First published on: The Gay Gene Myth by Omar AbdulMonem


 I always find it astonishing how many people believe that there is a gay gene, and that it’s science that says so. Yet, if you ask them, nearly none of them have a clue what a gene really is, how it works, or how science itself works! Is there a gay gene, or it’s just a myth?


You see, science never really said that there is a gay gene, but propaganda did in the name of science, then the eco of the ignorance made it an undeniable fact!


I am a researcher of science and a lover of knowledge, so it always pains me when I hear that myth being spread around. Thus, I thought to spread knowledge to fight such a myth by writing a simple explanation about: what genes really are, and how does science really work?


How a Proof Should Look Like?


If one knows how genes work, and then he heard the claim that “There is a gay gene”, the thought process will be as follows:


“Okay, it’s possible.  But to prove it as a fact, they need to show the link between a certain protein and that gene. Then, they have to observe its functions by studying that protein. After that, they have to link those functions with doing gay acts, or to show how it coerces people into them”. This is the natural line of thought to prove such a statement, and this is what scientists actually do with other proven gene functions. 


But no one discovered anything about that claim of  “gay gene!” All the studies in that regard are just “statistics”! which comes at the end to a conclusion of a “Maybe.” So who jumped from this “Maybe” to “it’s a fact?!”  It certainly wasn’t science!


It’s the person who paused and had no clue what does “proteins” have to do with it. That same person whom you hear argues so vigorously that a “gay gene” exists. If you asked him “Is there a (gay protein) then?” He would say “well, no, but what does that have to do with anything?”!  Well, for starters it proves my point that the people spreading this myth have no clue what they are talking about. It’s all just based on ignorance and propaganda. So to battle the ignorance, let’s display a quick explanation of what genes actually are and what do they do?


What Are Genes?


Genes and DNA are the same things so all the talk about the genes applies to the DNA. The whole difference between the two is that your DNA is simply “All your genes” while one gene is the “manuscript” for making one of the millions of proteins in your body.


The main building blocks of our biological bodies are the cells, but the main building blocks for cells are proteins. A protein is a series (short or long) of Amino acids that in a specific sequence can have a productive beneficial function. Every protein is unique and its function depends on the arrangement of its amino acids. And here enters the role of “Genes”.


How Do Genes work?


Without going much into the details, a gene is what stores the information to make a specific protein. One gene stores the information of how to arrange and sequence the series of Amino acids to make the functioning protein at the end. Miss one of the acids in the arrangement and you end up with a useless thing. Most of the proteins are actually useless. It’s only at specific unique arrangements that have specific unique functions. 


You can think of genes and proteins as a cake and its recipe. The Recipe is the ‘gene,’ and the ‘cake’ is the protein, while a book of recipes is what you can call the ‘DNA.’ One complete gene has the information to make one complete protein.


How exactly did this information get stored and coded in such a manner? And how exactly is it decoded into the forming of genes? What is the relation of those two with conscience intervention? Those are all questions we can reflect on and we may discuss later.


No Gay Protein


The color of the eye is one of the most known examples of a product of genes.  How do we prove that? We look to the gene said to affect the eye color, find that it produces protein “x, y or z” then look to that specific protein and its function related to absorption of light. Finally, the link between the green, blue, gray, or black eyes is linked to that function with the light. This is how science works.


Regarding the gay gene, you may be shocked to know that no one did anything to prove its existence. Yeah, it is in no way compared to the eye color for example, or any of the confirmed gene functions. Genes simply make proteins. Any “confirmed” function of any gene, simply means that we have discovered the protein it makes and its function. Ask yourself, did any research discover a “gay protein” before? No, there is no such thing.

If I say there is no gay gene, you will find a lot of people getting ready to argue with me and to attack me thinking: “Oh, he knows nothing about science or the researches on the matter”, but if I say: “there is no gay protein” you will find all of the same people nodding in silence, and the majority of them would have no clue about how the two statements are linked.


They literally think that genes are a “book” where you write (Blue eyes) and you magically get them! Write in that magical book the word (Gay) and one it’s destined to be so! It’s written in the stars now! Oh, sorry, written in the “genes.” This goes to show that this gay gene myth is only built on sheer ignorance of science and how it works first, and people delusions in thinking they actually know it second.


What Does Science Actually Say?


After a pause to understand the above, I hear you saying: “But what about the scientists?” Don’t they know how DNA and genes work and how to prove if there is a gay gene? What do the researches about that say then?


You see, that is the funny part. Science never said there is a gay gene as an (observed fact). Anyone who reads these papers will find it all preliminary researches which “Assumes” and “Hypotheses” that there is one. Which is in simple words, “Maybe.”  The conclusion has always been just a “maybe.”


And if we went to the evidence in the section of these researches –which the people who say there is a gay gene rarely do! All we are going to find is just statistic studies. This makes sense given the conclusion of “maybe.” From the scientific point of view, this is enough grounds to make “the assumption” and put “the hypotheses”.


A hypothesis is by no means a fact of science; it’s actually more doubtful than a fact. In other words, it is just a preliminary assumption that might be true or might be false. It actually requires a lot more evidence just to make it a bigger “Maybe.” And that’s simply how science works.


Do you see the funny part? Science never said “it’s a fact.” Science never said, “There is a gay gene!” So you tell me, who did? Isn’t it the media and propaganda? And we should just turn our brains off after they say “Science said so” and blindly accept whatever they put after!


Erroneous Reasoning


You may now see why I say that the “gay gene” has become a myth. The whole reasoning for the idea in the researches was “statistics.” And yet things escalated really fast after that, all following erroneous reasoning. It cannot be any more fallacious to link a common trait between a group of people and a common gene they share and then say it an absolute fact that “it’s written in their genes.”


Think about it. If I grouped you with all the people reading this article, I am certain that we can find commonly shared “gene” with unknown functions. 


Can I then say:  “It’s in your genes to read this article” or “You were born to read this article”?


Obviously not!


But why not? I took a common trait of a group, and a common gene they share and linked them together, so why not?


Because linking them to begin with is fallacious, that’s why.


Just because I found two common things shared between a group of people doesn’t mean that those two are causally linked in any way. let alone being “born with it” or “made them do it”! That alone is not enough to ever reach such a conclusion. This erroneous reasoning is done by the propaganda in the name of science and then echoed by the clueless ignorance, which hinders the functioning of science itself.


Summary


To conclude, after having a quick explanation of what genes actually are and what do they do, we can conclude with the erroneous reasoning of the gay gene myth. Thus, until we find a protein that coerces people into doing gay acts, there can never be a gay gene.