No Gay Gene, Not "Born This Way" - Darrow Miller and Friends

In the debate between the LGB and Transgender communities, it looks like the latter are correct. Recent scientific study finds no ‘gay gene.’

For many years those in the gay and lesbian community have argued that they have no choice, they have been born this way. One of the movement’s flags proudly proclaims as much.

Lesbians and gays have argued that their propensity is driven by nature; they were born this way. The transgender community has argued the opposite: one’s gender is a choice. Now it seems that the science is saying that gays and lesbians are not “born this way.”

In the past we have written about how science has established that what a woman carries in her womb is a human life. This rules against the pro-abortion industry narrative that what a woman carries in her womb is basically tissue, or a benign invasion.

More recently we have written about the research of the Weizmann Institute’s Molecular Genetics Department findings that sexual reality is not simply skin deep: 6,500 genetic markers in each human being declare “male” or “female.”

Now science has said that there is no merit in the LGBT claim that sexual orientation is rooted in biology.

A 143-page report published in 2016 by two John Hopkins University scholars, Lawrence Meyers and Paul McHugh, asserts that

The belief that sexual orientation is an innate, biologically fixed human property — that people are ‘born that way’ — is not supported by scientific evidence. … Likewise, the belief that gender identity is an innate, fixed human property independent of biological sex — so that a person might be a ‘man trapped in a woman’s body’ or a ‘woman trapped in a man’s body’ — is not supported by scientific evidence.

No gay gene

The largest study to look for the “gay gene” drew a similar conclusion. The research, published in the August 29,^,2019 edition of the esteemed journal Science, was performed on almost half a million people. A large “international consortium” cooperated for this comprehensive project. The study’s lead author, Andrea Ganna, a geneticist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, concluded: “There is no ‘gay gene.’”

The research, which analyzed data on DNA and sexual experiences from almost half a million people, found there are thousands of genetic variants linked to same-sex sexual behavior, most with very small effects.

Five of the genetic markers were “significantly” associated with same-sex behavior, the researchers said, but even these are far from being predictive of a person’s sexual preferences.

“We scanned the entire human genome and found a handful – five to be precise – of locations that are clearly associated with whether a person reports in engaging in same-sex sexual behavior.”

In the discussion of whether LGBT behavior comes from nature or nurture, the “nature” argument—“I was born this way”—lacks scientific credibility. Nongenetic factors such as nurture, environment (including upbringing), personality, and human volition have far more impact than any gene.

The LGBT narrative, like the pro-abortion narrative, will continue to be promoted. But those people who are pro-life and pro-natural family have a strong ally in the findings of science.