There is no gay gene

Professor stands firm in 'no gay gene' theory, refutes Gifford's stance
DAILY NEBRASKAN
August 6, 2007

If ignorance is bliss, then Greg Gifford must be happy about his uniformed and biased response to my five-second sound bite on CNN regarding homosexuality.

I did say there is no gay gene, and some people have changed their sexual preference. My "opinion" is based on three years of study and reading more than 300 journal articles and academic books.

Mr. Gifford's irresponsible extrapolation that my views "can easily be used to promote an agenda of bigotry and hatred" at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is offensive to me personally and reflects the oft-used tactic of the radical left to censor dissident opinions.

Mr. Gifford touts the research of J. Michael Bailey, Dean Hamer and Simon LeVay in support of the gay gene "theory" as if their research is undisputed fact. It isn't. It all has serious flaws in sampling and interpretation, which even the authors admit.

Simon LeVay claims he found on average, a slighter smaller area of the hypothalamus in the gay men compared to heterosexual men. He then "suggests that sexual orientation has a biological substrate." There were major flaws with his research - the sample was very small, the control group was inappropriate, there is no evidence that the INAH-3 part of the brain has anything to do with sexual behavior, AIDS could have caused the brain differences and the study has never been replicated.

LeVay was quoted by Discover Magazine in 1994 saying, "It's important to stress what I didn't find. I did not prove that homosexuality was genetic or find a genetic cause for being gay. I didn't show that gay men were 'born that way,' the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work. Nor did I locate a gay center in the brain."

Except for the rare physical abnormalities - such as Huntington's disease, cystic fibrosis, phenylketonuria and achondroplasia - there is no evidence, at the present time, of a direct causative link between a single gene and any complex psychosocial behavior, including sexual preference.

Evolutionary geneticist R. C. Lewontin stated this explicitly in his 1984 work, "Not in Our Genes."

"Up to the present time no one has ever been able to relate any aspect of human social behavior to any particular gene or set of genes, and no one has ever suggested an experimental plan for doing so. Thus, all statements about the genetic basis of human social traits are necessarily purely speculative, no matter how positive they seem to be."

Dr. Francis S. Collins, head of The Human Genome Project, was quoted as saying, "An area of particularly strong public interest is the genetic basis of homosexuality. Evidence [indicates] that sexual orientation is genetically influenced but not hardwired by DNA, and that whatever genes are involved represent predispositions, not predeterminations."

Edward Stein, a pro-gay psychologist, explains that "Genes in themselves cannot directly specify any behavior or psychological phenomenon. Instead, genes direct a particular pattern of RNA synthesis, which in turn may influence the development of psychological dispositions and the expression of behaviors. There are many intervening pathways between a gene and a disposition or a behavior…No one has presented evidence in support of such a simple and direct link between genes and sexual orientation."

Baker, a behavioral psychologist, agrees. "Each [behavior] is affected by multiple genes interacting with multiple environmental influences…Unfortunately, many people have a different impression. They think that a gene controls a behavioral trait. This is genetic determinism, the belief that the development of an organism is determined solely by genetic factors. Genetic determinism is a false belief. It comes from misunderstandings of scientific research."

Robert Plomin, a behavioral geneticist, states, "Genes do not act as master puppeteers within us. They are chemical structures that control the production of proteins; thereby indirectly affecting behavior…Genes do not determine one's destiny."

Let me summarize. Michael Rutter, a geneticist, explains that genes specify protein synthesis; genes do not determine complex social behaviors. Byne, a physician and biologist, states that there is no evidence for a gay gene, no support for the theory that prenatal or postnatal hormone imbalance causes homosexual behavior and no proof that there are structural differences in the brains of homosexuals and heterosexuals.

Mr. Gifford, if you "expect better of me" when I have hundreds of citations to support my point of view, I would expect better scholarship from you. You haven't read the research, or you don't understand it.

I will remind you what I said: There is no gay gene, and some people have changed their sexual preference. There is no malice, no bigotry and no hatred in these words. You are the one who sounds hateful and spiteful.

Douglas A. Abbot is a professor of Child, Youth & Family Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln