Across cultures, 2% to 10% of people report having same-sex relations. In the U.S., 1% to 2.2% of women and men, respectively, identify as same-sex attracted. Despite these numbers, many people still consider queer behavior to be an anomalous choice. However, biologists have documented homosexual habit in more than 450 species, arguing that queer behavior is not an unnatural choice, and may in fact play a vital role within populations.
In a 2019 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 linked with same-sex behavior. By analyzing 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 habit.
Numerous studies have 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 choice that warrants condemnation or conversion, and leads to discrimination and persecution.
I am a molecular biologist and am interested in this new study as it further illuminates the
Massive Study Finds No Available Genetic Cause of Queer 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 possess shied away from tackling the topic.
Now a brand-new study claims to dispel the notion that a single gene or handful of genes make a person prone to queer behavior. The analysis, which examined the genomes of nearly half a million men and women, launch that although genetics are certainly involved in who people choose to include sex with, there are no specific genetic predictors. Yet some researchers interrogate whether the analysis, which looked at genes connected with sexual activity rather than attraction, can attract any real conclusions about sexual orientation.
“The message should remain the same that this is a complex behavior that genetics definitely plays a part in,” said study co-author Fah Sathirapongsasuti, a computational biologist at genetic testin
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 truth, 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 our mother’s immune system, can have a big influence in shaping who we are.
Sex, Sexual Orientatio
Epigenetics and evolution: ‘the significant biological puzzle’ of sexual orientation
Last century, when things were a whole lot worse for gay people than they are today, there was a widely held notion that human lgbtq+ behaviour was a choice, and that a homosexual person could change their ways and get heterosexual. For this reason, the occasional report of a “gay” gene was welcomed by many progressive people. The existence of such genes would illustrate that homosexuality was not a decision but an inevitable consequence of training and genetics. Indeed, gay genes were perhaps the only example where many left-leaning people heartily embraced genetic determinism.
Awkwardly, like cold fusion, reports of genes that “cause” human homosexuality (and many other human behaviours) have failed to stand up to scrutiny – there is no “gay gene” in the sense that no one has identified genetic markers or genes that reliably predict sexual orientation in humans. Moreover, since homosexuality would generally be reckoned to reduce reproductive output of an individual, an allele (a gene variant)that directly causes homosexuality is unlikely to spread in a population.
Epigenetic inheritance r
No single gene connected with being gay
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A genetic examination of almost half a million people has concluded there is no unpartnered "gay gene".
The investigate, published in Science, used data from the UK Biobank and 23andMe, and found some genetic variants associated with same-sex relationships.
But genetic factors accounted for, at most, 25% of same-sex behaviour.
Advocacy group GLAAD said the study confirmed "no conclusive degree to which character or nurture influenced how a same-sex attracted or lesbian person behaves."
The researchers scanned the genomes - the entire genetic make-up - of 409,000 people signed up to the UK Biobank plan, and 68,500 registered with the genetics company 23andMe.
Participants were also asked whether they had gay partners exclusively, or as well as opposite-sex partners.
The Harvard and MIT researchers concluded genetics could account for between 8-25% of gay behaviour across the population, when the whole genome is considered.
Five specific genetic variants were launch to be particularly associated with queer behaviour, including one linked to the biological pathway for smell, and others to those f