Genetic link to homosexuality
Homosexuality is inherited, says psychology study
Genetics plays a role in male sexual orientation but social and environmental factors are also committed, research suggests.
Scientists tested the DNA of pairs of homosexual twins, making this the largest explore of its kind. They start that homosexual men shared genetic markers in a region of chromosome 8, and the Xq28 region of the X chromosome.
The findings were originally presented by Professor Michael Bailey at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics two years ago. They appear to have been resurrected for an event at the periphery of another major conference this year.
'When people say there's a homosexual gene, it's an oversimplification', said Dr Alan Sanders, who co-led the study. 'It seems prefer there's a number of genes involved so there's more operate to do to narrow things down'.
The results confirm those of a similar study conducted by Dr Dean Hamer, which caused controversy at the time of its publication in Media attention centred on the prospect of a prenatal test for sexual orientation, with the Daily Ma
Massive Study Finds No Unpartnered Genetic Cause of Homosexual Sexual Behavior
Few aspects of human biology are as complex—or politically fraught—as sexual orientation. A clear genetic link would suggest that gay people are “born this way,” as opposed to having made a lifestyle choice. Yet some fear that such a finding could be misused to “cure” homosexuality, and most research teams own shied away from tackling the topic.
Now a modern study claims to dispel the notion that a single gene or handful of genes make a person prone to homosexual behavior. The analysis, which examined the genomes of nearly half a million men and women, establish that although genetics are certainly involved in who people choose to contain sex with, there are no specific genetic predictors. Yet some researchers scrutinize whether the analysis, which looked at genes related with sexual activity rather than attraction, can trace any real conclusions about sexual orientation.
“The message should remain the same that this is a complex behavior that genetics definitely plays a par
Across cultures, 2% to 10% of people report having queer relations. In the U.S., 1% to % of women and men, respectively, identify as male lover. Despite these numbers, many people still consider homosexual conduct to be an anomalous choice. However, biologists have documented homosexual behavior in more than species, arguing that queer behavior is not an unnatural preference, and may in fact play a vital role within populations.
In a issue of Science magazine, geneticist Andrea Ganna at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and colleagues, described the largest survey to date for genes associated with gay behavior. By interpreting the DNA of nearly half a million people from the U.S. and the U.K., they concluded that genes account for between 8% and 25% of same-sex conduct.
Numerous studies contain established that sex is not just male or female. Rather, it is a continuum that emerges from a person’s genetic makeup. Nonetheless, misconceptions persist that same-sex attraction is a preference that warrants condemnation or conversion, and leads to discrimination and persecution.
I am
Not long ago, I had a conversation with a Methodist minister who was lamenting the recent schism in the once “United" Methodist Church. He explained that this split had come about over a disagreement about whether to accept LGBTQ persons into their congregations.
“So, is there really a gay gene?” he asked.
“Well, yes, sort of,” I replied. “But it’s complicated.”
As University of Toronto (Canada) psychologist Doug VanderLaan and his colleagues explain in an article they recently published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, science now clearly shows that people are born with their sexual orientation. Many people assume that if a trait is something we're “born with,” it must be genetic—but in proof, it’s not that simple.
On the one hand, traits can be determined by multiple genes, such that a single trait may have any number of genetic causes. On the other hand, the way we come out of the womb is determined as much by conditions inside the womb as they are by our genes. That is, the presence of particular hormones during prenatal development, as well as the reactions of