Male homosexuality is inborn and may be triggered by a gene carried by mothers, new findings suggest.
Evolutionarily speaking, homosexuality as a trait would not last because it discourages reproductive sex with women and therefore procreation.
However a new study, published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, found a correlation between gay men and their mothers and maternal aunts, who are prone to have significantly more children compared to the maternal relatives of straight men.
Researchers led by Andrea Camperio Ciani, from the University of Padova in Italy, say that the findings of the link between homosexuality and female fertility strongly support the “balancing selection hypothesis,” which suggests that a gene which causes homosexuality also leads to high fecundity or reproduction among their female relatives.
The team noted that the “gay man gene” may not get passed down directly, but instead survive through the generations through future generations making their male inheritors gay.
Researchers analyzed the personality and fecundity of 61 females who were either mothers or maternal aunts of homosexual men to 100 females who were mothers or aunts of heterosexual men.
Originally the team thought the reason why women who inherited the “gay man gene” might have more babies is simply because it increased androphilia, or attraction to men, thus making the male inheritors homosexual and the female inheritors more promiscuous.
However, after analyzing the personal characteristics of 161 female maternal relatives of homosexual and heterosexual men, researchers changed their hypothesis and suggested that rather than making the women more attracted to men and therefore more promiscuous, the “gay man gene” appears to make female inheritors more attractive to men.
“High fecundity, that means having more babies, is not about pleasure in sex, nor is it about promiscuity. The androphilic pattern that we found is about females who increase their reproductive value to attract the best males,” Camperio Ciani told Life’s Little Mysteries.
The team found that the gene appeared to make women more fertile, have fewer gynecological disorders and fewer pregnancy complications. The findings also suggest that gene led to women who were funnier, happier, more extroverted and more relaxed, leading them to have fewer family problems and social anxieties.
“If sexually antagonistic genetic factors that induce homosexuality in males exist, the factors might be maintained in the population by contributing to increased fecundity greater reproductive health, extraversion, and a generally relaxed attitude toward family and social values in females of the maternal line of homosexual men,” researchers wrote.
from Medical Daily
Gay Gene Survived Evolution

Male homosexuality is inborn and may be triggered by a gene carried by mothers, new findings suggest.
Evolutionarily speaking, homosexuality as a trait would not last because it discourages reproductive sex with women and therefore procreation.
However a new study, published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, found a correlation between gay men and their mothers and maternal aunts, who are prone to have significantly more children compared to the maternal relatives of straight men.
Researchers led by Andrea Camperio Ciani, from the University of Padova in Italy, say that the findings of the link between homosexuality and female fertility strongly support the “balancing selection hypothesis,” which suggests that a gene which causes homosexuality also leads to high fecundity or reproduction among their female relatives.
The team noted that the “gay man gene” may not get passed down directly, but instead survive through the generations through future generations making their male inheritors gay.
Researchers analyzed the personality and fecundity of 61 females who were either mothers or maternal aunts of homosexual men to 100 females who were mothers or aunts of heterosexual men.
Originally the team thought the reason why women who inherited the “gay man gene” might have more babies is simply because it increased androphilia, or attraction to men, thus making the male inheritors homosexual and the female inheritors more promiscuous.
However, after analyzing the personal characteristics of 161 female maternal relatives of homosexual and heterosexual men, researchers changed their hypothesis and suggested that rather than making the women more attracted to men and therefore more promiscuous, the “gay man gene” appears to make female inheritors more attractive to men.
“High fecundity, that means having more babies, is not about pleasure in sex, nor is it about promiscuity. The androphilic pattern that we found is about females who increase their reproductive value to attract the best males,” Camperio Ciani told Life’s Little Mysteries.
The team found that the gene appeared to make women more fertile, have fewer gynecological disorders and fewer pregnancy complications. The findings also suggest that gene led to women who were funnier, happier, more extroverted and more relaxed, leading them to have fewer family problems and social anxieties.
“If sexually antagonistic genetic factors that induce homosexuality in males exist, the factors might be maintained in the population by contributing to increased fecundity greater reproductive health, extraversion, and a generally relaxed attitude toward family and social values in females of the maternal line of homosexual men,” researchers wrote.
from Medical Daily

Amber / LA Times Photo

Amber, a soft-spoken, feminine 12-year-old who loves Hello Kitty and fashion design, lives with a secret. It is a secret most sixth-graders can’t fathom, one she hides behind pink skirts and makeup. It is a secret that led to all her baby pictures being tucked away as though her childhood had never happened.
Amber was born a boy.
When she was 10, she stopped going by her given name, Aaron, and began dressing as a girl. Last year, she started taking medication to keep her from going through puberty.
“I can be who I am,” Amber said. “I can be a girl.”
An increasing number of children like Amber are realizing they are transgender and seeking care at clinics around the nation. Because of their age, the complex and emotional journey is as much their parents’ as their own. Families are forced to make tough decisions about therapy and medication, and about what to tell friends and relatives. They are trying to give their children a normal upbringing with summer camps and sleepovers while protecting them from harm and embarrassment.
“How do you move through society with a gender-variant child?” said Nancy Quay, a psychotherapist at the University of Michigan gender services program. “What do you tell your neighbors? How do you keep your child safe?”
For Amber’s parents, Michelle and Jamie, the last few years have been a roller coaster of emotions — guilt for not recognizing earlier that their daughter was transgender, grief over losing Aaron and worries about Amber’s future.
The family’s last name is being withheld at Amber’s request. They all agreed, though, to both a video and photographs. Michelle said their family and others close to them know about Amber’s transition.
Telling their story, she said, “is the right thing to do…. Hopefully it will bring more awareness and help other families.”
Michelle said she believes that letting Amber take the medication and live as she wants is the only real choice. “We are confident this is her authentic self,” she said.
Jamie is supportive but not quite as sure. “This is some pretty serious territory,” he said. “As a parent, you are always second-guessing yourself.”
Just a few clinics around the nation serve transgender children. It wasn’t until about five years ago that doctors began treating them with puberty-blocking drugs to give them time to explore their gender identity before taking hormones whose effects would be irreversible.
The medication is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for children who start puberty prematurely but not for transgender adolescents. Two professional organizations that study hormonal and gender issues recommend the drugs’ use in certain transgender cases, but doctors remain divided on whether to prescribe the controversial and expensive medication.
Supporters say the drugs can prevent the devastation a transgender girl feels when she grows facial hair or her voice drops and when a transgender boy develops breasts or begins menstruating. They can reduce depression and anxiety and eliminate the need for some future surgeries, said Jo Olson, Amber’s doctor and the medical director of the transgender clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
“Puberty in the right body is hard enough,” Olson said. “Puberty in the wrong body is really hard.”
(more…)

I wonder if black people would be still in the fields picking cotton today if the 13th Amendment — the one abolishing slavery — was placed on the ballot back in 1865.
I wonder if Hillary Clinton would be at home baking cookies instead of serving as secretary of state if women’s suffrage was put to a vote back in 1919.
In other words, I wonder just how far along we would be as a society if the oppressive majority held all of the legislative and judicial power over the oppressed minority, essentially yanking the teeth out of Congress and the Supreme Court.
I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about the gay agenda, but may not know what’s in it. Here’s what you do: Download a copy of the United States Constitution, read it. Everything the LGBT community wants is in there.
Sounds like an oversimplification?
It’s not.
There’s not a single issue regarding the LGBT community that has been covered in the media or deliberated in courts that is counter to the articles of the Constitution. On the other hand, the fact that in 29 states it is legal to fire someone just because they’re gay flies in the face of the 14th amendment, particularly the passage that says “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.”
That may not be consistent with one’s religion, and that’s fine. But the Bible and the Constitution are not the same thing.
I can’t think of a single major civil rights victory that came by way of a general election and so I am not surprised that all 32 states that have voted on marriage equality, voted against marriage equality.
It is human nature to resist change, especially change that may bring significant inconvenience to the vast majority of the people, those who are enjoying the spoils of the status quo. “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” was never said by the community that was demanding their rights.
It was always the mantra of those who liked their slaves; who liked their women barefoot and pregnant; who felt uncomfortable working next to someone with cerebral palsy; who get squeamish at the thought of two men falling in love.
We elect members of Congress to lead us, not appease us. This is why our history has so many civil rights victories come by way of Congress or the courts and so few if any civil rights victories by election. When it gets right down to it, culturally we’re like children who have to be forced to eat our vegetables.
We like the Constitution when it can be used to endorse life the way we think it ought to be and we ignore it, or vote against it when the Bill of Rights or the various amendments challenge our world view or force us to make accommodations — however big or small — for others.
This week election officials in the state of Washington announced that a referendum seeking to nullify the recently passed law legalizing same-sex marriage has qualified for the November ballot.
Washington joins Maryland, Maine and Minnesota as the next round of states that will put the civil rights of some of their citizens to a vote. Early polls indicate that at least one of them will indeed vote in favor of marriage equality, which is a victory for the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
Though it’s a bit of a shame that the Constitution needs such victories and that history has taught us nothing.
from CNN / LZ Granderson
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