Throughout human history, science has uncovered the origin of a lot of things. One thing that to this day still gets debated about by scientists is the origins of homosexuality. This debate has been going on for decades and many people have tried to explain it before in the past. Many of the explanations weren’t scientifically backed because of the time they were introduced. The current climate and atmosphere of our society has caused uplifting the LGBTQ+ community to become somewhat of a trend. Due to this, the debate has been brought back up and people want to know where sexuality comes from; but for years as for 1990ss the 1990’s, when the “Human Genome Project” took place, scientists have been providing genetic and epigenetic evidence for a sexuality gene as well as providing logical theories for why these genes may exist.
For decades, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder and it was illegal to act on one’s sexuality. Religion playing such a huge role in how society worked naturally led scientists of the past to present research that said that the brain of homosexual individuals was not as large as their straight counterparts, due to a disorder linked to fetal development to align with what the church said and not what their research clearly provided. This helped further the public opinion on homosexuality making those individuals feel out of place. Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1952. Taking it off the mental disorder list helped shift public opinion on homosexuality, but the thing that had the largest impact on public opinion on homosexuality was the Human Genome Project. Even though there was research done previously on homosexuality, the Human Genome Project was a very well known and heavily researched project that was broadcast on television that gave the public a different view of homosexuality.
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Scientists have provided a multitude of research for genetics influence on sexuality but the focus will be on two specific pieces of scientific research both done in the 1990’s. The genetic basis of sexual orientation, which are J. Michael Bailey and Richard Pillard's twin study (1991), and Dean Hamer et al.'s study of genetic markers for homosexuality on the X chromosome. The first study being discussed is Bailey and Pillard's study, ‘A Genetic Study of Male Sexual Orientation’. The two scientists publicized there study in magazines in an effort to attract gay men with a twin brother, or an adoptive brother who had been adopted into the family at an age of less than three. The gay men were interviewed about the sexuality of themselves and their brothers, and then had to fill out a questionnaires to determine their sexuality.
The twin brothers were also asked to confirm if they were identical twins or fraternal twins. The results were 52% (29/56) of the identical twins included in the study were homosexual while 22% (12/54) of fraternal twins were homosexual , and only 11% (6/57) of adoptive brothers were homosexual. These result lead both Bailey and Pillard to conclude that there is a genetic basis for homosexuality. Dean Hamer et al’s study which was published 2 years after Bailey and Pillard’s study is next. In his study he had 38 pairs of homosexual brothers and their relatives all above the age of 18, with two families added from a previous sample. The total participants numbers was 114. Hamer choose the families very intentionally in order to test his hypothesis which was there is a maternally transmitted genetic
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The Existence Of Gay Gene.
(2022, February 21). Edubirdie. Retrieved November 21, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/the-existence-of-gay-gene/
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