August 24, 1993: the first genetic evidence of homosexuality. (From the Archives of The Advocate).When scientists went looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a genetic link to homosexuality they started with studies of siblings. The first evidence of a possible genetic indicator of homosexuality was announced in 1993, and The Advocate investigated. A research team at the National Institutes of Health found that 33 of 40 pairs of gay male brothers studied had identical DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. "markers." "This is the strongest evidence to date that there is an important genetic component to sexual orientation sexual orientation n. The direction of one's sexual interest toward members of the same, opposite, or both sexes, especially a direction seen to be dictated by physiologic rather than sociologic forces. ," said Dean Hamer, who led the research group. However, he cautioned that the discovery did not necessarily mean that the NIH "Not invented here." See digispeak. NIH - The United States National Institutes of Health. had found a "gay gene." Brown University biology professor and science historian Anne Fausto-Sterling, who questioned the validity of the study because the research group was so small, also pointed out that biological evidence could be a double-edged sword: "[It's] reasonable to believe that if we find the markers for homosexuality, the discovery will be used to eliminate sexual diversity." Hamer did not believe his findings could lead to genetic altering of sexual orientation. "Even if a gay gene is eventually identified," he said, the discovery "will never have a strong predictive value pre·dic·tive value n. The likelihood that a positive test result indicates disease or that a negative test result excludes disease. predictive value a measure used by clinicians to interpret diagnostic test results. because of the complex nature of sexual orientation." |
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