There’s (Still) No Gay Gene | Harvard Magaze

Contents:

• THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE
• NO ‘GAY GENE’: MASSIVE STUDY HOM ON GEIC BASIS OF HUMAN SEXUALY
• ABORTG BABI BEE THEY’RE GAY: COMG SOON TO CHA
• WHY GAYS DON’T GO EXTCT
• 5 SURPRISG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• MANY GEN INFLUENCE SAME-SEX SEXUALY, NOT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’

THERE’S (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.

There is no one gene for beg gay, and though gen seem to play a role termg sexual orientatn and same-sex behavr, ’s small, plex, and anythg but termistic.

“We know that smell has a strong tie to sexual attractn, but s lks to sexual behavrs are not clear, ” said -thor Andrea Ganna, an stctor at HMS and Massachetts General Hospal om the Instute for Molecular Medice study is part a rponse to gay, lbian, and bisexual people’s cursy about themselv, said Fah Sathirapongsasuti, a senr scientist at 23andMe and -thor on the study, who is himself gay. Michael Bronski, profsor of the practice media and activism wh the mtee on studi of women, genr, and sexualy, and thor of A Queer History of the Uned Stat, says the allure of a “gay gene” grew om the flourishg gay-rights movement the after the Stonewall rts 1969.

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

Conservative opponents of the movement claimed that “homosexual acts are a choice, people choose to m them, or people are sced to the gay liftyle, ” he explas. ’77, then a rearcher at the Natnal Instut of Health, published rults showg a rrelatn between male homosexual behavr and a clter of gen, lled Xq28, at the tip of the X chromosome. Exactly which gene this clter may be volved has proven elive—the current study found no signifint associatn between the X chromosome and same-sex sexual behavr—but the ia that a “gay gene” might lie somewhere Xq28—or elsewhere—was ptivatg.

ABORTG BABI BEE THEY’RE GAY: COMG SOON TO CHA

Zeke Stok, chief programs officer of the LGBTQ advocy anizatn GLAAD, ncurred an emailed statement: “This new study 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. Others have warned that the search for a geic e would pathologize homosexualy the same way psychology did the twentieth century: efforts by psychoanalysts such as Irvg Bieber led to the cln of homosexualy the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs until 1972. As noted above, the gen that rrelated wh same-sex sexual behavr also rrelated wh willgns to take risks, a nnectn that might not hold up cultur where homosexualy is ls stigmatized and those who are ls risk tolerant would therefore feel more able to act openly.

It is important to note that the same-sex soc-sexual behavr observed the study is distct om homosexual behavr bee s motivatn and purpose are social, said Jean-Baptiste Le, who studi primate behavr at the Universy of Lethbridge Canada and was not volved the new rearch. “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. Image source, ThkstockIn the last two s, dozens of scientific papers have been published on the blogil origs of homosexualy - another announcement was ma last week.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis's h song Same Love, which has bee an unofficial anthem of the pro-gay marriage mpaign the US, reflects how many gay people feel about their mocks those who "thk 's a cisn, and you n be cured wh some treatment and relign - man-ma rewirg of a predisposn". Sce the early 1990s, rearchers have shown that homosexualy is more mon brothers and relativ on the same maternal le, and a geic factor is taken to be the e. Also relevant - although no way proof - is rearch intifyg physil differenc the bras of adult straight and gay people, and a dizzyg array of homosexual behavur animals.

WHY GAYS DON’T GO EXTCT

"How n a tra like male homosexualy, which has a geic ponent, persist over evolutnary time if the dividuals that rry the gen associated wh that tra are not reproducg? The evolutn of lbianism is relatively unrstudied - may work a siar way or be pletely gen that for homosexualy do other thgs tooThe allele - or group of gen - that sometim s for homosexual orientatn may at other tim have a strong reproductive benef. This would pensate for gay people's lack of reproductn and ensure the ntuatn of the tra, as non-gay rriers of the gene pass are two or more ways this might happen.

5 SURPRISG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

"We know that women tend to like more feme behavural featur and facial featur their men, and that might be associated wh thgs like good parentg skills or greater empathy, " says Qazi Rahman, -thor of Born Gay; The Psychoblogy of Sex Orientatn. Andrea Camper-Ciani, at the Universy of Padova Italy, found that maternal female relativ of gay men have more children than maternal female relativ of straight men. The implitn is that there is an unknown mechanism the X chromosome of men's geic which helps women the fay have more babi, but n lead to homosexualy men.

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

Gay people were 'helpers the nt'Image source, Jeante MankelowImage ptn, The fa'afafe of Samoa dislike beg lled "gay" or "homosexual"Some rearchers believe that to unrstand the evolutn of gay people, we need to look at how they f to the wir culture. The ia is that gay people pensate for their lack of children by promotg the reproductive fns of brothers or sisters, ntributg money or performg other uncle-like activi such as babystg or tutorg.