How Many Years Have I Been Warning People That Pro-"Gay Gene" Researchers Are Homophobic?

[queerbychoice]

heron61 just posted a link to some extremely important information about the homophobic ideas and racist eugenicist affiliations of Professor J. Michael Bailey, who co-authored several of the very most famous studies claiming to have found evidence in support of the theory that people are born genetically predisposed to certain sexual preferences. Go read it.

Comments

[yay4pikas.livejournal.com]

If it's that easy to tell someone's sexual orientation, why does my gaydar suck so much and why do I not have the foggiest idea of the orientation of the person I'm involved with?

Bleh. I doubt all researchers who are looking for a gay gene are homophobic, but regardless of why researchers look for it, I have a bad feeling about the way the information would be used if it were ever found.

[ex-fractals713.livejournal.com]

I always thought the gay-gene thing was absolutely ridiculous. Sexual attraction is way too complex for physiology to explain.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

I think it's probable that some pro-"gay gene" researchers (mainly Simon LeVay, since he's gay - the information I've seen about all the others has not suggested that they take much interest in eradicating homophobia) mean well with their work, but I think the very belief that sexual preferences are genetic inherently tends to be heterosexist even if they don't recognize it as such. I agree strongly with Ona Nierenberg in the quote below:

[Dr. Richard] Isay's goal in endorsing the genetic determination of homosexuality is to ensure that homosexual men are not pathologized simply on the basis of their same-sex desire. It is his hope that acceptance of the "gay gene" will imbue homosexuality with the same "natural" status accorded reproductive heterosexuality. (Perhaps this is why he disregards the abundant literature criticizing the research he cites.) However, this strategy can never work, because what Isay ignores, or believes he can somehow bypass, is that reproductive sexuality (conflated with heterosexuality) is the absolute bedrock of biologically deterministic theory. Without the cornerstone of a biologically inevitable reproductive sexuality, there would be no mechanism to guarantee the transmission of genes, and that is precisely the point of biological determinism. The biological inevitability of reproductive sexuality is the principle without which biological determinism would fall apart. Reproductive heterosexuality is not simply another trait that is genetically transmitted; it is the foundational principle of the entire theory. It must be presumed as the imperative of life itself for the transmission of biological traits to even be possible. Given this fundamental and exalted position, it is difficult to see how reproductive sexuality and homosexuality can ever be presumed "equal" but "different" within a biologically deterministic framework. The logic of biological determinism can only debase homosexuality as deviant—precisely the position Isay is striving to counter.
—Ona Nierenberg, "A Hunger for Science: Psychoanalysis and the 'Gay Gene,'" differences, Vol. 10, No. 1