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From: cjh@csin.UUCP (Chip Hitchcock)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: gays and genetics
Message-ID: <326@csin.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Aug-83 12:30:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: csin.326
Posted: Tue Aug 30 12:30:14 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Aug-83 22:17:44 EDT
Lines: 46

In response to your message of Mon Aug 29 10:07:15 1983:

>	  My point is merely that over past eons, any GENETIC
>tendency to be homo-sexual must have died out and that most homo
>sexuals will be such because of learned (probably in childhood or
>adolesence) influences.
>	An example :  my brown hair is 'natural', my use of the
>English language is 'learned'.
>	Being homosexual MAY benefit homo-sapiens by reducing the
>birth rate, but it will definitely select against people with that
>tendancy
>			Ken Cochran,     hou5d!kwmc.

   Sorry, but you're full of it. grkermit!larry has a working explanation,
similar to the explanation for the genetic basis of altruism.  As with
homosexuality, there is great argument about \whether/ there is a genetic basis
for altruism, but even the opponents concede the validity of the argument which
I will crudely summarize thus:

	Suppose you are a member of a group/tribe most of whom have some
	degree of blood relationship. If you hold the bridge against
	marauders, dying while allowing the rest of your group to escape,
	there is a genetic advantage in this in that the rest of the group
	carries the genetic equivalent of multiples of you, which you by your
	sacrifice preserve.

 (Haldane is quoted as being willing to lay down his life "for two brothers or
eight first cousins"; that's a true mathematician's approach). Note that this
is the best available explanation for observed altruism in species such as
baboons, which are highly unlikely to hold classes in Dulce et Decorum Est.

Genetics, like most branches of science, yields thoroughly unexpected results
when you don't examine your postulates carefully. Would it be fair to say that
you think that genetic traits which tend to prevent the individual from
reproducing will be self-extinguishing? Consider then the classic case: the
gene for defective hemoglobin that causes sickle-cell anemia when an individual
is homozygous (has this gene on both chromosomes). Why hasn't this disappeared
long ago? Because heterozygous individuals have greatly increased resistance to
malaria! In this case both homozygotes (with and without the gene) are at a
disadvantage compared to heterozygotes, so the case is stronger than that for
genetic homosexuality, but the analogy still holds.

	CHip
		(Chip Hitchcock)
		ARPA: CJH@CCA-UNIX
		usenet: ...{!decvax,!linus,!sri-unix}!cca!csin!cjh