Friday, July 16, 2021

The Gay Gene

There was an article in the UK Daily Mail 28 years ago today back in 1993, reporting on the possibility of terminating pregnancies if the "gay gene" was discovered. The author of the piece, Jason Lewis wrote in part "Isolation of the genes means it could soon be possible to predict whether a baby will be gay and give the mother the option of abortion."

Of course that wasn't the end of it. There have been other reports. In 2019, analysis of half a million people suggested that genetics may have a limited contribution to sexual orientation. There are other factors to consider as well. Another report says that genetics are involved in sexual orientation, but that there are no specific genetic predictors.

My reason for bring this up this morning was the abortion option. No this isn't going to be a debate on a woman's right to choose. My issue is terminating a pregnancy because you don't want a gay child. If you knew you were going to bring a gay person into the world, would you want to?  (There was even talk at one time about mandatory abortions if a gay gene was found).

How far have we come since the 1993 report I mentioned?  Not far enough I'm afraid.  There are still those who would like to find a gay gene and use it to insure that there never be another gay person born,  I'm curious though about what YOU think.  Let me hear from you.

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