Science: The Ever Elusive Gay Gene

So, ultimately, what we have is an underpowered fishing expedition that used inappropriate statistics and that snagged results which may be false positives. Epigenetics marks may well be involved in sexual orientation. But this study, despite its claims, does not prove that and, as designed, could not have...

The Atlantic.

Can't believe how much crap has been written about this.

Coz science! 

Full disclosure: The working title for Fagburn was 'The Gay Brain', cause that nonsense was a thing then, as now, but Peter 'Marilyn' Robinson told me it sounded insufferably smug.

Peter Tatchell Watch: The Appliance Of Science

Daily Telegraph.

Peter Tatchell - a self-styled authority on so very many subjects - has an honorary masters degree in stating the obvious and repeating what someone else has written.

He's written this article at least three times before - often in support of his Nostradamus-like prediction and collective death wish that gay identity will be eradicated.

God bless you.

NB These days Peter's ever madder musings are usually only published by International Business Times - a shady right-wing religious nutter outfit. Go figure.

PS Whilst it is oft rumoured Peter Tatchell is in the pay of MI6, the CIA etc, I have found no evidence for this, and believe his defences of American empire are due to his own gullibility.

Richard Dawkins: The Gay Delusion

Graphic by the young, left-wing, queer atheist blogger Alex Gabriel.

Richard Dawkins is back in the news again after causing great offence on Twitter AGAIN, this time arguing for aborting foetuses with Down's Syndrome.

Odd though how little his UTTERLY BARKING THEORIES on the survival of 'the gay gene' so often get overlooked when people catalogue his more ludicrous ideas.



PS See also Would you let parents destroy 'gay' embryos?, Mary Wakefield, The Spectator, March 2014.

The Gay Gene: Born This Way?

An estimated 3 per cent of the population are lesbian or gay. Is it genetic – a biological 'accident of birth' predetermined in the womb – or could it be a choice? In other words, is sexual preference a social construction, or are we simply born that way?

With the gay rights agenda still very much in the news this question lies at the heart of the current debate. Join us as we explore these questions with our panel, chaired by Guardian writer Kira Cochrane and hear both sides of an issue that continues to polarise opinion.

The Guardian.

In answer to your question.

Nobody has the foggiest idea.
Anyone who claims they know is a liar.
Perhaps human understanding will never reach the point where we can answer this question.
People - gay or anti-gay - often just choose the option they feel most comforting.
This is an amusing parlour game, no more, no less.
No rational person would think it should have any impact on how gay people are treated.
Thanks for asking.

Panelists include Julie Bindel and Peter Tatchell - don't all rush at once.

Surprised they didn't ask that intellectual titan, Lady Gaga.

Why I'm glad I have the gay gene, Theo Merz, Telegraph, June 11th...

Haters, as is their wont, continue to hate, saying that if homosexuality is genetic, it’s nothing more than a birth defect. They add that if a gene can be isolated, removing it becomes easier. At the other end of the spectrum, among my London-based, 20-something gay and straight friends, the reaction is largely: who cares? Why this obsession with cracking a possibly non-existent gay code? As the actress Cynthia Nixon, who is married to a woman, commented on an earlier study, “It doesn’t matter if we flew here or we swam here, it matters that we are here”.

But while, as they’d say on the BBC, other gay opinions are available, I find the idea of a biological basis for my homosexuality extremely comforting. For me, the fact that we were born this way remains a convenient truth to fall back on in moments of self-doubt.

See? Told you.

Note the excited squeal with which Queerty reported the latest research...

And note the unwittingly ironic sub-header, 'Blinded with science'.