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Study Finds No Single Genetic Cause of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior

63 pointsby yaa_minuover 5 years ago

17 comments

DrScientistover 5 years ago
Just because they can&#x27;t pin something down to a single or low number of genes doesn&#x27;t automatically mean there isn&#x27;t a strong genetic determinant - it just means it might be spread among many factors, making any one factor hard to pinpoint.<p>From a high level view, the idea that something that is so critical to species survival, like a sex drive, isn&#x27;t largely genetic determined seems rather unlikely.<p>I suspect the situation is something like height - this primer gives a good overview of properties of something that might be largely genetic but by many many factors. Also it covers the issue of rare exceptions, being different from the general rule.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ghr.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;primer&#x2F;traits&#x2F;height" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ghr.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;primer&#x2F;traits&#x2F;height</a><p>Also note height is a continuous function not a binary state of tall or short - I suspect the same is here - this would easily explain, why some people feeling they were born that way, and others feel it&#x27;s more a choice.
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jawnsover 5 years ago
The &quot;born this way&quot; aspect of gay activism is trending down, even apart from the lack of scientific evidence of a strong genetic component.<p>It was immensely useful during the gay rights movement, especially in the years preceding Obergefell, as a way to essentially persuade straight people, &quot;This is not something I can control, so it&#x27;s not something I can change, even if I wanted to.&quot; There was a de-emphasis on how sexual relationships typically develop -- through a serious of free, conscious choices to which sexual partners consent -- and instead an emphasis on sexual attraction itself, which often does not feel like a fully a conscious choice.<p>Now, I&#x27;m seeing more and more LGB people, especially those under 30, freely admit what had been considered an open secret: that many of those who insisted that they were &quot;born this way&quot; actually consider sexual orientation <i>not</i> to be immutable, but fluid, to various degrees. Whether one has conscious control over whom one finds attractive at any given time, of course, is another question, but for a time, evidence for sexual fluidity, especially within the queer community, was considered potentially damaging to the &quot;born this way&quot; efforts and de-emphasized or suppressed.<p>Post-Obergefell, more queer people seem to feel like they&#x27;ve gained enough legal and cultural ground that they can freely admit it, though. And some do in an almost defiant way, saying essentially, &quot;So what if my sexual choices are free choices? If I choose to be gay, who&#x27;s to say I shouldn&#x27;t?&quot;<p>That&#x27;s a far cry from the prevailing narrative from just 10 or 15 years ago, when very few gay people would admit that they might have any conscious control over being gay.
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JohnJamesRamboover 5 years ago
This is not really that surprising considering that the closer we look it seems like all genes affect complex traits, the omnigenic theory.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quantamagazine.org&#x2F;omnigenic-model-suggests-that-all-genes-affect-every-complex-trait-20180620&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quantamagazine.org&#x2F;omnigenic-model-suggests-that...</a>
BiasRegularizerover 5 years ago
I have read a few cases of identical twins having different sexual orientation. Perhaps they are also good subjects of study, since their genetic make up are so similar, it would be easy to identify if&#x2F;which genes correlates to sexual orientation.
dade_over 5 years ago
Garbage in, garbage out. This study doesn&#x27;t mean anything as it relies on information provided to 23 and me. The question asked if a person had a same sex experience, which doesn&#x27;t mean a person is gay, bi or straight. Further there are plenty of people that wouldn&#x27;t answer truthfully to the question for a multitude of reasons.<p>Good for advertising clicks and idiotic comments that have already started to appear.
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zed88over 5 years ago
The theory of gay gene couldn&#x27;t have been supported by the evolutionary algorithms.<p>Natural selection means that a trait like male homosexuality, if it had a genetic component, couldn&#x27;t have persisted over evolutionary time if the individuals that carry the genes associated with that trait are not reproducing.<p>In my observation of two contrasting cultures that I grew up in, it could be better explained by sociology than genetics.
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mamonover 5 years ago
The key takeway is easily lost:<p>&quot;genetics seemed to account for between 8 and 25 percent of the behavior. The rest was presumably a result of environmental or other biological influences. &quot;<p>There is a lot of other research which identify these &quot;other biological influences&quot; as hormonal imbalance during the pregnacy, which in most severe cases causes a child to be transgender, in milder ones gay (this kind of explains &quot;drag queens&quot;, gay man who identify as male, but still like to dress up as women sometimes. Not sure if there&#x27;s a female counterpart to this phenomenon).
buboardover 5 years ago
I get the sentiment but the title is misleading. There IS a significant genetic contribution, but it&#x27;s polygenic.
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CriticalCathedover 5 years ago
A lot of otherwise smart people in here didn&#x27;t read the article and are popping off about how gays choose to be gay.<p>The article says that it is a POLYGENIC situation, as in &quot;not ONE gene, but many.&quot;
fbn79over 5 years ago
To make it simple to understand I think &quot;same-sexual behavior&quot; can be compared to left or right handedness. There is not a single gene that determines it (probably more than 40) but it is certainly not a thing people can choose or that can be easily changed during life. More about handedness <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ghr.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;primer&#x2F;traits&#x2F;handedness" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ghr.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;primer&#x2F;traits&#x2F;handedness</a>
NextHendrixover 5 years ago
As someone who knows nothing about this subject, if the cause doesn&#x27;t appear to be genetic then what does that leave? Environmental? Something else?
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b_tterc_pover 5 years ago
There’s plenty of evidence to suggest some portion of likelihood of being gay is controlled by parental hormones. E.g. the probability of being gay is observably higher in men born after an older brother.<p>So... this was obviously going to be true.
enriqutoover 5 years ago
If I understand correctly, this result is exactly equivalent to &quot;no single genetic cause for heterosexual behavior&quot;, which does not seem as dramatic.
draugadrottenover 5 years ago
What about genetic causes in the parent(s)? Such as a genetic cause in the mother affecting the hormonal levels in uterus.
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gingabriskaover 5 years ago
I wonder what if it&#x27;s a learned behaviour.<p>I used to very odd kid and mostly spent my life around girls from very early age.<p>I almost never had male friends which ofc changed in late teenage.<p>Now, don&#x27;t find females that attractive and mostly spend time with guys.<p>Don&#x27;t call me sexist or smth but I find it&#x27;s more fun to work with guys. That&#x27;s my preference.
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draw_downover 5 years ago
I always thought the claim of a genetic cause for sexuality was a bit premature. Even if one is “born this way”, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s genetic.
verroqover 5 years ago
I find it difficult to believe a universal genetic cause since same-sex relationships generally don’t produce off-spring and would be naturally selected out.
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