A new, massive study suggests five genes are weakly associated with self-reported same-sex encounters. But the results, released Aug. 30 by a group that included the Broad Institute and 23andMe, are underwhelming. The genes predicted less than 1 percent of people's behavior. The researchers struggled at a news conference to tell reporters what the take home message was. We can assume that 23andMe won't be offering a "gay gene" test any time soon.
But the result still has meaning, seen in the context of history. It's the latest chapter in a scientific quest that got woven into a massive cultural shift. Science sometimes led, and sometimes followed.
Through most of the 20th century, mainstream psychiatry considered homosexuality a disease, and scientists studying sexual orientation did so to find a "cure." That slowly changed, but by the 1990s, religious leaders had their own ideas, which held sway over much of the public. That's where the roots of these new findings started, when a U.S. National Institutes of Health geneticist named Dean Hamer set out to find the genetic basis of homosexuality.