Sorry, no gay gene

A large number of Americans, including the elected politicians who
write laws and set policies, have been conned into believing that
homosexuals are born that way and that what they do to and with each
other is as American as motherhood and apple pie.

It is one thing for the ordinary American to embrace deviancy, having
been deluded by lies, myths, propaganda and junk science; it is another
thing for elected officials to spearhead a vicious, open assault on
American society and some of its most cherished institutions based on
such delusions.

As one of a hundred available examples to illustrate the point, The
New Jersey Supreme Court has just ruled that the Boy Scouts of America
broke the law when it threw out an openly homosexual scout leader. New
Jersey has state anti-discrimination laws that specifically bar
discrimination based on sexual preference.

What we are witnessing is a shameless and perverse use of government
power. We need to understand why this is happening and what is the
thinking that rationalizes it. This can be said: In a litany of lies
about homosexuality, the most fundamental lie is the lie that
homosexuals are born that way. It is a lie repeated over and over again
because it has a basic appeal to the American sense of fairness and
tolerance.

Let’s begin with a desperately needed reality check: There is no
scientific proof that homosexuality is genetic. There is no scientific
basis for viewing homosexuality as anything other than an acquired
sexual dysfunction.

The widely respected Dr. Joel Gelernter of Yale University was quoted
in an article in “Science” as making this observation about various
studies trying to link genes with complex human behavior: “All were
announced with great fanfare; all were greeted unskeptically in the
popular press; all are now in disrepute.”

Among the studies in “disrepute” is the study of the brains of 35
male cadavers by Salk Institute researcher Simon LeVay. He reported that
the cluster of neurons called INAH3 in the hypothalamus was generally
smaller in 19 known homosexuals than in 16 heterosexuals.

Unfortunately, there were glaring problems with this study: The
sample was too small; the sexuality of the 16 subjects classified as
heterosexuals is suspect — six of them died of AIDS. In advanced
stages, AIDS itself is known to cause clinical insanity and might well
affect brain structure; and finally, it has not been established that
the area of the hypothalamus being studied has anything to do with
sexual orientation.

Despite this lack of credibility, the media hailed it as a
breakthrough in the quest to find a biological link with homosexual
behavior.

In 1993, Dean Hamer of the National Cancer Institute studied 40 pairs
of homosexual brothers, and found that 33 of the pairs had DNA markers
in the same chromosome region called Xq28.

By happy chance, the study was released on the same day President
Clinton was scheduled to lift the ban on homosexuals in the military.
Surely, that had nothing to do with the unusual zeal with which the
media jumped on the study and hyperventilated about it.

As examples, Mutual News Radio reported that researchers “have
isolated a gene found only in gay males.” Newsweek published a cover
story titled “Gay Gene?” The Wall Street Journal posted the headline
“Research Points Toward a Gay Gene.” And numerous eminent newspapers
announced new proof that homosexuals are born, not made.

Alas, the study has been totally discredited. The sample size was
inadequate. There was no control group of heterosexuals where markers
might or might not have been found. And finally, the study was later
repeated by George Ebers of the University of Western Ontario, with
findings that directly contradict Hamer’s conclusions. Ebers used a
much-larger sample than Hamer, and reported results that “do not support
an x-linked gene underlying male homosexuality.”

In an earlier study of identical twins, psychologist Michael Bailey
of Northwestern University and psychiatrist Richard Pillard of Boston
University reported that if one of the twins was homosexual, the other
was also homosexual 52 percent of the time. This finding sheds light on
the claim that being homosexual is like being black. Imagine what black
parents would think if you told them that if they had identical twins
and one of them was black, there was a 52 percent chance the other would
also be black.

The bottom line is this: Homosexuals are made, and they can be
unmade. This is the truth about themselves that they desperately do not
want to hear — that they have the power to change. This is the truth
that psychiatrists and psychologists need to acknowledge. This is the
truth that the American people need to know and that politicians need to
understand.