This archive report was first published on 30 August 2019.
On August 30, 2019, a groundbreaking study published in Science shed light on the complex relationship between genetics and same-sex behavior.
Researchers from Harvard and MIT analyzed the genomes of nearly 409,000 people from the UK Biobank and 68,500 from 23andMe, finding that genetics could account for between 8-25% of same-sex behavior across the population.
Five specific genetic variants were associated with same-sex behavior, including one linked to the biological pathway for smell and others to those for sex hormones.
However, these variants only accounted for under 1% of same-sex behavior, leading the researchers to conclude that genetics is a minor contributing factor.
Ben Neale, an associate professor at Massachusetts General Hospital, emphasized that genetics is 'less than half of this story' for sexual behavior, but still an important contributing factor.
He added that a genetic test for same-sex relationships is 'effectively impossible' and that individual sexual behavior cannot be predicted from their genome.
David Curtis, honorary professor at the UCL Genetics Institute, also stressed that there is no single 'gay gene' and that genetic variants have extremely modest associations with sexual orientation.
Zeke Stokes from GLAAD, an LGBT media advocacy organization, welcomed the study's findings, saying they reconfirm the understanding that there is no conclusive degree to which nature or nurture influence how a gay or lesbian person behaves.
