Is there a gay gene?

There could be a gay gene, or a combination of a hundred of them that lead to gayness. That's all I can say without being an organic biologist.

 

It's not so simple as being *a* gene. Sexuality is most likely the result of multiple varying genetic factors interacting with one another.

 

They did studies on twins, it does not appears to be entirely genetic. Also, there is studies that supports fluid sexuality. So, I wouldn't say it attributable to genetics. Scientists failed to find a gay gene anyway.

 

Yes and no. Yes that genes probably contribute heavily to attraction, no that there is a gene that makes you gay. I think it would make more sense to think of them as genes for an attraction to men and an attraction to women.

More likely it is epigenetic regulatory factors that cause the inverted set of genes to turn on. But you'd need both types of genes so that you could pass on the genes for the 'correct' attraction to offspring of both sexes.

And then there's a large social component on top of that.

 

I read a news-story about it a while ago, some scientists claimed they had found the gene, and that "gay-ness" was passed from parents of the opposite sex. Never heard any updates on that one though, so have no idea if it got rapidly debunked or if it`s still under discussion. Would be absolutely hilarious if I am a lesbian because of my father, because then my mother would be right when she said "It`s just because your father was such an a**-hole". Not quite, but then she could still claim it`s all about my father, lol! Don`t misunderstand, my mum is quite accepting, but it really was her initial thoughts that it was all due to my father being a piece of dung...

 

I think, "who cares?"

 

I'm compulsively required to mention that as far as I know the current theory is epigenetics rather than genetics.

But this. I don't approve of trying to find causes for this type of thing.

 

There may be some genetic factors that influence sexual orientation, but I believe its a highly complex mix of factors - some nature, some environmental, some nurture. The bottom line is that the mix of factors that make me gay might not be anything like the mix that make you gay. We are all individuals.

 

I watched a documentary which said that it's most likley to do with development in the womb and/or can be linked to how many males the women has carried. There is a correlation for gay men to have more older brothers with the chance of having a gay son going up with each male carried. I personally think it is defiantly not environmental. for more info watch John Barrowman's documentary "The making of me" episode one, it answered alot of my questions.

 

I think we currently think male homosexuality is a mixture of genetic factors (not one gene), since that would be required in the gay uncle hypothesis, and epigenetic ones, as told by the influence of birth order on orientation. Identical twins would of course be influenced by both.

For some reason we don't seem to know much about lesbians.

Really? I think we should try to find causes of everything in the world FOR SCIENCE!

 

Can fluid sexuality be influenced by epigenetics? Somehow, you're gonna have to explain how these genes leads to one's sexuality if it caused by genetics. It isn't as simple as blue eye or brown eye. Explain the mechanism to me and it is testable?

 

I adamantly disagree. Why voluntarily restrict our knowledge of one part of the universe? Knowing how we work is important for biologists, psychologists, and answering questions like what causes attraction is a big step towards understanding the human brain.

---------- Post added 3rd May 2013 at 02:06 PM ----------

Epigenetics is not genes. It's gene regulation. So for instance, suppose attraction is genetic and everyone is born with genes for an attraction to each sex, but our sex hormones are supposed to turn on only one set of them. Something goes awry... perhaps someone has low levels of some sex hormones and higher than normal levels of other hormones in their early puberty, and that causes the wrong set of genes to turn on. Or perhaps someone has a high level of a certain hormone and both sets of genes turn on, or something else could cause neither to turn on.

Different levels of upregulation could cause different amounts of attraction to each sex. Your gene expression changes throughout your life. Gene regulation changes all the time, so there is leeway in this mechanism for someone to experience fluidity. This hypothesis can explain all of human sexual behavior.

Though a few minutes of logically thinking about it one could see how there must be a large social component. For instance how does a straight man's brain know what women look like? How does it know what it should be attracted to? The brain must use some kind of imprinting based on parents, siblings, friends in early childhood to construct a template for its attractions, and that means there is leeway for a lot of social conditioning.

 

Yes, it might explain entirely about human sexual behavior, but surely the theory ignores the possibility that neural wirings influences one's sexuality and there has been found correlations at a neurological level. I'm not gonna say that stroke changes one's orientation, but there is a few documented case about a stroke changing one's orientation. Even though you say that gene regulation has expression changes, you're still not telling me how does the entire mechanism leads to someone to experience attraction with conditions. It's like you're explaining gravity without explaining why gravitation occurs at a quantum level and why it is so. I'm looking for the why. My guess is that sexuality is not entirely down to genes, but a complex interaction between genes, diet, socialization, and other parts of environment and of course neurological development.

 

don't know/don't care

& of course the moment we do find out where sexuality [or indeed gender] come from cishets will undoubtedly start looking for a 'cure' for queerness

 

No. If there was one single gene that defined sexuality, everyone would experience the sexuality in the same way. The truth is, though, that people aren't either 'gay' or 'not gay' like they can be 'blonde' or 'brunette'. It's not something you can put your finger on genetically. It may be a combination of many genes, but this seems unlikely to me.

I would say though that it's not really the kind of thing that any of us should be thinking about. If you're looking for excuses for being who you are, stop immediately. You are who you are. Someone on your road likes yellow flowers more than red ones. You happen to prefer men sexually. Fuck it.

 

Nope. At least not one. One can reason to two gay genes at a minimum. Right now, some pretty solid research is pointing to epigenetics.

 

There hasn't been a single one discovered. I do applaud the people on these forums for being critical thinkers and really think about the complexities of sexual orientations. I've heard so many gay people insist it is 100% inborn, 100% genetic. If you doubt it, then you are implying it is a choice. That is insane! Even if it was 100% environmental, you didn't choose it and there is no way to change it yourself. Just my $0.02.

 

Most likely, gayness is partly genetic and partly environmental. For example, a boy with older brothers is more likely to be gay, which has been theorized to be due to the mother forming antigens to foreign (to her) male hormones.