[techmind]

Ahh yes, we had a very similar thread 23 months ago, and I wrote then

These NewScientist articles might be relevant:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2803-gay-flies-turned-on-by-heat.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17523611.900-turning-up-the-heat-makes=
-flies-fancy-the-same-sex.html
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/drugs-alcohol/dn13136-randy-=
flies-reveal-how-booze-affects-inhibitions.html

The first two describe an experiment where flies were bred with a special temperature-sensitive gene, and the researchers claim the resulting flies flipped between straight and gay behaviour with temperature. Without having seen the detail of the work, I would tend to interpret that this implies there is something chemical/physical going on, pointing away from a 'nuture'-type argument...

This research was done 6 years ago now, and I don't know whether it's been repeated and/or taken further (or even disproved) since then.

The thread was: http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=19544
Is there a "homosexual gene"?


See also: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316316,00.html

Isn't Google amazing? I rediscovered the old threads and the above just by searching for techmind gay flies  :-)

[yor_on]

Shouldn't that be 'tech-minded gay flies'?
And I agree, that's quite some subject, worthy of a discussion.

[SteveFish]

The comments on this thread have reminded me of something I have been thinking about regarding the evolutionary imperatives that shaped our small group evolutionary past. Bear with me on this.

I learned from reading about Ishi, the American Indian that entered white society in 1911 when he walked into Orville California after his isolated group had been killed or disbanded. The great anthropologist Alfred Kroeber took him to Berkeley where he actively collaborated with Kroeber's research on California Indian culture. The pertinent fact for this discussion was, when asked what the absolute minimum number of individuals it took to maintain a family group, Ishi responded that it took at least four persons.

There is another thread here regarding whether ancient human men hunted while women cooked. Beyond current sexual stereotype concerns, the hunt-cook question is actually a question about specialization of skills. Ishi made it clear that for long term survival (not emergency survival) there needs to be a variety of people in a group in order to accomplish all of the tasks required to obtain and prepare food, make hunting and cooking tools, make clothing and footwear, maintain shelter, and provide protection for the group from animals and other humans. For example, it might take at least one full time individual for such activities as making stone tools and projectile points, and another just to make baskets. Further, for a robust human society there are needs for cultural activities.

Another piece of information rattling around in my admittedly overactive brain is the fact that in modern society there are, for example, men who are overaggressive and angry to the extent that they feel it necessary to kill their coworkers, or their family and themselves, and some young men who are enthusiastic about going to war. Add to this my experiences with my father’s home health care professional and his accountant during the extended period when my Dad was dying.  I sent the home care guy to see the accountant because he needed to get a loan and his past taxes were dodgy. The two of them hated each other. Their separate reports to me were that the home health care guy was irresponsible and the accountant was rigid and a Nazi. They both did an exceptional job helping my Dad, way beyond the call of duty, and as far as I was concerned were both exemplary individuals.

So what does all this add up to regarding genetic variability in sexual preferences? My thesis is that human evolution was driven by a need for variability in personality types and abilities so that there would be enough different types in a group to accomplish all the functions required for a stable small society. Different skills require different specialists who can spend their work day on a specific demanding task. What made me think of this is the fact that the health care guy was gay, although I don’t have any idea if this is actually pertinent to this rambling thought. A hunter gatherer group needs individual who can concentrate on intricate tasks, who might be leaders and organizers, or who might be aggressive enough to risk their life to protect the group. A homosexual individual might be a part of this variability that could provide some specific function important for group survival and this doesn’t necessarily preclude procreation, but in any case the survival of the group does help preserve genes of an individual that doesn’t reproduce in the genome of their relatives and sibs. I asked that you bear with me and this is just an interesting synthesis that I am not especially invested in.  In any case, check out Ishi if you are not already familiar with him, he was an exceptional individual.

Steve

[yamo]

Yes.  Jordache genes.  Very, very gay.

[cat_with_no_eyes]

I have heard from a biologist that the cause is sometimes the mother, who wants her child to be a girl or boy very much. When really its the opposite gender of the child she will be having. So this may have caused the child to 'become' gay.