Gay Sheep Lead the Way in Oregon

by the Seattle Times Science Reporter, 20 June 2005

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Oregon State University is investigating the possibility that homosexuality is biologically based by studying a group of rams that refuses to engage with females and prefers to make love with other "male-oriented" rams, as O.S.U. delicately phrases it.

Charles Roselli, a researcher on the project says that ten years of study indicates that sexual orientation has been hard-wired into the sheep's brains before birth. He hopes to verify this by altering conditions in the womb for selected animals, creating "gay" rams. The project adds to the growing belief that the brain is a "sexed" organ resulting in sexual orientation across species, including human.

This theory flies in the face of some religious groups who see homosexuality as a "lifestyle" which can be prevented or cured ... a matter of choice, not heredity.

There are mixed feelings about the possible results of this research as, on the one hand, if it is shown that homosexuality is inborn this should remove any basis for discriminating against gays, and should suggest their having the same rights as heterosexuals in every regard, including the right to marry. The other side of the coin is that if the biological cause for homosexuality is identified it may be possible to "correct" the condition, or, at worst, cause unborn babies carrying the "gay gene" to be aborted by parents who do not wish to raise homosexual children.

Another scientist who is working on the genetics of homosexuality is Brian Mustanski at the University of Illinois. Mustmski is also involved in researching the field of H.I.V. prevention.

Mustanski says, "It's pretty definitive that biological factors play a role in determining a person's sexual orientation."

In Australia scientists have reported that changing one gene in female fruit flies causes them to reject males and try to mate with other females. In Sweden it has been shown that gay men's brains reacted positively to the smell of male perspiration but were unaffected by female pheromones.

Experiments with rats have shown that injection of hormones into pregnant rats at a specific stage of foetus formation can cause male offspring to behave like females and vice versa. It has also been shown that the hormonal balance of developing rats can be altered if the mother rats suffer from stress.

In Italy scientists from the University of Padua suggested that homosexuality does not "die out" as do other traits which discourage reproduction because the mothers and aunts of gay men tend to be more fertile than female relatives of heterosexuals.

Ray Blanchard of the Clark Institute in Toronto has put forward a theory that the more older brothers a man has, the likelier he is to be homosexual. A man with four older brothers is three times more likely to be gay than a man with none. As a result of these and other experiments there is a growing belief that there are a number of biological pathways that may result in homosexuality but although they insist that genes and hormones play an important part they also recognise that there can be strong social influences.

As Dr. Rosselli, of the Oregon Health and Science University of Portland says, "I think there's probably a very complex interaction that's going on between both biology and the environment that is involved in determining these types of behaviours."

Rosselli stated that around eight per cent of rams tend to be gay and are referred to by Australian sheep farmers as "shy breeders". In 2004 Rosselli identified a region in sheep's brains which was twice as large in heterosexual rams as in gay rams, similar to a 1991 study of gay men.

A study of fraternal and identical American twins showed that in fraternal twins the probability that both twins would be gay was twenty-two percent whereas in identical twins the figure rose to fifty-two per cent.

This provides a clear indication that there is a genetic element in the predisposition of identical twins who are gay. Again it must be stressed that there is probably a "nurture" component in the situation but unless it can be demonstrated that the social situation of fraternal twins differs markedly from that of identical twins it will be hard to ignore a factor nearly twice as large in identical twins as for fraternal twins that if one twin is gay then the other will be gay also.

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