Researchers at at the David Geffen School of Medicine of the University of California, Los Angeles just announced they may be one step closer to finding the gay gene.
“To our knowledge, this is the first example of a predictive model for sexual orientation based on molecular markers,” said lead researcher Tuck Ngun.
Related: Bad News For Bible Thumpers: New Evidence Confirms The “Gay Gene” Exists
The study, which was conducted earlier this year, looked at 47 pairs of adult male twins. In 37 of the pairs, one of the brothers identified as homosexual and the other didn’t. In 10 pairs, both brothers said they were gay.
After first identifying the gene code that may affect a person’s sexual orientation, researchers took things a step further and tested the methylation patterns of each participants’ genes. Methylation is the mechanism by which genes are turned on and off. A computer then guessed whether or not the participant was homosexual. It was accurate seven times out of 10.
“Sexual attraction is such a fundamental part of life, but it’s not something we know a lot about at the genetic and molecular level,” Ngun said. “I hope that this research helps us understand ourselves better and why we are the way we are.”
Related: Want A Gay Child? This Doctor Says He Can Inject Your Baby With A Gay Gene!
But not everyone is convinced.
“The observed epigenetic changes, particularly if from blood DNA, unlikely determine the complex behaviors, such as sexual orientation,” said Dr. Peng Jin, a professor of human genetics at Emory University.
“My gut feeling it that, as the complete story unfolds, the association may not be quite as simple as the summary and press release suggest,” added genetics professor Darren Griffin of the University of Kent. “The important thing to note however is the mounting evidence that homosexuality is a perfectly normal trait segregating in human populations.”
Interestingly, after making the findings, Ngun, who is openly gay, decided to abandon the research out of fear that, if developed further, it could be used to screen fetuses or punish or persecute gay people.
“I just left the lab last week,” he said. “I don’t believe in the censoring of knowledge, but given the potential for misuse of the information, it just didn’t sit well with me.”
Related: WATCH: How Will Dads-To-Be React If Science Discovers A Gay Gene?
h/t: NBCNews
Billy Budd
I don’t believe in a gay gene. I believe we are all potentially bisexual or gay, depending on life’s experiences. I know people will hate me for this opinion.
Bisexual-Transwoman
So what about a gene for bisexuality, or someone being trans?
Avery Alvarez
This seems both interesting and frightening.
Randy Hudnutt
I have a lot of gay jeans, but I prefer to keep those in the closet.
Bromancer7
@Billy Budd: Yes, I hate you for your opinion. It’s stupid. The “nuture” debate was debunked a long time ago, and many times over.
@Bisexual-Transwoman: Transgender isn’t a sexuality, so I imagine if there is a gene that predisposes one to it then it would be a different one. There is a significant amount of evidence showing that sexual orientation is at least in part due to in-vitro development (which allows for gay, bisexual, asexual, etc, as it deals with the development of the parts of the brain that controls sexuality). Genes themselves don’t make someone gay (if they did then all identical twins would have the same orientation, but they don’t, it’s roughly 50%), but they can lend a predisposition to it, which explains why identical twins have a higher chance of sharing the same orientation than other siblings.
GayEGO
Well, now that we are learning about more and more genders i.e. LBGTQIP etc. hopefully there will be a gene for every gender. :>) This does squash the Bible and other religious books, but no surprise as science usually provides factual information, negating the religious speculations by those who simply did not know back in the day.
Sidney Davies
Which means it is NOT a choice and we are born this way! HA! Stupid religious people will be pissed.
Daveliam
If you take nothing else away from this article, it should be the points made by the professor from U. of Kent. It’s likely WAY more complex than it appears in this summary. So it’s really highly inaccurate to call it the ‘gay gene’. But it DOES provide additional support to the continuously mounting evidence that indicates that homosexuality is naturally occurring and simply another innate (partially) genetic trait.
Marky
@Bromancer7: I love how simple little labels have caused us to waste countless dollars on these studies based on nothing more than semantics and popular opinion.
Marky
@Bromancer7: Referring to study in article.
jimontp
@Billy Budd: Creationists don’t “believe” in evolution. Climate change deniers don’t “believe” in global warming. As the old adage says, “better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
Brian
The problem with this sort of research is that it relies on the human volunteers choosing to identify as gay. There are many people out there who have same-sex feelings but who choose to not identify as gay. These people were left out of the experimental group.
1EqualityUSA
Gene is such a gay name or…….is it gay-identifying? “These people were left out of the experimental group.” yeah.
Saint Law
@Brian: And then there’s you – left out of every group.
Giancarlo85
@Brian: Here we go with this identifying shit. For one, understand I am gay. That is part of who I am. It has nothing to do with identifying.
KlausRose
@Billy Budd: I remember feeling everyone Should be open to everything but that doesnt define someone’s sexual orientation…If you have sex with a man and your a man yourself to me it’s not the sex that makes you gay…it depends if your attracted many people would argue “well why would he fuck a guy if he’s not attracted”…there are many reasons such as dominance the feeling of dominating/being on top or women or men have nothing to do with sexual orientation but someone’s personal sex life….so your wrong and a bit ignorant but I understand what you mean
Giancarlo85
@Brian: And choosing to identify as gay? I didn’t choose my sexuality you idiot.
Brian
Identifying as gay is of course a choice. It’s a choice to identify. Anyone who believes otherwise is either uneducated or needs a brain transplant.
Sexual feelings and desires are, of course, innate. However, the act of identifying as gay is a choice.
If you don’t understand the distinction, pity your brain.
Giancarlo85
@Brian: No. Being gay is not a choice. There is no such thing as “identifying” as gay. It isn’t a choice. you’re an uneducated idiot with major brain damage. Probably because your mom drank throughout her pregnancy. It’s rather unfortunate and I think I have pity for you.
Being gay is NOT a choice. Only an inbred right wing idiot could think it is a chioce.
1EqualityUSA
A five year old doesn’t choose, it just is, dork. I’ve known since the age of five. Choice? No.
Marky
@Brian: I agree with this. You also can’t count on them screening their subjects properly to ensure a balance between both sides. These studies are pretty much flawed from the get go. There’s no proving anyone who claims that they are straight are authentically straight and likewise for gay, bi people. You’re basically depending on your subjects personal knowledge to facilitate accurate results rather than on your actual process.
Marky
Well, rather, it gives you invalid data to work with I guess is a better way to put it.
Brian
Wow, that headline is very, very wrong. The study is not about a gene. The study is not about anything that can be inherited from a mother and/or father. The entire point of the revelation is that the study is specifically about things that *cannot* be inherited and *is not* a gene. That’s the whole point of this announcement. You got it backwards.
Marky
@Brian: Yup.
martinbakman
Doesn’t sound like they’ve found the “gay gene” but just a pattern that seems to be predicted by with statistical probability depending on the sexual orientation of the sample.
I don’t blame the scientist for being concerned about misuse. We already know how selective abortions in India and China are so common that there is now a relative shortage of eligible wives.
I doubt if fetuses showing certain genetic patterns would pass muster such parents, and would quickly be eliminated.
youarekiddingme
@Brian: @Marky: Two turds floating in the same bowl …
Giancarlo85
@Brian: And this moron still proves he doesn’t read… what a surprise. And he brought along a parrot (marky). There is nothing wrong with this study or the article.
jxtophe
Next step: find the gene common to all people who like pancakes for breakfast… Why are these studies all made in North America? Who is financing them? Research on these questions would be more relevant. With out without gene (who cares?), homosexuality is a social construction of our times, nothing more, nothing less (cf Michel Foucault).
mbfmark
I think Dr. Peng Jin is right and it is unlikely we will find a single “gay” gene, that sexuality is a complex aspect of life controlled by multiple genetic and environmental factors. While in our society we want to pigeon hole everyone as “gay” or “straight” we all know this is not the case. Each individual falls somewhere along a spectrum of totally straight to totally gay, and in a different society they would be freer to express themselves closer to their specific level of interest in one sex or both. My own experience does not mirror “Billy Budd”s comment in that I knew I was attracted to men from my earliest perceptions of physical attraction – by age 7 at least – way before puberty and early enough in life that its hard to imagine my orientation was caused by “life’s experiences.” But many people are much more sexually fluid, including millions who would never admit it to anyone else or even themselves. Finding a “gay gene” is never going to quiet the haters for whom ideology is more important than fact, and as the researcher fears, could, if it exists, become a weapon in the hands of such people.
onthemark
If they ever do find a “gay gene” (which they never will), watch how fast the Christian wackos change their minds about abortion!
In recent years there seems to have been some very grudging acceptance among gay men that bisexual men do exist. That’s now the p.c. line, anyway, though apparently not everyone really believes it.
But what the hell, I’ll join my fellow Marks in stirring up the hornet’s nest.
@Giancarlo85: Hey, aren’t you trans now? You’re not even gay anymore! Were you ALWAYS trans? Is trans a choice? Is there a gene for trans? 🙂
@mbfmark: Agree. Although I, personally, realized from an early age that I was attracted only to guys and not attracted to girls, somehow I don’t make the “logical” leap that all gay men MUST have had this exact same experience. Why do so many guys assume this? Why do so many guys even want to assume this? And it’s ONLY guys – never lesbians – who make that assumption.
1EqualityUSA
onthemark,
“If they ever do find a “gay gene” (which they never will), watch how fast the Christian wackos change their minds about abortion!”
Love it! So humorous. So true!
Giancarlo85
@onthemark: I dunno… I’m like a genderfuck. To be honest I’m still sorting out my issues with that… I don’t know what I am genderwise. It’s so hard to explain, and I’m trying to be open about it. I am gay (when it comes to my sexual orientation – I am interested in men, as biologically I am a male). I’m not trying to be female, but I just blur the lines when it comes to gender. Trans people come in different shades… they aren’t all the same, despite what some activists say.
Anyways, hey at least I admit I’m kinda screwed up when it comes to this lol. There I said it… I got issues with that lol! I’m far from perfect. Just trying to be me.
youarekiddingme
@Giancarlo85: Oh shit…somebody admits that they’re fucked up (ok, screwed up)! What are we going to do? Does this mean that we’re “human?” Does this mean that we should be, uh…TOLERANT? OMFG!!! What a horrible thought huh? What will the right-wing, conservative, religious republicans do now?? Maybe open up their New Testaments (after they knock the dust off) and actually read it!
Giancarlo85
@youarekiddingme: Yea, I’m a human and I’m all screwed up… oh well. At least that makes me… me. 🙂
I hope they read the entire bible… the part about slavery being fine and eating shellfish being a total sin lol.
youarekiddingme
@Giancarlo85: I left out the “Entire” bible because the New Testament talks about Love and Tolerance and treating your neighbor as you treat yourself (none of the stoning, slavery, shellfish or the other shit). These people are supposed to be “Christians”.
They are supposed to believe in the NEW TESTAMENT—which is what CHRIST (making them Christians…oddly enough) brought! Disregard the OLD TESTAMENT!!
LibraOracle
Well we should be afraid if they find a way to detect the gene that causes same gender attraction,the majority will use it to hunt and destroy the minority as they have a bigger number and will win,I’m actually afraid that my own kind is going stab me in the back unless I destroy them first
Poncho Sanchez
Homosexuality is highly correlated with left-handedness. I really never met a left-hander until I made some friends in the gay community. Although I’m right handed myself, I’m always surprised to learn how many gays are lefties.
Giancarlo85
@Poncho Sanchez: I think that might be a false correlation. Sorry. Everyone I know who is left handed is straight.
onthemark
@Giancarlo85: ! – Thanks for your thoughtful and informative reply. I really did wonder what you thought about that.
I think you overreacted to what “Brian smeds” wrote, just because it was him saying it. To quote Lincoln (our favorite bisexual president): “a broken watch is right twice a day.”
Obviously, closeted guys are gay but they haven’t YET chosen to identify as gay. Being gay in reality is one thing. Identifying as gay is a conscious choice – “social construct” and all that hoo-haa – that comes later, if it ever comes at all.
@Poncho Sanchez: I’ve noticed that too.
Giancarlo85
@onthemark: I think Brian/Jason Smeds is a clock that lost both of its handles. I do not agree at all. I don’t identify as gay. I just am. Simple as that. Not a conscious choice. It wouldn’t matter whether I am out or in the closet, I just am.
Brian
@Giancarlo85: You have chosen to identify as gay – don’t deny it. Your homosexual desire is not a choice but your identification as gay is definitely a choice.
Giancarlo85
@Brian: I didn’t chose to identify as anything. I just am. You are stupid. There is no “choice”. I know I am. I didn’t have to “choose” to be this way because there was no choice. You’re such a stupid thing.