Evidence for a Gay Gene

Posted by JB aka JayBee on 2/25/2006, under

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I was delighted to come across several articles today discussing some findings of a group of scientists at UCLA. These scientists found that there was at least some evidence that male homosexuality has a genetic component. They looked at the X chromosomes of the mothers of hetero and homosexual sons.

I was even happier when I read who the scientists involved in the study were. I had known one of the scientists as a good friend during my first year living in Europe back in 1998. I had lost contact with him, but thought fondly about him since. I had never been successful at tracking him down. It made me really happy to know that he was following his dream of doing research into the biological components of homosexuality.

While this study does not conclusively prove anything, the difference of genetic expression of the X chromosome in 4% of mothers in the sample of mothers with no gay sons, 13% of mothers with one gay son, and 23% of mothers in the sample of mothers with 2 or more gay sons is statistically significant. This data suggests that genetic factors are involved in homosexuality.

Here is a link to the abstract of the article Extreme skewing of X chromosome inactivation in mothers of homosexual men

You can find more about this at:
Netscape's Why Some Men Are Gay,
PlanetOut's Gene trait suspected in moms of gay sons,
LiveScience's Mom's Genetics Could Produce Gay Sons and
HealthDay's Moms' Genetics Might Help Produce Gay Sons.

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1 Reply to "Evidence for a Gay Gene"

  • Cups of Tea and Cucumber Sandwiches on February 26, 2006

    Interesting post JSP.

    When I was living in London in 1994 one of the highest circulation national newspapers published the findings on a similar study regarding a gay gene. Unfortunately the idiot who wrote it headlined the piece:

    'Abortion Hopes For Gay Gene Mothers'

    The article went on to say mothers who suspected a foetus 'might be gay' could terminate their pregnancies.

    Needless to say I persistently called the editor until I got through and growled at him. The afternoon edition didn't carry the article.

    Another interesting report you may have read is the University of Georgia double blind study that inferred homophobic men may be inherently gay! It's an idea we have all heard before but it makes for interesting reading:

    http://meanderingtrevor.blogspot.com/2006/02/university-study-suggests-homophobic.html

     

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