Is Being Gay Hereditary/Genetic?

[imitation]

Ooops I didn't read this thread I see the discussion is somewhat serious, please disregard my post in a thread which I presumed would have already degenerated to the point of no return. (It was a joke)

[B Dids]

This thread should be elsewhere.

I think the best answer is that "we don't know, and we don't want to less somebody get some dumb ideas about 'fixing' it".

[peterchi]

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Ooops I didn't read this thread I see the discussion is somewhat serious, please disregard my post in a thread which I presumed would have already degenerated to the point of no return. (It was a joke)

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no worries, i laughed

[Aloysius]

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Could also be incomplete penetrance. i.e. not everyone who have a genetic susceptibility for cancer gets cancer.

And along those lines, homosexuality is most likely due to some gene x environment interaction, not unlike just about everything else about us.

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OOT - I thought the above statement was the general understanding of sexual preference. No?

Side-note: I just looked at the 2000 Census Bureau, and it says that 1.6% of the US population identifies themselves as gay / bisexual, from which you can reasonably infer that assuming some level of accuracy (and that everyone who is actually gay / bisexual identifies him or herself as such) that something like 2 out of 100 people are gay?

Does that seem low to you? About right?

-Al

[Rduke55]

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Superficially this is a stupid question. However, if gayness is inherited, it could be by being a recessive gene or set of genes. Recessive genes means they only come to the fore when they meet the same recessive genes in pairing. A bit like blue eyes, or blood groups etc.

However, if they were strictly genetic and were, in all other respects, neutral (eg having a gay gene didn't confer better hunting skills, or better abilities to survice), there'd be powerful evolutionary forces at work to cut out the gayness (simply put, you don't breed, you don't get in the next generation).

It's possible gayness could survive if carrying the recessive gave the carrier better skills at carrying on into the next generation. Say having the recessive made you superfit, then those carrying the recessive would breed more successfully in the long run than the others.

This is speculative and off the top of my head, but there are bound to be some good works on this somewhere.

Also, this should be in SMP not OOT.

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Trying to figure out the fitness of having a particular gene isn't simple. For example, some scientists believe that the same gene (or genes) for making men gay (or predisposing them or whatever - I'm simplifying) may be responsible for hyperfertility in women. In these cases you can see why it would not neccessarily be selected against.

Another good example is the sickle cell gene that also provides some resistance to malaria.

[FouTight]

I feel as though homosexuality is in the same vein as a fetish. Albeit, to the extreme, but I think it's not to disimilar from a fetish in that certain people are just aroused by one thing or another, some times it's pretty unsual.

But I also think it's hormonal, because in a large number of cases, homosexual men tend to be much more feminine then their heterosexual coutnerparts, and vice versa for women.

[Georgia Avenue]

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I feel as though homosexuality is in the same vein as a fetish. Albeit, to the extreme, but I think it's not to disimilar from a fetish in that certain people are just aroused by one thing or another, some times it's pretty unsual.

But I also think it's hormonal, because in a large number of cases, homosexual men tend to be much more feminine then their heterosexual coutnerparts, and vice versa for women.

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This is what you think? GFY!

[CORed]

Dibitter has the right answer as to how it could be hereditary: recessive gene or genes, and possibly the genes confer some sort of evolutinary advantage to monozygotic individuals. I think at this point the scientific answer is "insufficient evidence". I believe that there have been some twin studies done: If being gay is totally genetic, both identical twins would always be gay.

IIRC, there was a fairly high conordence rate, but it wasn't 100%. Also, if both twins were raised by the same parents, it's hard to determine whether the fact that both twins are gay is due to heredity or upbringing. It is possible to look at both fraternal and identical twins. If the concordence rate is higher in identical twins, that's an indication that genetics are a factor. As with many things in human behavior, it's likely that it's a combination of genetics and environment: There may be a gene or genes that crate a predisposition to be gay, but social factors may trigger it. A lot of gay people say they knew they were different from a very early age. However, it's hard to say whether this is real, or a rationalization for a choice which carries qutie a bit of social stigma.

Okay, here's a question for the christian right types. If it can be determined through genetic testing that there is a 80% probability that an unborn child will be gay, should that child be aborted?

[ALawPoker]

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Okay, here's a question for the christian right types. If it can be determined through genetic testing that there is a 80% probability that an unborn child will be gay, should that child be aborted?

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LOL. Good question. I look forward to answer.


I tend to think it has to do with a person's brain wiring. This would explain why it is high, but not 100%, correlation among identical twins. I'd imagine identical twins don't have the same IQs or equal predisposition to art/math either.

[chesspain]

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Is being Gay a genetic trait?

All gay persons parents, grandparents and thier entire ancestral lineage engaged in heterosexual sex. How could being gay be a genetic trait?

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Being "genetic" is not the same as being hereditary. The latter means that you specifically received something from or through one or both of your parents. The former simply implies that it is something that you were born with--and "genetic" is probably not even the right term, because it implies that whatever we are speaking about is due to your specific genetic coding.

My understanding is that sexual preference is set at a very early age, possibly even by the time of birth. However, a lot happens from the moment of fertilization through the time a child is three or four years old.

I think the best way to summarize this is to say that for most gay people their sexual preference isn't really a choice.