The+Real+Story+on+Gay+Genes

The Real Story on Gay Genes Homing in on the science of homosexuality—and sexuality itself by Michael Abrams 5 June 2007


 * All quotations and statistics are taken from the article and are from the viewpoint of the author and/or whom he is quoting.**

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This article does not definitively state that a gay gene has or has not been found.

For several years, there has been a heated debate over the possible existence of a "gay gene." Extremists on both sides of the argument have their own ethical reasons why this gene should or should not be searched for. However, the majority of scientists actually looking for it, are doing so out of pure curiosity.

Some facts: -Among identical twins, if one was gay, the other had a 50% chance that he/she was gay also. -Among fraternal twins, if one way gay, the other had a 20% chance of being gay too. -According to a study done by Ray Blanchard, a psychiatric researcher at the University of Toronto, found that the probability of a man being gay increases with the number of older brothers he has. He then says that his accounts for 15-30% of gay men.

One case study referenced in the article has "proved conclusively that sexual orientation in men has a genetic cause." A group of infants born with genital deformities were surgically shifted from boys to girls. The children were raised as girls and were not told about their surgery. It was found that the "faux females ended up being attracted to women. If societal nudging was what made men gay, at least one of these boys should have grown up to be attracted to men. There is no documented case of that happening."

The article proposes that, even among identical twins, with identical DNA, the genes do not always act in the same manner. The reason for this is something called methylation. Methylation turns off sections of our genetic code. So even though we have two sets of genes (one from mom and one from dad) it is the process of methylation that determines which of the genes will be "turned on." Like DNA, methylation is inherited. However, DNA comes with an enzyme that "proofreads" our DNA to ensure that it is the same. Methylation has no such enzyme and changes from generation to generation and even from sibling to sibling. How methylation operates is influenced by such things as diet and environment. Sven Bocklandt of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA hopes that by studying how mutations of methylation affect its operation and is looking to see if and "which flipped genetic switches (//My note: which, if any//) correlate with homosexuality."

When 76 pairs of gay brothers were interviewed, it was concluded that homosexuality was "inherited" through the maternal line. "This led [geneticist Dean Hammer] to compare the X chromosomes—which can be inherited only from the mother—in those same brothers. There he discovered a shared genetic marker, a patch of DNA called Xq28." Hammer and his research partner, Bocklandt, commented on how they doubt that there is most likely no one specific gene that determines whether or not an individual would grow up to be homosexual. They said that it was more likely to be several genes working in ways not yet understood.

The article tells of tests on lab rats by Marc Breedlove at Michigan State Universtiy and the administration of testosterone and ovarian steroids. Male rats given ovarian steroids were found attempting to "court" other male rats while males given testosterone continue to go after female rats. Female rats, if given testosterone, were essentially masculine for the rest of their lives, even after testosterone had been stopped. "If researchers do prove that testosterone can alter human sexual orientation—gay gene or no gay gene—the possibility of preventing homosexuality will become a reality. Even a hint of that option is enough to provoke an outcry among activists."

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