Homosexuality

[Eilonnwy]

If there is a gay gene, then there is a straight gene.

I can see how the existence of a gay gene implies a straight gene. However I don't know enough about genetics to be able to simply accept one infers the other.

Perhaps someone could explain the science to me?

This post goes into detail. I don't want to do another long winded one, repeating what was there. In general, there is no gay gene. None that science has found anyway, and there doesn't have to be. It's fallacious to think there has to be. Not all our traits come from single genes. Some do, and some are a result of other biological reasons. My previous post goes into some of that detail.

But i don't buy that it's entirely genetic, while genes are important there is also the nurture aspect of this argument which is being somewhat ignored.

Specifically what nurture aspect are you referring to? Straight people have gay children and gay children have straight children all the time, so that really isn't an effect. Are you talking maybe family dynamic? I don't buy it.

Most psychoanalytic theories, however, stress the role of parental and family dynamics, not the society as a whole. Behaviorists believe that some sexual and gender identification differences result from roles imposed by family and friends upon children, such as the masculine and the feminine stereotypes. Problems with this are there is no evidence, social or biological, to support that homosexual children were raised differently than were the heterosexual children. Also, with reinforcement of gender identification norms, one would be led to logically deduce that all of the stereotype reinforcement would ensure a heterosexual outcome [7].

Source: http://allpsych.com/journal/homosexuality.html

However, we must always remember that no definitive answer has been found for homosexuality, so nurture could be valid, but I won't believe it until there is better evidence to support it. I think biological causes make more sense.