gen nnot predict whether a person is gay, the variants may partly fluence sexual Ganna, lead thor and European Molecular Blogy Laboratory group lear at the Instute of Molecular Medice Fland, said the rearch rerc the unrstandg that same-sex sexual behavr is simply “a natural part of our diversy as a speci. Some of the variants were rrelated wh same-sex sexual behavr men, others women, and some Vila, director of the Center for Geic Medice Rearch at Children’s Natnal Health System, said the study marks the end of “the simplistic ncept of the ‘gay gene. Environmental effects may be a factor for some people; for stance, havg olr brothers creas the odds that younger brothers will be gay, which rearchers spect may have to do wh chang to the mother’s immune system rponse to the earlier Stok, chief programs officer for GLAAD, said a statement that the new rearch on the geics “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.

This new rearch 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.

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

Compared to straight men, gay men are more likely to be left-hand, to be the younger siblgs of olr brothers, and to have hair that whorls a unterclockwise rearchers are fdg mon blogil tras among gay men, feedg a growg nsens that sexual orientatn is an born batn of geic and environmental factors that largely ci a person's sexual attractns before they are fdgs - cludg a highly anticipated study this wter - would further rm the bate over whether homosexualy is nate or a choice, an unrcurrent of California's recent Proposn 8 mpaign which televisn mercials warned that "schools would beg teachg send-grars that boys uld marry boys", suggtg homosexualy would then scientists say the polil and moral bate over same-sex marriage equently strayed om tablished scientific evince, cludg ments by Republin vice-printial ndidate Sarah Pal that homosexualy is "a choice" and "a cisn" 2007, CNN polls had found that a majory of Amerins believed gay people uld change their sexual orientatn if they chose to; was only last year that a majory for the first time said homosexualy was an born tra.

One proment psychiatrist, Dr Robert Spzer of Columbia Universy, found ntroversial evince that therapy n e some gay people to change to a heterosexual orientatn, although the study nclud that a "plete change" was sexual behavur may be chosen, the preponrance of rearchers say attractn is dictated by blogy, wh no monstrated ntributn om social factors such as parentg or other factors after birth. A host of studi sce the mid-1990s have found mon blogil tras between gay men, cludg left-handns and the directn of hair whorls. The likelihood that if one intil tw is gay, the other will be also be gay is much higher than the "nrdance" of homosexualy between aternal tws, ditg that gen play a role sexual orientatn, but are not the entire e.

GEN LKED TO BEG GAY MAY HELP STRAIGHT PEOPLE GET MORE SEX

"In the past , I thk the pendulum has swung more toward blogil theory and blogil , " said Richard Lippa, a psychology profsor at California State Universy-Fullerton, who has studied hair patterns and other blogil tras gay Bocklandt, a geicist at the David Geffen school of medice at UCLA, is bewilred by the argument that people choose their sexual attractn. He said that virtually every animal speci that has been studied - om sheep to u fli - has a small mory of dividuals who monstrate homosexual activy.

What scientists ll "the aternal birth orr effect", the fact that each succsive boy born to the same mother has a greater chance of beg gay, may be due to an creasg immunologil rponse by a mother's body to each male foet her discreded are theori that parentg - one mid-20th century theory held that boys raised by a domeerg mother wh a distant father were more likely to be gay - has anythg to do wh sexual orientatn.

"If you n't make a male attracted to other mal by cuttg off his penis, stratg him and rearg him as a girl, then how likely is any social explanatn of male homosexualy? Rearchers are eagerly awag a DNA study of male siblgs wh at least one gay brother by Bailey and other scientists at Northwtern Universy due early 2009, bee may shed light on the role geics plays sexual rearchg 800 sets of brothers, by far the largt study of s type, the Northwtern study is searchg for the specific gen that fluence some brothers to be gay and others to be may have more fluidy of sexual exprsn than men, but that don't mean they don't have a specific sexual orientatn, said Lisa Diamond, a profsor of psychology and genr studi at the Universy of Utah who studi female sexual explanatn is that women's sexual behavur is driven more by some women, "your sexual orientatn do not provi the last word on the sorts of behavurs and inti you might experience your lifetime, " Diamond said. 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.

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

NEW STUDY FDS GEICS INFLUENCE LGBTQ SEXUALY, BUT STILL NO 'GAY GENE'

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. Diamond disagre that rearchers need to fd a mechanism to expla the persistence of geic variants lked to homosexualy.

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. 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

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. 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. 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.

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

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.

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. 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.

NEWS: THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT... (THE WASHGTON POST) - BEHD THE HEADL

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. 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.

Importantly, most participants were asked about equency of same-sex sexual behavr but not if they self-intified as gay or lbian. "Former Natnal Instut of Health geicist Dean Hamer said the study nfirms "that sexualy is plex and there are a lot of gen volved, " but isn't really about gay people. 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.