Gay Gene Research Continues

Melissa Etheridge may soon get an answer to her controversial question: “Is homosexuality a choice or biological?”

A team of Buffalo-based researchers are slowly but surely collecting DNA samples from gay siblings in order to locate gay-making genetic patterns. The Molecular Genetic Study of Sexual Orientation hopes to identify clusters of genes – not one gene – that could cause queerness.

Obviously it’s a far more complicated – and controversial – examination than hair politics.

Yes, such research can lead to dangerous side effects – ie: prenatal gay genocide – but the study’s bioethicist Timothy F. Murphy assures readers he and his team want to prevent malicious intent:

If there are genetic contributions to sexual orientation, they will not remain hidden forever — the march of genetic science can’t be stopped. It’s not a question of whether we should or should not do this research, it’s that we make sure we’re prepared to protect people from insidious uses of this science.

While some gays worry about the investigation’s implications, one participant, Jason Palmer, thinks it’s the religious right who will have the most trouble:

Our strongest opponents are the religious right, many of whom feel that God does not make mistakes. So if it’s a genetic factor and proven, perhaps many of them will find an acceptance for homosexuals.

Naw, they’ll just attribute it to original sin or something. Old habits die hard and all that…