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

Contents:

• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS
• WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
• IS BEG GAY YOUR DNA? SCIENTISTS KEEP TRYG TO FD A GEIC BASIS FOR SEXUAL ORIENTATN
• THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT GEICS ARE LKED TO SAME-SEX BEHAVR, NEW STUDY SAYS
• NEW STUDY FDS GEICS INFLUENCE LGBTQ SEXUALY, BUT STILL NO 'GAY GENE'
• THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE
• GAY RIGHTS

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

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.

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

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. 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.

IS BEG GAY GEIC?

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.

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.

SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY

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

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. Specifilly, the fact that geics n expla up to 32 percent of the fact that someone is gay or lbian, do not mean that sexual inty is termed primarily by environmental factors – not to mentn social on.

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

“Bee we had this uniquely large study, ” he ntued, “which allowed to have robt nclns, and bee we had the technology to measure the geic markers of so many dividuals, the time was right to nfirm somethg that we expected: There is no one specific gay gene.

IS BEG GAY YOUR DNA? SCIENTISTS KEEP TRYG TO FD A GEIC BASIS FOR SEXUAL ORIENTATN

”At the same time, adds Ganna, a geicist at Harvard Medil School and at Fland’s Instute of Molecular Medice, “Not everyone is terpretg the fact that there’s no sgle ‘gay gene’ the right way. ” which wonred, skeptilly: If the study prov that homosexualy is related to the environment, above all, and not to heredy – why isn’t right and proper, scientific terms, to allow those who so sire to unrgo treatment orr to rce their same-sex sir, which have now been shown not to be geic?

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

An article published two years ago (about a study which all the subjects had taken part a gay pri para Toronto) found a nnectn between that hand and the gay person’s “role bed”: that is, the proportn of left-hand gays who fed their sexual behavr as passive or versatile (i. A gay pri para Toronto, Geoff Robs / AFPIn rearch nducted over the years on the subject of the nnectn between sexual orientatn and other attribut of the body, the hand holds a place of honor.

However, no such differenc were found between gay and straight year a team of scientists led by a Brish psychologist measured the fgers of 18 pairs of intil female tws, one lbian, the other straight. And, they add to bolster their argument, fdgs of studi volvg those fgers have not been replited scientific field of “gay science” has been on a roll recent years, but has a far longer history. A leadg scientist this field is Brish-Amerin nroblogist Simon LeVay, who 1990 performed topsi on the bodi of 41 people: 19 gay men, 16 straight men and ne women.

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

He disvered that the bra cells known as INAH-3 among the ceased gay men were relatively small, and closer size to those of women than to heterosexual mal.

“In 1991, ” LeVay told Haaretz a phone nversatn, “I published a study that got a lot of media attentn, related to my observatn that there was a regn si the hypothalam that was different size between men and women, and also between gay and straight men… My addnal fdg was the difference size between gay and straight men this regn si the hypothalam that is volved the regulatn of sexual behavr.

THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE

“And that is characteristic geics of somethg on the X chromosome – bee mal get their X chromosom om their moms… That led to look fai where there were gay brothers, to see if they shared anythg on the X chromosome. For example, we’ll fd a gene that is rponsible for the productn of ttosterone, and if s functng was low, would be possible to say that this is the e of homosexualy a particular person….

GAY RIGHTS

”As Hamer se , “If you look for those five markers, or even jt the three strongt markers, they are not necsarily found people who actually intify as gay or lbian.