The “born that way” crowd has been searching for the gay gene for well over 30 years.
Well, they can call off the hunt. Scientists from Harvard and MIT have now concluded it does not exist.
The research was published in Science, hardly a propaganda arm of the vast rightwing heterosexual conspiracy. The study used information from two data banks containing the genomes - that is, the entire genetic makeup - of 477,500 people who had signed up with the UK Biobank project or the genetics company 23andMe.
Researchers identified five specific genetic variants that were found to be “associated” with (note: not “the cause of”) same-sex behavior. Altogether they accounted for less than 1% of homosexual behavior. (Emphasis mine throughout.)
Ben Neale, an associate professor in the Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, said, “There is no single gay gene, and a genetic test for if you’re going to have a same-sex relationship is not going to work. It’s effectively impossible to predict an individual’s sexual behavior from their genome.”
I’m guessing this will be a relief to many in the LGBTQ movement, who secretly did not want a gay gene to be found. This is because, with advances in prenatal genetic testing, they feared that many homosexuals would be aborted before they were ever born. You can ask Down’s syndrome babies all about that.
But on the other hand, they had searched relentlessly for the gay gene because it would serve as an excuse for their non-normative sexual behavior. It’s not their fault, they would say, because we were born that way. You can’t blame us for our behavior, it’s in our genes. Like the scorpion said to the turtle when he stung him halfway across the river, “I can’t help it; it’s my nature, it’s the way I am.”
Well, MIT and Harvard just shredded the “born that way” excuse. David Curtis, honorary professor at the UCL Genetics Institute at the University College London, said flatly, “This study clearly shows that there is no such thing as a ‘gay gene.’ There is no genetic variant in the population which has any substantial effect on sexual orientation.”
Even Zeke Stroke of the pro-sodomy organization GLAAD was forced to admit, “There is no conclusive degree to which nature or nurture influence how a gay or lesbian person behaves.”
I was a guest on Alan Colmes’ program a few years ago, and he wanted to know if I had ever experienced homosexual urges. Now I’ve never experienced a homosexual urge in my life, but I told Alan that what particular kind of urges I have experienced is irrelevant because all of us experience temptations to engage in sexual activities we know are wrong, whether it’s pornography, prostitution, immorality, or adultery.
Perhaps, in the end, this will be the best thing that ever happened to the homosexual community. This gives them reason to accept personal responsibility for their sexual choices and stop using the genetic code as the culprit. Maybe they will realize that if indeed, sexual behavior is a choice, they can begin to make different and better and life-affirming choices.
The bottom line is that the impulse to engage in homosexuality is an impulse that can and must be resisted, like any other sexual temptation. And with the help of Jesus Christ and his sovereign power, it can be done.
The author may be contacted at bfischer@afa.net
