Mothers May Pass A 'Gay Gene' Onto Their Children

[Lee]

Scientists have been debating over how the homosexuality gene passes on from generation to generation considering the fact that gay men seldom have children.

Now, Italian researchers claim to have found the answer to the Darwinian paradox: they indicate that this is because women who inherit the 'gay' gene tend to have more children.

This increased fertility helps to pass on the "gay" genetic factors and also leads to the birth of homosexual men despite gay men not having children, reports New Scientist.

During the course of the study, Dr Andrea Camperio-Ciani of the University of Padua, the lead author of the study, and his team questioned 4,600 people, including gays and straight people. They found that on an average mothers and relatives of gay men had more kids than relatives of straight men.

The researchers, who have presented their study in the Royal Society Journals now saying that these factors should be partly bound to the X chromosome, because male homosexuality, associated with increased female fecundity was found only in the maternal line of homosexuals.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5...2200000215.htm

Interesting stuff.

So in essence, the bigger your family is, the more likelyhood (it seems) that one of your siblings will be gay.

Regards,

Lee

[Takemytaco]

OMG

When I came out I told my mother it was not her fault. It seams like I need to talk to her again.
:wtf:

I hope she doesn't cry. :high:

[susanna]

Its still not really her "fault" if it has to do with genes passed to her. We women cannot select which good genes to pass on.

As well, can a study really be all that effective if they studied 4600 people? can there not be other non-scientific reasons for this? Maybe these overly gay gene women choose a certain kind of man, without realizing, that has a gay tendancy. Have they really thought this out well?

[Takemytaco]

Ok

I blame my grandma and her mother too.

By the way
I'm just kidding.

I wouldn't blame anyone. There is no reason to BLAME I would have to Thank whoever pass these genes on me. :5ymca:

PS
I like your site

[susanna]

Exactly. Thats another good point. I didnt think you were all that serious but I did want to make the point about the talking to 4600 people. Somehow I just cant imagine that is a good number, a good representation of gays.

[Bec]

This isn't new news ... they were teaching about the gay gene being transmitted down the mother's side in Intro to Nursing Biology back in 1993 at a local campus. They know there's a gay gene ... but any info about it keeps getting dumped to page 1001 on newspapers or trounced on in health journals. Our "Moral Majority" at work, I'm sure.

[Squirt]

Right... it's a big conundrum because when they find out why we're homosexual.. we'll be faced with "is being homosexual ok?" Will parents then goto geneticists and flush out the homosexual genes before being inseminated? As long as people have natural sex, there will be no way, for thousands of years, that the "Gay" gene can be breeded out of humanity.

Steven Hawking, the most brilliant cosmologist, has MND ( motor neuron disease ) and is wheelchair bound. If we find MND is caused by genes.. would a Steven Hawking of the future be born? ( interesting insight into his life can be found here ). His disability is what pushed him into cosmology and to make some of the decisions in life he did as his infliction worsened.

How can being homosexual be seen as a bad thing, and as something that has to be "cured"? We are human, we love, we live, we reproduce. We are productive insightful, imaginative creatures. We are the clue that holds societies prejudice in check for we cross all ethnic and socioeconomic boundaries. We are the conduit between men and women that helps them understand one another; as we are both.

Homosexuality, asexuality, etc. is a part of nature. In every species known to man homosexuality exists. Creatures exist which are both male and female. Plants as well. Homosexuality is not a flaw, it's a genetic mutation created to bring humanity forward in the universe.

Straight men, and women, experiment with homosexual sex. Most everyone has, can they find that gene and destroy it as well?

I could list all the things good about being homosexual.. and all the things we present to this world.. but instead I ask.. what's wrong about being Gay?

Where does it stop? After they exterminate us homosexuals will they go after the transvestite gene? The transsexual gene? Then what.. the "men who like to wear pink" gene? :wacko:

[cold_ice]

Originally posted by Takemytaco
OMG

When I came out I told my mother it was not her fault. It seams like I need to talk to her again.
:wtf:

I hope she doesn't cry. :high:

Shit that was just funny. Here is another link on the same subject.

[susanna]

Originally posted by Squirt
Right... it's a big conundrum because when they find out why we're homosexual.. we'll be faced with "is being homosexual ok?" Will parents then goto geneticists and flush out the homosexual genes before being inseminated? As long as people have natural sex, there will be no way, for thousands of years, that the "Gay" gene can be breeded out of humanity.

Steven Hawking, the most brilliant cosmologist, has MND ( motor neuron disease ) and is wheelchair bound. If we find MND is caused by genes.. would a Steven Hawking of the future be born? ( interesting insight into his life can be found here ). His disability is what pushed him into cosmology and to make some of the decisions in life he did as his infliction worsened.

How can being homosexual be seen as a bad thing, and as something that has to be "cured"? We are human, we love, we live, we reproduce. We are productive insightful, imaginative creatures. We are the clue that holds societies prejudice in check for we cross all ethnic and socioeconomic boundaries. We are the conduit between men and women that helps them understand one another; as we are both.

Homosexuality, asexuality, etc. is a part of nature. In every species known to man homosexuality exists. Creatures exist which are both male and female. Plants as well. Homosexuality is not a flaw, it's a genetic mutation created to bring humanity forward in the universe.

Straight men, and women, experiment with homosexual sex. Most everyone has, can they find that gene and destroy it as well?

I could list all the things good about being homosexual.. and all the things we present to this world.. but instead I ask.. what's wrong about being Gay?

Where does it stop? After they exterminate us homosexuals will they go after the transvestite gene? The transsexual gene? Then what.. the "men who like to wear pink" gene? :wacko:

I dunno, maybe you guys have a different experience in the USA. I live in Canada. It doesnt seem so bad here. I am not gay so maybe I shouldnt be commenting but atleast we are allowing gay marriage and not talking about moral decay etc. I dont see the negativity toward gays that you speak of in your message. Maybe a canadian gay person could comment.

I could not imagine talk of extermination of gays etc....we dont often hear someone talk of gays at all, they are just like everyone else.

[Bec]

So in essence, the bigger your family is, the more likelyhood (it seems) that one of your siblings will be gay.

I'm the oldest of six kids ... the other 5 are all half brothers and a sister ... same mom, different dad ... and my sister is gay ... and I'd swear 2 of my brothers should be!

[Gary-Alan]

Susanna - we have come a long way... but we still have the ultra conservative religious right that use the words gay, abortion and evil in the same sentence.


With larger families, not only does genetics come into play but wouldn't the law of averages enter into it as well?

Years ago... probably 1991 is when this was first mentioned. It was a time when the human dna strands were just being presented and being analyzed. The specific gene could not (and maybe still can not) be read to indentify orientation, directly.

At the time, some office debates went on whether people would abort a child if the could identify that a child is gay prior to birth.


Wasn't there a bad made for TV (or cable) movie about this? A couple struggles with the fact that they know their child is going to be gay. And all the sterotypical reactions were presented? I need to google this and see if I can find it. I'm sure that something was on and was soon forgotten.


A miserble thing to think about is if science could perform a test to determine if a child will be gay or not, what would a religious zealot do then? Something that makes me go "HMMMM?"

[Dawgy]

finding a 'gay gene' is not good news in my opinion. being able to define the cause of something, makes it all the more easy to eliminate that something. you can already bio-engineer your children based on hair color, eye color, sex, etc... how long before you can choose to make sure your child is straight?

[Gary-Alan]

FYI the movie I was thinking about is named, "The Twilight of the Golds".

GA

[susanna]

Originally posted by Gary-Alan
Susanna - we have come a long way... but we still have the ultra conservative religious right that use the words gay, abortion and evil in the same sentence.

At the time, some office debates went on whether people would abort a child if the could identify that a child is gay prior to birth.

A miserble thing to think about is if science could perform a test to determine if a child will be gay or not, what would a religious zealot do then? Something that makes me go "HMMMM?"

I edited your quote to the parts that interested me. I think the thing that came up in my mind is that if they got to the point of being able to present options to new parents that gay/or not might be part of a long list. Already there is natural (errrm not all that natural I guess) selection of boy babies in china. So there might be a million diseases, traits, and sex to determine. I am thinking that it will be a very quick phase. It has always been the best to have no idea what you are getting into when raising kids. That is a survival of the species thing. If we were faced with having to deselect certain bad things, knowing a million other bad things would happen, we would stop having kids.

I think the shock of your child "being different" would just happen during pregnancy vs. after 17 years of living with them. I dont know that it would be an option for anyone to abort because they would be gay. I know some people abort for health reasons but I would bet the numbers are smaller then you think. Those being told they are having a downs baby for instance, if the true numbers that chose to or not to abort would be known. I cannot imagine aborting gay babies becoming a widely accepted practice.

What would be next? girls who show tomboy characteristics (lets select only the best "female" genes) not even talking about lesbians here. Maybe perfect bodies. Maybe blonde boys only??? :wtf:

I think that science has to go where it will go but ethics always take over. I can say that I am glad to see a well functioning "left and right" wing on every issue. Without them all, we would be pushed into things without thinking them thru.