What do the new ‘gay gen’ tell about sexual orientatn? | New Scientist

Contents:

• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• SCIENTISTS QUASH IA OF SGLE 'GAY GENE'
• THERE’S NO EVINCE THAT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’ EXISTS
• MANY GEN INFLUENCE SAME-SEX SEXUALY, NOT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS
• WHAT SCIENCE KNOWS ABOUT WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A TOTAL MYTH, MASSIVE STUDY CONCLUS
• TODO LO QUE SE HA MALENTENDIDO SOBRE EL TUD L ‘GEN GAY’, EXPLIDO: SON MUCHOS GEN QUE FLUYEN EN LA ORIENTACIóN SEXUAL, NO UNO úNI QUE LA TERMA
• NO ‘GAY GENE’: MASSIVE STUDY HOM ON GEIC BASIS OF HUMAN SEXUALY
• WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
• THERE'S NO SUCH THG AS A 'GAY GENE' FDS LARGT STUDY OF SEXUALY
• RETIRG THE SGLE GAY GENE HYPOTHIS

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

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.

SCIENTISTS QUASH IA OF SGLE 'GAY GENE'

In s stead, the report fds that human DNA nnot predict who is gay or heterosexual.

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.

THERE’S NO EVINCE THAT A SGLE ‘GAY GENE’ EXISTS

“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.

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

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.

A vast new study has quashed the ia that a sgle “gay gene” exists, scientists say, stead fdg homosexual behavur is fluenced by a multu of geic variants which each have a ty rearchers pare the suatn to factors termg a person’s height, which multiple geic and environmental factors play rol. “The rults suggt we shouldn’t be measurg sexual preference on a sgle ntuum om straight to gay, but rather two separate dimensns: attractn to the same sex and attractn to the oppose sex.

It also relied on self-reported ia that geics might play a role same-sex attractn was propelled to the spotlight 1993 when Dean Hamer, a scientist at the US Natnal Cancer Instute, and his team found lks between DNA markers on the X chromosome and male sexual fdgs ed nsirable ntroversy, wh the media dubbg the disvery the “gay gene”. the rol of gen homosexual behavr is fanng the bate over whether.

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

beg gay is due to gen or environment. “There is no ‘gay gene’ that term. geics acunt for about 32 percent of herabily of homosexual behavr.

WHAT SCIENCE KNOWS ABOUT WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY

om pletely heterosexual to homosexual after all. Muny there said they were worried the fdgs uld give ammunn to people who seek to e science to bolster bias and discrimatn agast gay ncern is that evince that gen fluence same-sex behavr uld e anti-gay activists to ll for gene edg or embryo selectn, even if that would be technilly impossible. Another fear is that evince that gen play only a partial role uld emboln people who sist beg gay is a choice and who advote tactics like nversn therapy.

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

Neale, who is gay. Dpe s limatns, the rearch was much larger and more varied than prev studi, which generally foced on gay men, often those who were tws or were otherwise related. “That right there is the big issue wh lookg for the geics of sexual orientatn — social ntext uld be a big part of the exprsn of the tra, ” said Jeremy Yor, an assistant profsor of blogy at California State Universy, Northridge, who is gay and follows geic rearch the field.

TODO LO QUE SE HA MALENTENDIDO SOBRE EL TUD L ‘GEN GAY’, EXPLIDO: SON MUCHOS GEN QUE FLUYEN EN LA ORIENTACIóN SEXUAL, NO UNO úNI QUE LA TERMA

He and others noted that olr participants me of age when homosexual behavr was crimalized Bra and that for much of their life homosexualy was classified as a psychiatric Reilly and others said such stark differenc between olr and younger participants show the tricks of tryg to draw reprentative blogil rmatn om a study populatn so strongly fluenced by society’s changg attus. Dean Hamer, a former Natnal Instut of Health scientist who led the first high-profile study intifyg a geic lk to beg gay 1993, said he was happy to see such a large rearch effort. “Havg said that, I’d like to emphasize that ’s not a gay gene study — ’s a study of what mak people have a sgle same-sex experience or more, ” said Dr.

“Of urse they didn’t fd a gay gene — they weren’t lookg for one, ” Dr. More about Pam BelluckA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 1 of the New York edn wh the headle: Rearch Fds Not One ‘Gay Gene, ’ but a Multu of Influenc. A clear geic lk would suggt that gay people are “born this way, ” as opposed to havg ma a liftyle choice.

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

Yet some fear that such a fdg uld be mised “cure” homosexualy, and most rearch teams have shied away om tacklg the topic.

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

They asked more than 477, 000 participants whether they had ever had sex wh someone of the same sex, and also qutns about sexual fantasi and the gree to which they intified as gay or straight.

THERE'S NO SUCH THG AS A 'GAY GENE' FDS LARGT STUDY OF SEXUALY

Dpe the associatns, the thors say that the geic siari still nnot show whether a given dividual is gay. “It’s the end of the ’gay gene, ’” says Eric Vila, a geicist at Children’s Natnal Health System Washgton, D. “A lot of people want to unrstand the blogy of homosexualy, and science has lagged behd that human tert, ” says William Rice, an evolutnary geicist at the Universy of California, Santa Barbara, who also was not volved the work.

The study will not be the last word on the vexg qutn of what homosexualy, however. Natnal Cancer Instute and his lleagu published a paper suggtg that an area on the X chromosome lled Xq28 uld nta a “gay gene.

His study, which analysed the genom of 40 pairs of gay brothers, looked exclively at people who intified as homosexual. 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. "Natural" means beg gay is not a choice.

RETIRG THE SGLE GAY GENE HYPOTHIS

But here's the quote that will light opponents of LGBTQ rights, some of whom sist they n "nvert" gay people to choose to be straight by prayg the gay away:. "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. 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. 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.