Essentially all conservative Christian authors who have written about homosexuality maintain that sexual orientation is
not determined by one's genes.
Most treat it as an abnormal, unnatural, chosen, and changeable habit or
addiction. Religious conservatives often point to studies of identical twins who were separated at birth
and raised independently. If one is gay, then the other twin is found to be gay only about
55% of the time. They reason that: since identical twins have the same genetic structure,
then if homosexual orientation were determined by genes, 100% of the other twins would be
gay. Thus they conclude that homosexual orientation is not genetically caused.
Many gays and lesbians believe that their orientation is caused by their
genes; it is normal, natural, unchosen and unchangeable. With the exception
of one small religious association of therapists, the vast majority of human
sexuality researchers and mental health therapists accept that the root
cause of homosexual orientation is genetic.
The data seems to show that a small minority of individuals -- perhaps
10% -- have a "gay gene" or sequence of "gay genes."
However, the gene is only expressed in perhaps 55% of those individuals, as
a result of some unknown factor in the environment. In the remainder, it
remains dormant and the person matures as a heterosexual.
Fundamentalists and other Evangelical Christians generally attribute the
cause of homosexuality to some element in the person's environment. This is to be expected for at least two reasons:
Most believe that God is intimately involved in every event in one's
life. This naturally includes one's conception. If homosexuality were
genetic, then God must intentionally create gays and lesbians. But since
religious conservatives generally believe that God hates homosexuality,
then it makes no sense that he would intentionally create homosexuals.
If homosexuality is genetic, then it would probably be impossible to
change. But they interpret 1 Corinthians 6 as showing that change is
possible. Thus, homosexuality cannot be genetic.
Conservative Christian writers seem to have copied their beliefs from
fellow Christians rather than researching scientific literature. Some
examples of their writing:
In a Focus on the Family
publication. author Mike Haley wrote "So, if the study showed that
homosexuality in [identical] twins was purely genetic, then both
of the twins would have been homosexual 100% of the time." 1
Kerby Anderson wrote an article for Probe Ministries. He
wrote: "...why aren't nearly all identical twin brothers
of homosexuals also homosexual? In other words, if biology is
determinative, why are nearly half the identical twins not
homosexual?" 2
Daniel R. Heimbach writes: "Identical twins have identical
constitutions, but one may become homosexual while the other is firmly
heterosexual." 3
Sue Bohlin writes: "Others ask, What about the identical twins where only one is
gay? If sexual orientation is genetic, how do you explain the twins
with such divergent orientations?" 4
N. E. Whitehead wrote an article for the National Association
for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. (NARTH). They teach
that homosexuality is a disordered state that is abnormal, unnatural,
and changeable via reparative therapy. He
writes: "If homosexuality was a biological condition produced
inescapably by the genes (e.g. eye color), then if one identical twin
was homosexual, in 100% of the cases his brother would be too."
5
James Dobson, is a child psychologist and founder of Focus on the Family.
Presumably he is very familiar with the workings of genes. He
wrote in a 2002-JUN family newsletter that if homosexuality is
genetically determined, "...since identical twins share the
same chromosomal pattern, or DNA, the genetic contributions are exactly
the same within each of the pairs. therefore, if one twin is 'born'
homosexual then the other should inevitably have that characteristic
too." 6
James Dobson also wrote in his Family
Reference Guide: "...if it were specifically a genetic influence,
then all identical twins would either have it or not have it. Their
genes are exact duplicates, so anything deriving specifically from
their DNA would express itself identically in the two individuals."
10
Rich Nathan has authored a fascinating book which discusses
individuals who Evangelical churches (in his opinion) reject:
postmodernists, feminists, gays, lesbians, New Agers and religious
liberals. He writes: "If biology (and not family structure or other
environmental causes) really determined a person's sexual orientation,
then identical twins ought to have a 100 percent concordance rate,
since they are genetically identical. The 52 percent concordance rate
actually argues against the notion of biological determinism and
suggests other factors have influenced sexual orientation."
7
Dallin H. Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of
the LDS (Mormon) church wrote
a definitive article in the magazine Ensign, titled "Same Gender Attraction".
He wrote:
"A study of fifty-six pairs of identical male twins in which one twin
classified himself as "gay" reported that 52 percent of the co-twins
also classified themselves as gay. 14
A similar study of female identical twins yielded approximately the same
proportion of co-twins who classified themselves as gay (thirty-four of
seventy one pairs 48 percent).15
If these studies show some inherited influence on whatever causes a man
or woman to classify himself or herself as homosexual or lesbian, it is
clear that this influence is not determinative. As a prominent scientist
observed, "Even the identical twin of a gay man has a 50 percent or more
chance of being heterosexual--even though he has the exact same genes
and is reared by the same parents." 16
Even some non-Evangelicals express the same belief:
"Yawning Bread"
wrote: "...genes are not the only explanation [for homosexual
orientation], because if they were, the concordance rate among
identical twins should have been 100 percent." 8
"Sylvia" wrote: "Granted, if homosexuality was solely gene
dependent, Bailey and Pillard would have found 100 percent gayness in
identical twins." 9
Religious
conservatives often attribute the cause of homosexuality to:
Domineering mothers.
Emotionally absent fathers.
Demon possession.
Sexual molestation during childhood by an adult.
Some combination of the above.
One logical result from this belief is
that sexual orientation should be changeable through adult therapy for at least some gays and lesbians. Thus, we see many
conservative Christian groups promoting reparative therapy and/or
transformational therapy, which attempt to convert gays and lesbians into heterosexuals through prayer and counseling.
One exception is God's Rainbow.
They conclude that genes cause some gays and lesbians to develop a homosexual orientation.
They feel that other homosexuals develop a same-sex attraction because of elements in their early environment.
They give the familiar explanation
that genetics are not the complete cause of homosexuality, reasoning that: "...since identical twins have exactly the same
genetic code, one would expect a 100% correlation in their sexual orientation. When one identical twin is gay / lesbian, the other
should be too." They conclude that some people develop a homosexual orientation because of genetic causes;
others because of a factor in their early childhood. The latter would
presumably be treatable with therapy.
Sponsored link:
Typical conclusions of geneticists:
Many genetics researchers, and other investigators who are not religious
conservatives, examine the data from various studies and have concluded that
the conclusion of most religious conservatives is wrong. Studies prove that
homosexuality is not caused by poor parenting or child molestation, alone.
This is easily verified. Consider two identical newborn twin boys who were
separated at birth and raised in different homes without any contact with
each other. If homosexuality were caused by something in the environment,
then, if twin #1 turned out to be gay, the chances of the other twin
becoming a gay adults would only be about 5%. That is because the second
twin would have been exposed to a totally different environment during his
upbringing. So his chances of being gay would be the same as for any
other male -- about 5%. But, studies have reliably shown that if one twin is
gay, there is about a 55% chance that the other twin will be gay.
One explanation which is popular among some religious conservatives is
that homosexuality is in fact caused by demon
possession. They often believe that
demon possession can be passed on to all children in a family through
generational curses created by the sin of a parent or grandparent. This
belief is consistent with the findings of identical twin studies. However,
very few people who are not religious conservatives believe in the existence of demons
and the possibility of
possession by evil spirits.
The rejection of a genetic cause of homosexuality by essentially all
conservative Christians and some others seem to be based upon a faulty or
inadequate knowledge of the detailed workings of genetics.
Genes have a property called penetrance, which is a measure of their effectiveness,
or power. Consider the gene for:
Huntington's Disease: It has two alleles (varieties).
One is a very rare allele
will causes the person to fall victim to the disease. The other, much more common, variety prevents the disease. This particular
gene is 100% penetrant. If you were born with the allele that causes the disease, then you
are absolutely certain to develop the disease later in life.
Type 1 diabetes: The penetrance of the gene which causes
Type 1 (early onset) diabetes is only 30%. So, if one identical twin has the allele that
causes diabetes, then the other twin will have the same allele. Both will have a 30%
chance of developing the disorder. Both twins will have the same genetic structure. But it may
or may not be triggered by something in the environment, and cause diabetes.
Schizophrenia: If one identical twin develops schizophrenia, the other twin has
about a 48% chance of also developing the disorder. 12
Bipolar Affective Disorder: If one twin develops bipolar
affective disorder, (formerly called manic depression) the other twin's chances
are about 60% of having it as well.
Brain neurotransmitter: A New Zealand investigation studied a gene that
controls the production of an enzyme called monoamine oxidase A (MAOA). One allele is
found in about one third of the male subjects tested. For these males, 85% of the boys who
were abused during childhood turned to criminal or antisocial behavior as adults.
If the boys were not abused, they would have become normal adults.
More info.
Multiple Sclerosis: This is a disease for which the cause is
unknown. Perhaps because MS is so mysterious, the genetic factor has
been thoroughly examined:
On the order of 1 person out of every 3,000 North Americans
contracts the disease.
If you have a parent, sibling or child with MS, your chances of
contracting it are slightly increased, but only by a few percent.
If you have a fraternal twin with MS, your chances are increased
from 1 in 3000 to about 1 in 44.
If you have an identical twin with MS, your chances of
contracting it is increased from 1 in 3,000 to about 1 in 4.
Further, some identical twins of persons with MS have "...MS
lesions, although the disease had never caused symptoms." 11
Sometimes, as in the case of Huntington's Disease, the presence to an
allele is certain to cause the disease later in life. In most cases, some
genetic combination only makes a person susceptible to a disease or
disorder. It takes some factor in the environmental to trigger the disease
into activity. Without that trigger, the disease never develops.
We do not wish to imply that homosexuality is a disease. We are merely
suggesting that the root cause of many diseases -- and traits like
left-handedness -- are genetic. Most human sexuality researchers who are not
religious conservatives regard homosexual orientation as a trait like
left-handedness.
One theory that fits the available observations is
that the penetrance of the "gay gene(s)" is
approximately 67%. That causes about half of the males with the gene(s) become gay.
"There could be hundreds of millions of straight men
walking around with this gay allele but who are straight simply because it didn't
penetrate" In the case of the "gay gene(s)" perhaps 10% or more of all
males have the allele that causes homosexuality, but in many cases is the allele not
"triggered."
Assuming that the penetrance of the "gay gene" or "gay genes" is 67%, then one would expect
that if one fraternal twin was gay that the other would also be gay about 22% of the time.
This number also agrees with studies of families with fraternal twins.
Nobody knows what triggers the allele. It might be some event happening in the womb,
like an abnormal amount or irregular timing of hormones. It might be
some event during early childhood -- before school age. Either way, it is outside the control of the individual
and his family of origin. What is known is that it takes effect
before the child
reaches age 5. Child psychologists can interview children at that age and
determine with excellent accuracy who will grow up to be gay.
Daniel R. Heimbach, "Notes for The Bible in the Moral War
over the Rejection of Homosexuality by the Military Services: A View from Inside
the Pentagon," PREMISE, Volume II, Number 7, 1995-AUG-27, Page 10.
Online at:
http://capo.org/premise/95/august/
David Mubarak, "Why are we gay? -- opinions and research," The Advocate,
2001-JUL-17, at:
http://www.findarticles.com/
J. M. Bailey & R. C. Pillard, "A Genetic Study of Male Sexual Orientation,"
Archives of General Psychiatry 48 (1991): Pages 1089 to 1096.
J. M. Bailey & R. C. Pillard, et al., "Heritable Factors Influence Sexual
Orientation in Women," Archives of General Psychiatry 50 (1993), Page 217 to
223.
Dallin H. Oaks, "Same-gender attraction," Ensign, 1995-OCT, Pages 7 to 14.
