Was just wondering how much of sexual orientation is genetic? My father is also gay and so is one of his sisters, that seems a high percentage in my immediate family, so I'm thinking genetics has a lot to do with it. What's everyone's thoughts on this?
Sexuality is genetic, but as a trait it's a lot more complicated than, say, eye colour. So expression isn't so straightforward. I believe the exact mechanism is still being worked out.
I'm beginning to wonder if genetics plays a role myself. I'm gay, I have an aunt who is trans m2f, And from messing around on the web I found out her daughter is bi or at least bi-curious (she doesn't know I know) so like the OP I think thats an awfully high percentage for genetics not to play at least some role (my mom has 3 siblings and they had a total of 8 children thats 25% of my family over 2 generations)
The science is still pretty inconclusive as to the role of genetics. I remember once hearing something about homosexual behavior running in families in frogs, but, well, humans aren't frogs, obviously. So, basically, no one knows to what extent genetics play a role in human sexuality and gender. I think there is probably a genetic component to them, but it's not going to be straightforward. Very, very few things have an easily identifiable link to a specific set of genes. The closest analogy would probably be height -- genes set an upper limit but environmental factors, both before and after birth, play a huge role in the final outcome.
