There Goes That Argument

Back to the drawing board…

The origins of homosexuality in individuals is oft debated.  It’s nature, it’s nurture, it’s a lifestyle choice, etc.

Well, it’s coming to light that homosexuality is probably not genetic.

"University of Illinois team, which has screened the entire human genome, say there is no one ‘gay’ gene."

“Non-sex genes ‘link to gay trait’"

The University of Illinois should probably share their research findings with the group which generated this headline.

“How homosexuality is ‘inherited’"

Posted by on 01/31 at 06:14 AM

  1. This report would seem to bring the discussion back to ‘is it a chocie, or is it a natural occuring thing...” and seems to answer that question.

    Of course, now having done so, the report will be roundly rejected by those who have so much invested in it not being a choice.

    Posted by Bithead  on  01/31  at  06:57 AM

  2. This doesn’t actually end the nature-vs-nurture argument, even if true.  If it is “caused” by, say, too much or too little testosterone or estrogen in the womb, there won’t be a gene for it.

    Posted by Andy Stedman  on  01/31  at  07:17 AM

  3. Which is most likely to be the case?  A physiology-driven flat-chested, mustachioed, harsh-voiced bull dyke who sexualizes like a guy, or a heterosexual who desires to undergo ostracism and rejection by family and society on a lark?

    Posted by gary  on  01/31  at  08:12 AM

  4. In a weirdly related way, we read a story in the newspaper this weekend about Moslem men who undergo sex change operations. As I understand it, homosexuality is taboo under Shariah law, but surprisingly there’s no problem if a Moslem man wants to get a sex change. Why in the hell a Moslem man would want to become a Moslem woman is beyond me. Maybe he thinks he looks hot in a Burka? Makes about as much sense to me as an antebellum whitey wanting to get a race change to become a Negro.

    Just my $.02, and I haven’t read the “no gene for gayness” article, but it seems a bit premature to be concluding there is no gay gene since the function of about 75% (at least) of the human genome is (so far) unknown.

    Posted by RKN  on  01/31  at  10:55 AM

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