Two gene variants have been found to be more mon gay men. New Scientist looks at what this tells about the way blogy shap our sexualy
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?
- SEARCH FOR 'GAY GEN' COM UP SHORT IN LARGE NEW STUDY
- WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
- THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE
- THE 'GAY GENE' IS A TOTAL MYTH, MASSIVE STUDY CONCLUS
- THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS
- 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
Why are people gay? Are they gay by choice or is beg gay geic? Are they born gay? Learn about the and reasons for beg gay. * gay is a gene *
There is no sgle gene rponsible for a person beg gay or a lbian. The study of nearly a half ln people clos the door on the bate around the existence of a so-lled “gay gene. In s stead, the report fds that human DNA nnot predict who is gay or heterosexual.
WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
* gay is a gene *
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.
SEARCH FOR 'GAY GEN' COM UP SHORT IN LARGE NEW STUDY
“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.
In other words, tri to judge if a person leans gay, straight or bisexual. “[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.
WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
2% of women and men, rpectively, intify as gay.
Dpe the numbers, many people still nsir homosexual behavr to be an anomalo choice.
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 hunt for ‘gay gen’. 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.
THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE
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. Wh multiple gene ndidat beg lked to homosexualy, seemed highly unlikely that a sgle “gay” gene exists.
In rats, manipulatn of hormon durg pregnancy produc offsprg that exhib homosexual behavr. Why do homosexual behavr exist? Several hypoth have been advanced to expla how homosexualy n be beneficial perpetuatg faial gen.
THE 'GAY GENE' IS A TOTAL MYTH, MASSIVE STUDY CONCLUS
Gay uncl and nts, for example, are “helpers the nt” that help raise other fay members’ children to nurture the fay tree.
Another ia suggts that homosexualy is a “tra-off tra. ” 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.
THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS
Do matter if there is a geic tenncy for beg gay?
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. 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. A dramatic claim was that there was a sgle geic variatn, the "gay gene, " that was found gay men.
MANY GEN INFLUENCE SAME-SEX SEXUALY, NOT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’
Alas, like so many other early reports of a "gay gene, " this one uld not be repeated. 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.
Firstly, they found very few gen whose variatns were rrelated wh beg gay, or even havg a sgle same-sex partner. Overall, geic variatns acunted for only around 1 percent of the likelihood of beg gay. But as stands, there’s no sign of a "gay gene.