Subject:
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Re: New poll: sexuality and Lugnet
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 21 Sep 2004 00:59:10 GMT
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Viewed:
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1104 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks wrote:
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Cynthia Bradham wrote:
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Maybe a gene that sorts with gay people is a result and not a cause of
gayness.
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Cynthia, can you hypothesize a mechanism by which this might be true? I
would have thought that gene replication happens before anything else that
might potentially cause gayness.
Chris
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Hi Chris,
well, strictly speaking, I meant a gene expressed in gay people as opposed to
straight people, or expressed more or less highly between the 2 different
groups. Any number of mechanisms could account for such an occurance (probably
via signaling in response to neurotransmitters), but I am no expert on
neurology, so I don’t want to speculate. I don’t know how sexual behavior
affects neurochemistry, although it surely does. It is also possible that a
given gene may have a mutation that sorts with gayness, but again, you would
still need to prove causality and not coincidence. In that case, the mutation
would exist before the person was born. There are some genes that are rearranged
later in life, mostly in the immune system. Some immune-like proteins also exist
in the brain, and could be subject to rearrangements as well. No one really
understands exactly how these genes get rearranged (like, is it random or
directed?), but it is within the realm of possibility that some rearrangements
could be triggered by environmental or behavioral cues. A bit far-fetched,
granted. That being said, sexuality is an extremely complex thing, and is
probably not controlled by any single gene. The point I was trying to make is
that identifying gene/s that are involved in sexual orientation preferences is
no small task, and even finding an associated gene would be just the first step.
Cyndi
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: New poll: sexuality and Lugnet
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| (...) Cynthia, can you hypothesize a mechanism by which this might be true? I would have thought that gene replication happens before anything else that might potentially cause gayness. Chris (20 years ago, 20-Sep-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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