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Gay Is Not All in the Genes
http://news.sciencemag.org ^ | 30 June 2008 | by Michael Balter

Posted on 03/28/2013 8:33:24 AM PDT by Maelstorm

Why are some people gay? Most researchers who study sexual orientation think that both genetic and environmental factors play a role, but the relative contributions of each remain unclear. A new study of Swedish twins reinforces earlier findings that environmental influences--including the environment in the womb--may play a greater role than genes.

Scientists studying complex human behaviors often turn to twin studies. Researchers look at both identical and fraternal twins to see how often they share a trait--a parameter called concordance. The greater the concordance among genetically identical twins compared with fraternal twins--who share only half of their genes--the more likely that genetic factors are involved.

Earlier twin studies of sexual orientation have suggested varying degrees of genetic and environmental influences. But they have suffered from the limitations typical of all twin studies. These include small sample sizes and assumptions that identical and fraternal twins both have the same family environments; if identical twins are treated more similarly by their parents than fraternal twins, for example, this could be mistaken for a genetic influence. Recruitment biases are also an issue: Some studies have enlisted participants who openly identify themselves as gay, who may not be typical of the entire homosexual population.

To try to get around these problems, a team led by Niklas Langström, a psychiatrist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, recruited subjects from the Swedish Twin Registry, the world's largest. All 43,808 twins born in Sweden between 1959 and 1985 were invited to participate in a Web-based survey that comprised a wide range of questions about personal behaviors and experiences. The team ended up with a sample of 3826 twin pairs, of which 2320 were identical and 1506 fraternal. Of that sample, roughly 5% of men and 8% of women reported sexual activity with a member of the same sex at least once during their lifetimes. Then they plugged the survey responses into a standard mathematical model for comparing identical and fraternal twins.

The results, published online this month in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, confirm earlier findings that identical twins are more concordant for same-sex behaviors than fraternal twins are but only modestly so: In men, genetic effects appeared to explain 34% to 39% of the differences between the two twin groups, whereas in women, genetics accounted for only about 18% to 19% of the difference--a finding consistent with other research showing that sexual orientation in women is not as rigidly determined as it is in men.

As for what environmental factors might be at play, the authors point out that these might not be entirely social but could also be biological. For example, some studies have suggested that exposure to prenatal hormones or even the mother's immune system could influence the sexual development of a fetus.

J. Michael Bailey, a psychologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, who led earlier twin studies of sexual orientation, calls the new study "good, important, and one unlikely to be bettered in the near future." But Jonathan Beckwith, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, says that the new work fails to overcome a number of problems faced by previous twin studies. He notes that the final sample included only 12% of the males in the Swedish registry, leaving open the possibility of recruitment bias. And Beckwith says that the failure to control for family environment could inflate estimates of genetic influence.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: gay; gaygene; genes; genetics; homosexualagenda; scotus; sourcetitlenoturl; ssm
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To: Blackirish

they mostl ikely are takign steroids to be more manly looking


21 posted on 03/28/2013 9:17:40 AM PDT by CottShop (Scientific belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge)
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To: Maelstorm
There's another thread, "Study: Gay Parents More Likely to Have Gay Kids".

We may get more data on what happens to kids raised by gay adoptive parents, once there are more gay adoptions. (Or we may not, if the study results prove too controversial).

22 posted on 03/28/2013 9:19:48 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: Maelstorm

Living in California I have the privilege of being around a greater % of homosexuals. All kidding aside, there is one trait that I’ve noticed for almost every homosexual/lesbian I’ve met. Their families had an extremely dominant mother and a very passive father. The “man of the house” was the mother and she pressed her control very hard. It is interesting that the feminist movement contains that same paradigm.


23 posted on 03/28/2013 9:22:01 AM PDT by Son-Joshua (son-joshua)
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To: Wiser now

This is a very good point- God also told peopel not to hjave relations before marrriage- and htose that don’t, are OBEYING Him, while htose that do are DISOBEYING Him- they are makign a conscious choice to DISOBEY God- Heteros aren’t ‘born that way’ They are born with desires true or rather develope desires later on through hormone icnreases- but they are NOT born to act on those desires- they CHOOSE to act opn those desires- to DISOBEY God - Same hting with peopel who VAIOLATE God’s word by feedign hteir horniness in unnatural ways- they FEED their devient desires until it takes cotnrol of them- they becoem slaves to their desires and to their unwillingness to control those desires

This ‘gay gene’ hypothesis is pure crap- Nuns and many priests go through life without ever havign relations because htey MAKE A CHOICE to do what they think God wants of them proving once and for all peopel CAN control their desiresw whether natural or unnatural, but that some folks REFUSE to cotnrol their desires and conscously choose to DISOBEY God and live in sin


24 posted on 03/28/2013 9:24:33 AM PDT by CottShop (Scientific belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge)
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To: Maelstorm; P-Marlowe
Even if, and I doubt it, there is a component of genetics involved in homosexuality, then as I understand it, there is also a biological propensity to alcoholism:

From the National Institutes of Health (NIH):

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa60.htm Research has shown conclusively that familial transmission of alcoholism risk is at least in part genetic and not just the result of family environment (1). The task of current science is to identify what a person inherits that increases vulnerability to alcoholism and how inherited factors interact with the environment to cause disease.

And with addiction in general:

They add to evidence that individual differences in the quality and quantity of brain connections make pleiotropic contributions to individual differences in vulnerability to addictions and to related brain disorders and phenotypes http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18991966

And with introversion:

Consistent with GWA results, we found that BDNF Met carriers were more introverted. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20042999

Therefore, if it's really helpful to tell a homosexual to give in to behavior that will kill him, then, of the others, we should tell one to crawl inside as bottle, the other to craw inside a crack pipe, and the last to crawl inside a cave.

That's real helpful.

Now, there IS a biological propensity for males and females to mate when they feel like it with whomever is available. That, however, has been found to be unhelpful, so those urges are brought under control.

If one can control, then so can the other.

25 posted on 03/28/2013 9:25:06 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! True supporters of our troops pray for their victory!)
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To: PapaBear3625

Good post.

This is why homosexuals need legalized marriage. The second they acquire gay marriage, they will demand preference in adoption. And every one of those adopted children can be brainwashed to embrace the homosexual lifestyle.

That is the plan. The plan is to turn adopted children into fags and dykes, and they can’t demand adoption preference until they conquer legalized marriage. Then they will scream they were being discriminated against any time they are turned down for adoption, and the adoption agency will fold and give in.

This is the plan.


26 posted on 03/28/2013 9:30:00 AM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (Free goodies for all -- Freedom for none.)
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To: Maelstorm

I think I know why some people are so happy, or gay, but being homosexual is another issue.


27 posted on 03/28/2013 9:32:50 AM PDT by murron (Proud Mom of a Marine Vet)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

If divorce and domestic violence were the cause of homosexuality there would be far greater numbers of gays than there are.


28 posted on 03/28/2013 9:33:47 AM PDT by Wiser now (Socialism does not eliminate poverty, it guarantees it.)
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To: Beowulf9
The gay twin grew up as a heterosexual, married, had children. Then ...was gay, divorced, moved ...with a homosexual other...forgetting what he did to his wife and two little girls. He still sees them, they are of course expected to accept his new lifestyle. He feels he is a good father.

The divorce industry long ago redefined "a good father" to mean someone who keeps up with pittance child support payments and demands to see the kids, occasionally doing so. Or demanding custody so he can avoid paying support to his ex-wife, and letting his future live-in cope with them off-handedly. As long as the lawyers get paid, he's a "good" father.

29 posted on 03/28/2013 9:47:21 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("Commies out of DC!" --Raoul Deming, 1954-2013)
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To: Maelstorm

...roughly 5% of men and 8% of women reported sexual activity with a member of the same sex at least once during their lifetimes. Then they plugged the survey responses into a standard mathematical model for comparing identical and fraternal twins....


Here’s the problem.

The 5-8% (as opposed to 2%) gay numbers suggest they are including non-gays who had an isolated homosexual experience (pubescent experimentation, college “LUG” etc.)

Someone else can do the math, but the data may very well explain that most or all gays who are living an ongoing gay lifestyle are explained genetically, and all those who have a random experimentation have no genetic factor.


30 posted on 03/28/2013 9:47:53 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Universal Background Check -> Registration -> Confiscation -> Oppression -> Extermination)
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To: Maelstorm

The so called “gay gene” is nothing compared to the “multiple partners gene,” yet we have laws against polygamy.


31 posted on 03/28/2013 9:49:04 AM PDT by pallis
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To: BenLurkin
Is there such a thing as a “gay gene”?

Vicky Gene Robinson, the first gay bishop of the Episcopal church; Billie Gene, Michael Jackson's fictitious baby mama...

32 posted on 03/28/2013 9:51:48 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("Commies out of DC!" --Raoul Deming, 1954-2013)
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To: Wiser now; LucyT; azishot

“God knows the cause, whether it is genetic or environmental, and He still said “Do not practice homosexuality.” In God’s eyes the cause is irrelevant.”

Going one step further, I wonder if any homo is able to answer this question:

Assuming that “homos are born (created) with the homo gene,” why would God say, “Do not practice homosexuality”?

I suspect that homos will claim atheism rather than answering the question.


33 posted on 03/28/2013 9:55:35 AM PDT by melancholy
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To: Maelstorm

I’m a male lesbian.


34 posted on 03/28/2013 9:58:34 AM PDT by Osage Orange (Life is a bitch. If it was easy, we would call it a slut)
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To: Borax Queen
Or, some were drama queens to begin with

My money is on at least 90% is the craving for attention.

35 posted on 03/28/2013 10:05:40 AM PDT by bgill
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To: Maelstorm

The Supreme Court - About to Play God Again?


36 posted on 03/28/2013 10:06:03 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free
This is why homosexuals need legalized marriage. The second they acquire gay marriage, they will demand preference in adoption. And every one of those adopted children can be brainwashed to embrace the homosexual lifestyle.

And at some point, they will say they make bettr parents because they chose to have children, unlike heteros who can have children "by accident." Reminds me of the abortion promise "every child a wanted child."

Children as a rule deserve to know their geneology. Yes, adoption by strangers is sometimes necessary, but it should not be the goal.

37 posted on 03/28/2013 10:06:09 AM PDT by informavoracious (God help us.)
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To: Maelstorm

Just imagine how quickly the ‘gay problem’ in society will correct itself if they ever discover a ‘gay gene’. With a society that places so little regard on it’s unborn (just look at the abortion rate for Downs Syndrome children) a test for a gay gene would remove well over 90% of the gay population.

The funny thing is that the only people who would keep their ‘gay babies’ would be the religious Christians that the Homosexuals hate so much!


38 posted on 03/28/2013 10:09:12 AM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
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To: Maelstorm

Gay by genes or by choice is beside the point since what matters in terms of the law is how society experiences the effect of the gayness. In other words, if two men marry, society doesn’t know the root cause of their choice. All society knows is that a gay marriage, e.g., produces no children, which has a substantive effect on society. To start dwelling on the cause and not the effect lets the left get its foot in the door with bogus arguments about discrimination.


39 posted on 03/28/2013 10:16:57 AM PDT by Yardstick
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To: Blackirish; Maelstorm
Some of these chicks are brutes. Big shoulders, necks, thick backs.....combine that with men’s clothing, facial hair and homade tattoos. Something..I don’t know is really off.

Brain studies originating with research into stroke and traumatic brain injury have found that when people focus on a given area of life, the brain grows or colonizes more brain cells in that site.

Brain-injured people are put through occupational therapy to grow new brain pathways around old injuries -- working with eye-hand coordination, repetitive movements involving the injured sphere or the new objective in recovery.

So it makes sense that people have some ability to grow into or out of various behaviors --"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" -- or that repetition of certain behaviors could grow enough brain cells that the person experiences a powerful sense of compulsion -- especially in the areas of child abuse or being orphaned or abandoned -- the self-protective, "I need to protect my hurt" functions of emotional growth. In the case of butch lesbians, adding layers of fat and making themselves unattractive to men self-reinforces an inner sense of un"whole"ness. In effeminate men, unmanly behaviors insulate a male from adult responsibility, especially the emotional responsibility of a natural marriage.

As for the parade you saw, the medical fad of giving opposite-sex hormones to these confused folks may be responsible for facial hair on women, masculine body image, etc.

Here is the testimony of a woman who gradually grew out of lesbianism. The comments at the link to the original article contain several stories of men and women who either left the life, or continue to insist that nothing can change them, and therefore aren't open to the possibility. The testimonies include people whose pathway included Christianity and people who healed without a religious conversion.

My Train Wreck Conversion (Lesbian turns away, chooses Christianity)

40 posted on 03/28/2013 10:18:50 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("Commies out of DC!" --Raoul Deming, 1954-2013)
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