The Elusive ‘Gay’ Gene

06.09.2019

Lady Gaga may believe that homosexually-inclined people are “born that way”,but, despite billions of dollars spent in research over the years, no “gay gene” hasever been identified as the cause. More recently, research conducted by the prestigious Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, examined the biological data of 470,000 people, and concluded that sexual behaviour was influenced by a “complex mix of genetic and environmental influences”. Our findings provide insights into the biological underpinnings of same-sex sexual behaviour, wrote the authors, "but [they] also underscore theimportance of resisting simplistic conclusions because the behavioral phenotypes are complex, because our genetic insights are rudimentary, and because there is a long history of misusing genetic results for social purposes.