Ted X Talk: Why do some people end up gay? :)

Banbha32

http://www.tedxtallaght.com/apps/videos/videos/view/next?channel_id=4249262&from_id=18991712

Opinions???

Nice little talk. Hope the link works. Its something im sure many of us have wondered or are even asked why do we think we are LGBT. Funnily enough I actually work in Clinical Genetics myself in a hospital laboratory diagnosing rare diseases and cancer genetic syndromes and as I am also gay, Im often asked ...so is there a gay gene then, i mean you must surely know??

And its obviously more complicated than that. I have no doubt it is a mix of genetic and environmental factors (nature and nurture) and while many many traits are the result of an alteration or mutation in one single gene, most of the more complex human traits like height, weight and intelligence are multifactorial (and I believe sexuality to be the same) with an additive effect of a number of genes and pathways plus other biochemical/hormonal and environmental factors.

Having said that, I often did wonder aswell about it from an evolutionary angle and why natural selection has maintained it as anything deemed reproductively defective is usually selected against in nature with the principle of survival of the fittest. A nice talk and how he sees it more in terms of the advantage of a group rather than just the individual. You can also see how much he admires his son and his place within the family

P.S Although im not in any way religious I also thoroughly enjoyed one of the mentioned quotes:

"Homosexuality is God's way of assuring the truly gifted arent burdened with children"

SILVAMAN

I think it's genetic.
I've observed that if a male is gay, there's a good chance that a male first cousin from his mother's side of the family is gay, and a chance that one of his mother's brother's is gay, and that the son of one of his sisters may be gay.
A friend has 4 siblings, one girl and three boys. he and two brothers are gay, and all three are left handed, while the other two are straight and right handed.
Simon LeVay, a neuroscientist, has said that he believes that genetics plays a greater role in determining the sexuality of men than of women, but that there are other factors involved, and researchers at the National Cancer Institute that the gene involved in male homosexuality is carried on the X chromosome, which comes from the mother.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/18/weekinreview/july-11-17-x-marks-the-spot-male-homosexuality-may-be-linked-to-a-gene.html

JackTaylorFan

I would like to know if there is a genetic link - but so far nothing solid has been discovered. I think you are making leaps wihen you say it runs in the family. Saying that, I do believe it is far more likely to do with the level of hornones you were exposed to in the womb - i.e testosterone levels depleted in carrying mother. This has been linked to gender variation too. And for this reason, which seems to be one of the strongest theories, I honestly think you'd learn more by studying the genes of the mother than the child.

As for the socio-psycho element - i.e. how you describe your relations with family - is a result not a causing factor. You were obviously just wired that way from birth. To say having less of a male influence in your childhood development might have turned you is, quite frankly, Freudianesque nonsense.

Ten of Swords

This topic comes up from time to time on this forum and I remember the last time it did there were a few good articles linked but one in particular that always stuck with me was this one by Jeremy Yoder (University of Minnesota, population genetics). He suggests that if homosexuality was the result of only a small number of genetic markers then between natural selection, mutation and genetic drift it simply would have died out over time, there has to be a multitude of other factors. I found it a fascinating article.

Scientific American 2014

Also, I knew I recognized the name Silvaman mentioned, Simon LeVay, from somewhere and I found it too. This article suggests that assertions made separately by him and Dean Hamer in the mid 90s are now, slowly, being proved correct but again it emphasizes that the genetic aspect is not the only factor and, as Banbha32 said, likens it to studies of intelligence.

New Scientist 2014

Personally I think the environmental factors post birth, have either either no, or statistically negligible, input into sexuality but that in-utero hormones play a significant role. This science mag article from 2012 describes this quite well and cites a very detailed study on this area by William R. Rice, Urban Friberg and Sergey Gavrilets.

Science Mag 2012

baby and crumble

TBH I just don't think about it. I'm not comfortable with the idea of going through issues like this, because it's a very short journey from "we found what makes someone gay" to attempts to stop people being gay. Likewise I'm really not comfortable with trying to isolate genes/ causes of various disabilities- again because it's predicated somehow on being disabled as being "wrong".

I don't know where I draw a line though, I'm trying to figure that one out in my own head.

gifted

Sure it's only a phase there going through...lol lol

Only joking, my nephew is gay and as far as I know he's the only one of the family going back through the generations...I always had a feeling he was though, especially as a teenager.

On a side note, he got married last year ( his hubby is sound) and it was up there with one of the best weddings we were ever at

ceebee1981

SILVAMAN wrote: »

I think it's genetic.
I've observed that if a male is gay, there's a good chance that a male first cousin from his mother's side of the family is gay, and a chance that one of his mother's brother's is gay

Whoa, that's literally me and my family.

LLMMLL

ceebee1981 wrote: »

Whoa, that's literally me and my family.

In fairness, I could post any family situation as an observation and someone would recognise it within their own family. For instance if I said I observed that the father's brother is usually gay someone would post "that's the situation in my family".