Changes

A '''gay gene''' which causes [[homosexuality]] has not been identified. Homosexuality is not "hard-wired" or inevitable in anybody.

In regards to homosexuality and genetics, a common argument is that an inclination to homosexuality is inborn and immutable. It is widely believed that the public will become more accepting of homosexuality if they are convinced that it is inborn and immutable.  For example, neuroscientist and homosexual [[Simon Levay]] stated: "...people who think that gays and lesbians are born that way are also more likely to support gay rights."<ref>http://www.family.org/socialissues/A000000682.cfm</ref>

*...most scientists today agree that [[sexual orientation]] is most likely the result of a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factors. In most people, sexual orientation is shaped at an early age. <ref>http://www.apa.org/topics/orientation.html#whatcauses</ref>

"Many scientists share the view that [[sexual orientation]] is shaped for most people at an early age through complex interactions of biological, psychological and social factors." <ref>http://www.narth.com/docs/istheregene.html</ref>

 

For example, research suggests that adoptive brothers are more likely to both be homosexuals than the biological brothers, who share half their [[gene]]s. This data prompted the journal ''Science'' to report "this . . . suggests that there is no genetic component, but rather an environmental component shared in families".<ref>(''Science'', Vol. 262, page 2063, December 24, 1993)</ref><ref>http://www.trueorigin.org/gaygene01.asp</ref><ref>[http://www.freetobeme.com/r_biol.htm</ref> However, in regards to [[psychosocial]] and biological theories in regards to the origin of homosexuality, [[Columbia University]] [[psychiatry]] professors Drs. William Byrne and Bruce Parsons stated in 1994: "There is no evidence that at present to substantiate a [[biology|biological]] theory. [T]he appeal of current biological explanations for sexual orientation may derive more from dissatisfaction with the present status of psychosocial explanations than from a substantiating body of experimental data".<ref>http://www.cwfa.org/images/content/bornorbred.pdf</ref>

 

{{Cquote|Anthropologists had observed that relatively uncompetitive primitive cultures such as those that do not distinguish or reward the best hunters in distinction to the other men in the tribe have virtually no homosexuality."<ref>"Kardiner and Linton, in a psychoanalytic anthropological study of Tanala, examined homosexuality in the context of the entire Tanalese culture (1939). They showed that a dramatic rise in homosexuality when social and economic forces inflamed competitiveness was one of several manifestations of frustrated rage (crime was another) among young men who were having particular difficulty with the pressures the culture was exerting on them. [http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=jaa.006.0479a Homosexuality: The Psychosocial Dimension] - ''Journal of American Academy of Psychoanalysis'', 6:479-496(1978) </ref>}}

 

Dr. [[Dean Hamer]] is a researcher often cited to show that there is empirical data supporting the notion that homosexuality is genetic in origin. News organizations like [[National Public Radio]] and [[Newsweek]] have done news stories regarding his work.<ref>http://www.narth.com/docs/istheregene.html</ref> In regards to the press trumpeting various findings genetics-of-behavior research uncritically the science journal ''Science'' stated the following in 1994:

{{Cquote|Time and time again, scientists have claimed that particular genes or [[chromosome|chromosomal]] regions are associated with behavioral traits, only to withdraw their findings when they were not replicated. "Unfortunately," says Yale's [Dr. Joel] Gelernter, "it's hard to come up with many" findings linking specific genes to complex human behaviors that have been replicated. "...All were announced with great fanfare; all were greeted unskeptically in the popular press; all are now in disrepute."<ref>[http://www.narth.com/docs/istheregene.html Mann, C. Genes and behavior. Science 264:1687 (1994)]</ref>}}

 

In May of 2000, the [[American Psychiatric Association]] issued a fact sheet stating that "..there are no replicated scientific studies supporting a specific biological [[etiology]] for homosexuality.<ref> http://www.cwfa.org/images/content/bornorbred.pdf</ref>

In any event, the search for a "gay gene," largely misses the point.  Homosexual ''behavior'', regardless of one's "orientation" is still voluntary and subject to control by the human will.

In any event, the search for a "gay gene," largely misses the point.  Homosexual ''behavior'', regardless of one's "orientation" is still voluntary and subject to control by the human will.