LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Sexual identity is wired into the genes, which discounts the concept that homosexuality and transgender sexuality are a choice, California researchers reported on Monday. "Our findings may help answer an important question -- why do we feel male or female?" Dr. Eric Vilain, a genetics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, said in a statement. "Sexual identity is rooted in every person's biology before birth and springs from a variation in our individual genome." His team has identified 54 genes in mice that may explain why male and female brains look and function differently. Since the 1970s, scientists have believed that estrogen and testosterone were wholly responsible for sexually organizing the brain. Recent evidence, however, indicates that hormones cannot explain everything about the sexual differences between male and female brains. Published in the latest edition of the journal Molecular Brain Research, the UCLA discovery may also offer physicians an improved tool for gender assignment of babies born with ambiguous genitalia. Mild cases of malformed genitalia occur in 1 percent of all births -- about 3 million cases. More severe cases -- where doctors can't inform parents whether they had a boy or girl -- occur in one in 3,000 births. "If physicians could predict the gender of newborns with ambiguous genitalia at birth, we would make less mistakes in gender assignment," Vilain said. Using two genetic testing methods, the researchers compared the production of genes in male and female brains in embryonic mice -- long before the animals developed sex organs. They found 54 genes produced in different amounts in male and female mouse brains, prior to hormonal influence. Eighteen of the genes were produced at higher levels in the male brains; 36 were produced at higher levels in the female brains. "We discovered that the male and female brains differed in many measurable ways, including anatomy and function." Vilain said. For example, the two hemispheres of the brain appeared more symmetrical in females than in males. According to Vilain, the symmetry may improve communication between both sides of the brain, leading to enhanced verbal expressiveness in females. "This anatomical difference may explain why women can sometimes articulate their feelings more easily than men," he said. The scientists plan to conduct further studies to determine the specific role for each of the 54 genes they identified. "Our findings may explain why we feel male or female, regardless of our actual anatomy," said Vilain. "These discoveries lend credence to the idea that being transgender --- feeling that one has been born into the body of the wrong sex -- is a state of mind." http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/10/20/sexuality.brain.reut/index.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The push of this research has been around for AT LEAST ten years, I hope more conservative folks take notice. I will say this though, I don't think being bi-sexual is anything more than promiscuity--which is fine, just don't label it as a "gender".
One of my favorite Carlin jokes is about bisexuals. Can you imagine how hard it would be to be a bisexual? I mean, you would have to carry around the White Pages as your little black book.
I think the study is focused on sexual "gender" identity rather than what some assume as sexual "partner-preference" identity. (And please, I'm not trying to argue the possibility of genetic homosexuality right now. I'm just trying to improve reading comprehension skills.)
Am I the only on cringing at this new GENETIC explaination of everything It is becoming the New Phrenology I mean really. . .we are only a few years before someone so call PROVES that the book THE BELL CURVE was right or some other foolishness Rocket River The medical establishment seems to have too much free time and money . . . .what is the long term benefit of this research? how many folx will benefit?
i dont know who will benefit from it but it has long been a question that people have wanted to know the answer too. and i know you're just kidding around but it's kind of hard to prove something right that was based on fudged data and where the researchers were trying to make the data fit their ideas. we're made of genes so that does have a pretty big role in determining things....i'm guessing you think sexual orientation and identification is more of a choice than someone being born that way.
Personally, I couldn't care less if it's genetic or lifestyle (or a combination of the two). Two consenting adults can do whatever they want behind bedroom doors. That's none of our business, nor should it be. I'm too busy trying to live my life to tell you how to live yours.
Honestly I could not care less If I found out it is a choice definatively I would treat Homosexuals any differently than If I found out they were genetically homosexuals. If you treat people cruelly or differently for various lifestyle choices. . .it IMO is just as wrong as treating the differently for various genetic differences granted nothing is absolute Rocket River
Everybody is thinking about Gay issues, but the real benefit of this research is for babies who are born with ambigous genetalia. For years, doctors have just guestimated what gender the baby was and then they would operate on the child to either give it male or female sex organs. With this research, they can get it right all the time and we won't have people showing up on 20/20 who are either the most effeminate men or the most masculine women you have ever seen.
