There are no known genetic markers for homosexuality. Homosexuality seems likely to have some genetic components and some social components. The genetic portion that been being investigated so far centers around the endocrine system and fetal exposure to androgen. The endocrine system is enormously complicated and androgen is a very fundamental and wide-ranging hormone (one of the things that makes males versus females for instance). The exposure of a developing fetus to androgen at different points in development can have very different effects.
Given all of that I don't think we can say with even a small amount of certainty what the genetic components of various sexualities are and are even farther from then being able to say what other effects those factors may have that might come to play a role in natural selection. My point in bringing this whole discussion up is that arguing about the "utility" or "morality" of homosexuality from a biological/evolutionary standpoint is stupid. We do know that homosexuality exists amongst all animals that we've studied. We also know that it is not strongly selected against (most figures cite a prevalence of homosexuality amongst the general population of 5 to 10%). And we know that homosexuality doesn't represent a threat to the species as a whole seeing as how we have almost 7 billion people on the planet and our growth rates have been exponential for some time. Michael was arguing that homosexuality would necessarily be selected against. I showed an example of how it could continue in the population as a favored trait even when homosexual people weren't directly having offspring. The justification for social structures and mores should be taken away from scientific discussions and put in a whole nother box in almost all instances. I was just providing examples to show why that is so. Cheers, Judah On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 2:27 PM, Vivec <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > That's a lot of what-ifs. > What does the research say about the benefits that gays have over > heterosexuals? > As far as I know, there aren't any. > > 2008/11/19 Judah McAuley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: >> But let us say that the homosexual allele is linked to another trait, >> say efficient metabolism. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:280791 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
