Gay Genes?

A frequent rallying cry of the homosexual community is that they cannot help it, they were born gay. Even among self-proclaimed Christians, this has been used to promote the idea that Christians can be gay.  Because this is a major feature of popular culture, numerous scientific studies have been done to look for a so-called “gay gene” in the hopes of giving homosexuals an excuse for their life choices.  A recent article in Nature reported on such a study and, despite the spin, did not say what homosexual advocates want it to say.

The original study, published in the mainstream journal Science, was the largest study ever done in search of a gay gene. The researchers examined over 500,000 genomes in search of a gay gene or genes and came to a very interesting, and Biblical conclusion. Gay genes do not exist. One of the studies co-authors, Andrea Ganna, said “There is no ‘gay gene’.” This was not well received within the homosexual community with numerous pro-homosexual advocates publishing headlines trumpeting the study as providing support for people being “born gay”.

The Nature article discussing the study did its best to spin its results in a positive light for the homosexual agenda while retaining its scientific integrity. They pointed out that sexuality is influenced by genetics and they quote one sociologist who was not involved in the study who, while acknowledging the study is good, pointed out that the majority of the genomes were from people who would be considered “white” and that thus there could be a “gay gene” that had yet to be detected.  This is absolutely absurd for a number of reasons.

The first reason that the argument that “brown” and “black” people were underrepresented and thus there could still be a “gay gene” does not work comes from basic common sense. Homosexuality, while it has existed since the fall of man,  has only recently gone mainstream in western culture, which is predominantly “white”.  African and Asia nations, by and large, are not dealing with a homosexual epidemic in the same manner that the west is. Therefore, if a “gay gene” or genes exist, you would expect to find them in western populations. They might exist in other populations, but people of “white” ancestry should have such a gene at a much higher frequency.

Further, this is a fine example of an ad hoc assumption to explain unexpected data. This sociologist assumed that, because the data was largely collected from US and UK based groups, “whites” were overrepresented.  While this might be the case,  this is an assumption, not something discovered by the study. Even if it was true, it still wouldn’t help as noted in the previous paragraph. However, since at least most of the people in the study were likely not denoted by “race” this assumption has exactly zero basis in fact.

Further, the fact that sexuality is influenced by genetics should not be a surprise. DNA controls the production of hormones, which have a major influence on the development of the sexes. Also, two whole chromosomes, the “X” and the “Y” chromosomes are called the “sex chromosomes” because they control the gender a person is born to.  While the Nature article mentioned it, most other articles ignored the fact that a mere 25% of the factors affecting people’s sexual choices are genetic.  The rest come from the environment and people around them.

Of course, creationists have no problem accepting the results of this study. In fact, we would have predicted it. God, in the beginning, created a man and a woman. He designed them to complement one another, anatomically, emotionally, logically, and so on. His design for intimate relationships was between a man and a woman, something Jesus Himself confirmed.   “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.” Jesus said in Mark 10:6.  In other words, from the beginning, God intended that marriage relationships were for men with women.  In fact, Leviticus 18:22 calls homosexuality an abomination to God.  If people were born gay, this would create a contradiction.  Is it possible that, in the fallen world in which we live, that homosexuality has a genetic component due to a broken gene? Yes, though this seems unlikely, something this recent study affirms.

nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02585-6