[extropy-chat] Gay marriage in Spain, a world of change

Mike Lorrey mlorrey at yahoo.com
Thu Jul 21 16:32:42 UTC 2005



--- MB <mbb386 at main.nc.us> wrote:
> 
> Recently I read Susan Blackmore's "The Meme Machine".  In it she says
> the following:
> 
> p. 137
> | The taboo against homosexuality is especially interesting.
> | There is no generally accepted biological explanation of
> | homosexuality and superficially it does not appear to be
> | adaptive. Nevertheless, evidence is accumulating that there
> | is an inherited predisposition for homosexuality. 

Last I heard, the heritability claim has been losing steam. Studies of
gay twins found only 50% of gay identical twins had gay twin siblings.
22% of gay fraternal twins and 11% of gay siblings reported gay twins
and siblings, respectively. Technically speaking, fraternal twins are
no different from normal siblings other than sharing a uterine
environment for 9 months.

Simon LeVay's studies of cadaver brains suffered in peer review because
his classification of  individuals as heterosexual was problematic,
especially given many claimed heteros died of AIDS, nor could LeVay
demonstrate that the brain cell cluster differences he reported were
cause or effect, or why some known gays did not exhibit the claimed
feature.

In 1993, a team of researchers led by Dr. Dean Hamer announced
"preliminary" findings from research into the connection between
homosexuality and genetic inheritance. In a sample of 76 homosexual
males, the researchers found a statistically higher incidence of
homosexuality in their male relatives (brothers, uncles) on their
mother's side of the family. This suggested a possible inherited link
through the X chromosome. A follow-up study of 40 pairs of homosexual
brothers found that 33 shared a variation in a small section of the X
chromosome. Although this study was promoted by the press as evidence
of the discovery of a gay gene, some of the same concerns raised with
the previous two studies apply here. First, the findings involve a
limited sample size and are therefore sketchy. Even the researchers
acknowledged that these were "preliminary" findings. In addition to the
sample size being small, there was no control testing done for
heterosexual brothers. Another major issue raised by critics of the
study concerned the lack of sufficient research done on the social
histories of the families involved.

Second, similarity does not prove cause. Just because 33 pairs of
homosexual brothers share a genetic variation doesn't mean that
variation causes homosexuality. And what about the other 7 pairs that
did not show the variation but were homosexuals?

Finally, research bias may again be an issue. Dr. Hamer and at least
one of his other team members are homosexual. It appears that this was
deliberately kept from the press and was only revealed later. Dr. Hamer
it turns out is not merely an objective observer. He has presented
himself as an expert witness on homosexuality, and he has stated that
he hopes his research would give comfort to men feeling guilty about
their homosexuality.

By the way, this was a problem in every one of the studies we have
mentioned in our discussion. For example, Dr. Simon LeVay said that he
was driven to study the potential physiological roots of homosexuality
after his homosexual lover died of AIDS. He even admitted that if he
failed to find a genetic cause for homosexuality that he might walk
away from science altogether. Later he did just that by moving to West
Hollywood to open up a small, unaccredited "study center" focusing on
homosexuality.



Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


		
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