Nah. Just scientific fact. Make sure you pay attention to the last line.
Fcats are a funny thing. Here today, and not necessarily here tomorrow.
Googled "is there a gay gene" just for kicks. I'll post this websites offerings: queerbychoice.com/gaygenelinks (.html)
Gay Gene Critique Links
"Biology, My Ass" by Karla Mantilla, from the lesbian-feminist journal
off our backs: a women's news journal, 1999. "Of course it's a choicehow could it not be?"
"Rejecting the Gay Brain (and Choosing Homosexuality)" by queer writer Joe Sartelle, from
Bad Subjects, No. 14, May 1994. "I think that the popularity of biological accounts of homosexual desire among gay people has to be understood as a way of coping with deeply-rooted homophobia. What else can it be when we defend ourselves by saying things like, "Do you think anybody would
choose to be this way?" This is a defensive position, one that implicitly accepts that there is something wrong with homosexuality, that it is indeed an abnormality which demands to be explained."
"No Easy Link Between Genes, Behavior: DNA Studies Dash Quest for Easy Answers. Genome's Link to Behavior Hard to Prove" by Keay Davidson,
San Francisco Chronicle, Feb 13, 2001. More than 90% of the human genome has been sequenced by the International Human Genome Project, yet no "gay gene" has been found. Why might that be?
"In Search of the 'Gay Gene'" by Jack Lucentini,
The Washington Post, p. A15, February 19, 2001. Here's a pro-"gay gene" article with a twist: it argues that the "gay gene" (or rather, the biological capacity for same-sex attraction) exists in most or all human beings instead of just the minority who consider themselves "gay."
"Sexual Orientation: Binaries and Definition Problems" by Pierre Tremblay and Richard Ramsay, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, from their collaborative work
The Social Construction of Male Homosexuality and Related Suicide Problems: Research Proposals for the Twenty-First Century, 2000.
"How Do You Define 'Sexual Orientation'?" by Randall L. Sell, excerpted from his article "Defining and Measuring Sexual Orientation: A Review,"
Archives of Sexual Behavior,Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 643-658, December 1997.
"Exploding the Gene Myth: A Conversation with Ruth Hubbard" by Frank Aqueno of QueerByChoice, 1997. Ruth Hubbard of the Council for Responsible Genetics discusses the "gay gene" theory with Frank Aqueno of QueerByChoice and John Lawson of Tulane University, 1997.
The Science Section of Frank Aqueno's Queer by Choice website.
"Do Genes Determine Whether We Are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Straight?"This is a great essay from the Council for Responsible Geneticsa nonprofit organization that critiques the ethics of all kinds of genetic research, from cloning to cancer research to the search for a "gay gene." These people definitely know their biology, and their essay provides a reasonably thorough explanation of some of the things that are wrong with the claims that people can be born with a genetic tendency to develop any particular sexual orientation."History of Sexual Orientation Research" from the Robert Koch Institut in Berlin, Germany
"Genetics and Homosexuality" from The Gene Letter by GeneSage, November 1, 1996. "No conclusions can be drawn from studies relating genetics to sexual orientation, according to an October 30, 1996 panel at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) annual meetings in San Francisco. Geneticist Neil Risch (Co-chair of the panel, with Frank Greenberg) warned against 'genetic determinism' on the basis of today's fragmentary and sometimes contradictory findings."
"The Biological Evidence Challenged" by William Byne, from
Scientific American, Vol. 270, pp. 50-55, May 1994
"The Ethics of Genetic Research on Sexual Orientation" by Udo Schüklenk, Edward Stein, Jacinta Kerin, and William Byne, from
Hastings Center Report, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 6-13, 1997
Book review of Edward Stein's
The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual Orientation, 1999, by andrea l.t. peterson, from
Outlines, The Voice of Chicago's Gay and Lesbian Community, November 17, 1999
"Science Tries to Find Deviancy in Our Faces, Ears and Genes" by Jeff Grabmeier, Ohio State University. A review of the book
Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture, edited by Jennifer Terry and Jacqueline Urla, 1996.
The Medicalization of Homosexualitya quick definition by Andrew Wikholm of gayhistory.com
"Sexing the Body: How Biologists Construct Human Sexuality" by Anne Fausto-Sterling, 1999
The following three articles provide three different critiques of Simon LeVay's 1991 "gay brain" study.
- "A Dangerous American Pastime" by Udo Schüklenk, from Radical Philosophy, Vol. 87, pp. 48-49, Melbourne, Australia, 1998. A review of Simon LeVay's book Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality.
- "Born That Way?" by Roy Porter, from The New York Times, August 11, 1996. A review of Simon LeVay's book Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality and Chandler Burr's book A Separate Creation: The Search for the Biological Origins of Sexual Orientation.
The following three articles explore three very different angles for critiquing Dean Hamer's 1993 "gay gene" study, which was investigated by the U.S. Office of Research Integrity for possible falsification of data. The outcome of that investigation is unclear, but an assistant who worked with Dean Hamer on the study has accused Hamer of falsifying data, and an initial investigation by the National Institutes of Health found the evidence against Hamer substantial enough that they referred it to the highest federal investigative level.
- "Gene Scam?" by Bill Andriette, from the queer magazine The Guide, Boston, Massachusetts, January 1999discusses the accusations that Hamer falsified his data.
- "Fading Genes" by Steve C., from Bi Community News, No. 12, U.K., October 1996discusses the glaring flaws that remain in the study regardless of whether any data was falsified.
- "The Self-Sufficiency Gene" by Dean Hamer, excerpted from his book The Science of Desire: The Search for the Gay Gene and the Biology of Behavior, 1994discusses Dean Hamer's own alternative explanations for how his study might not indicate the existence of a "gay gene" even if there were no flaws in it at all.
A more recent "gay gene" study, published in April 1999 by Canadian researchers George Ebers and George Rice, attempted to duplicate Dean Hamer's results and failed. The six articles below provide some details on the Ebers and Rice study.
- "Debunking Genetic Determinism and the 'Gay Gene'" by Simon Miller from Southern Cross Online, July 1999
- "Where Did the Gay Gene Go? Study Finds No Evidence of Homosexuality in DNA" by Claudine Chamberlain from ABC News, April 22, 1999
- "Study Questions Gene Influence on Male Homosexuality" by Erica Goode from the New York Times, April 23, 1999
- "Doubt Cast on Gay Gene" from BBC News
- "Discovery of 'Gay Gene' Questioned" by Ingrid Wickelgren from InSCIght, April 22, 1999
- "Study Fails to Support Existence of a 'Gay Gene'" by Sue Goetinck from the Associated Press, April 23, 1999
"A Fan Writes: '...[T]here is no gay gene!...'" by Deborah Levinson, July 19, 1999. Responds to a homophobe's assertion that "there is no gay gene!!!!!!!!!!!!!" by saying simply, "Hello! Wake up! We don't care whether there is a gay gene. We don't care whether there are special lesbian ears. We don't care about anything beyond doing all that we can do to ensure equal treatment and rights in all aspects of life."
"Do You Take This Woman . . . : Electing Sex in the New Millennium" by Fabulana, from
Wench, 1999. "Rather than seeing science as the Messiah for gay rights, casting light into the darkness and dispersing ignorance, wouldnt it be prudent to remember that it was science that, until rather recently, classified homosexuality as a 'mental illness'?"
"Does a Short Index Finger Make You Gay?" by Timothy Noah, from
MSN Chatterbox, March 30, 2000. "Chatterbox's Law of Biological Determinism: Conservatives believe that genes determine
everything except homosexuality; liberals believe that genes determine
nothing except homosexuality."
"Does Being a Jock Make a Man Gay?" by Timothy Noah, from
MSN Chatterbox, March 1, 2001. One year after the article above, Chatterbox comments on a more recent study which found that longer index fingers correlate with greater athletic ability. Perhaps hanging out in locker rooms with a lot of mostly-naked members of the same sex tends to turn members of both genders queer? What a revelation!
"Lesbian Fingers: Discrimination Against Us Is Underlined in the Indelible Ink of Science" by Laurie Essig, from
Salon.com, Oct. 16, 2000. "[T]he study believes that lesbians' mannish brains will naturally desire their opposite, which is to say, female bodies. Clearly a mannish brain could not be attracted to a mannish body any more than a girlish brain could be attracted to a girlish body because such attraction would be, oh lordy, same-sex attraction."
"Finding Cause for Homosexuality Not as Important as Learning to Accept It" by Kevyn Jacobs, from
Kansas State Collegian, April 3, 1995. "In the end, I suspect that objective studies of homosexuality will not be fully possible until the ideological war is over. Until then, skepticism is the name of the game. All research is suspect."
"Will a Gay Gene Get Us Anywhere?" by Nicholas Yee. "Even if a gay gene were found, this would not grant homosexuality moral or social acceptability because it could still be regarded as a defect or an abnormality. . . . Racism has not diminished because we know that blackness or whiteness is genetic. Sexism exists even though we know that sex is genetic. Since finding a gay gene will neither make homosexuality morally or socially acceptable nor will it diminish homophobia, it is clearly the wrong place to be looking."
"My Ears!?" by Deborah Levinson, March 1998. "Personally, I think it's all absurd. I don't care whether there is a 'gay gene,' I don't care whether my inner ear is different. I don't believe that any of this matters in the ultimate scheme of things. What does matter is that I am who I amand I am entitled to the same rights and privileges as everybody else."
"UC Berkeley Psychologist Finds Concrete Evidence in Rats that Sexual Experience Alters the Nervous System" by Pat McBroom, U.C. Berkeley press release, October 20, 1997.
"Are People 'Born Gay?'" by Steve C. & Rob G. One of the most thorough analyses available on the internet of the many flaws in the biological research so far. A shame about the writers being so pathetically heterosexist. *sigh* But really, they
do provide a
lot of information about the biological studies that you won't find anywhere else on the internet.