Dads Against the Divorce IndustryDA*DI is devoted to reinstating the societal valuation of Marriage and the traditional, nuclear American Family, with particular emphasis on the essential role of FATHERS. DA*DI offers contemporary reports and commentary on culture; its aberrations and its heroes. |
On Parade
Sexual Identity Hard-Wired by Genetics - Study (/MEDIA SCAM!)
| Once again, the media
has begun promoting an obscure scientific study as providing
evidence that homosexuality is genetically determined. "We're
born straight or gay," says one headline. "Discovery has huge
social implications," declares another. What has given rise to such breathless assertions? The finding that the brains of male and female mice are genetically different. This is no surprise. It is conservatives who emphasize that human sexual identity (meaning our identity as male or female) is fixed at conception. Those with two X chromosomes are female; those with an X and a Y chromosome are male. The new study identified over 50 genes that are different in male and female mouse embryos. The genetic differences appear before hormonal differences do, and the research thus undermines any theory that hormones alone determine male or female development. However, it says nothing - not one word - about a homosexual orientation. If similar research were done in humans and similar differences were found with respect to sexual orientation, it might be worth reporting (although it still would not prove the existence of a "gay gene"). But this study is a mouse that roared about nothing. - The Family Research Council -10/20/03 http://www.frc.org |
"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.
© Copyright Reuters 2002.
Back to DA*DI's Home
Dads Against the Divorce Industry