NEWS: University of Utah One Step Closer to "Fixing" Gay People?

GEEK: University of Utah One Step Closer to "Fixing" Gay People?

Researchers at the University of Utah have been fiddling with the brains of female worms to see if they can turn them lezzie by doing a little genetic switcheroo. With funding from the National Science Foundation, researchers in scientific director Erik Jorgensen's lab switched on the gene that makes the body develop male structures, but they only activated it in the brain.

In case you didn't know, worms and humans actually share many of the same genes, so nematodes are often used to as a potential looking glass into human genetics. The ability to genetically manipulate female worms so that they're attracted to one another reinforces the hypothesis that sexual orientation is hard-wired in the human brain, and also implies the possibility of someday "correcting" homosexual orientation in humans. Of course, that wasn't the purpose of the study, and scientifically it's not that simple, but it's hard not to imagine this kind of research someday leading to genetic sex changes.

In the dystopian, futuristic version of this, I can imagine government mandated (this study was funded, for what it's worth, by the National Science Foundation) genetic sex changes for gay people (maybe even in utero). In the romantic comedy version, I can see Sarah Jessica Parker playing the role of the jaded, middle-aged woman who's sick of looking for Mr. Right, and instead opts for a genetic tweak a la Kissing Jessica Stein.

I think it's worth bearing in mind that the kind of people who might want to de-gay someone are often also the same people who oppose fiddling around with our DNA on moral and/or religious grounds. Let's not start freaking out just yet, huh?

No-one tell James Watson about this. If I have to listen to him rave about how 'no mother wants gay babies' then I'm going to throw a hissy fit.

Also, in the event they manage to make this work for humans, then I want to be bisexual.

me too. hook it up

More realistically, and importantly, it will prove definativly that sexual orientation is something you are born with and therefore have no control over. This means that any discrimination against homosexuals will become instantly illegal just about everywhere and in every form. A major boost for the promotion of gay rights as it gives a scientific and legal basis from which to build on (not just a moral one).

Can we find the gene that makes people homophobic and "fix" that instead?

how do you figure? there are lots of things that cause sexual orientation, genetics only being one of them...

riiiiiiiight....

wanna buy a bridge? it's hardly used!

I'm not so sure. Just last week the Prime Minister of Singapore stood up in Parliament and declared that homosexuality was inborn - and then proceeded to support the retention of Section 377A of the Penal Code, on the grounds that repealing it would upset homophobes.

So yeah, I'm not so optimistic.

I have to agree. If homophobes were at all open to listening to reason and logic, its unlikely they'd be homophobes. Sadly - when it is proved that homosexuality has a large biological element - its doubtful that it will matter to the people wishing to see the oppression of 10% of society.

I read your comment and it feels right, but the rational Athenian in me cannot help but point out that people's capacity to be consistent can surprise you, so... you never know who your unlikely bedfellows will be.

The first thing I thought while I read the opening paragraph was, "A worm, with very few exceptions, is not a human being." However, I'm pleased to see that the scientists who did this research, at least, did not have some grandiose ambition of one day "fixing gays". It sounds to me like they're just tickled to have the chance to understand them. I'm not sure if everyone reading this understands what kind of proverbial hard-on scientists get when their work yields something societally significant. I know that I'm certainly intrigued, as a scientist.

I also want to point out that many unsuspecting organisms share a remarkable number of genes in common with humans, including fruit flies which boast about a 60% match to our genome. However, the bridge between vertebrates and invertebrates is skeletal at best (no pun intended), and I suspect that we will see an age of nanotechnology before we see the precise and controlled manipulation of the mammalian (and eventually human) genome. Even so, I imagine that "patching up the homos" will be low on the list beneath the plethora of genetic diseases and disorders that plague us today, and if anything, I would expect a real-life reenactment of Gattaca before we venture into the realm of cyber-punk dystopias and sex comedies.

I'd lastly like to assert that this article has a lot to do with gender identity as well as sexual orientation, which seems to have been widely overlooked. There is a vast difference between being homosexual, and being a heterosexual "trapped in the wrong sex body". I believe that what these scientists created were simply female bodies with male brains, not true lesbians.

And when the gene that causes philanthropy or murder is found, discrimination against those will also become illegal and we'll be tolerant of murders and won't be jealous of the wealthy? I know people here will get upset because I'm using extremes and I don't by any means intend to equate homosexuality or bisexuality or heterosexuality with murder. I'm just removing the moral gray area from the argument by showing that in cases where we clearly know right from wrong we can agree, we shouldn't let other factors influence us in the gray areas.

And speaking of homophobia, the reverse is true too. I was once walking through the street fair during the gay pride parade in New York and my girlfriend had picked up a bag of something handed out by an organization there in which there were duplicate copies of everything. I didn't take a bag as she did and the guy said just because I take one won't make me gay. My response to him was not taking one won't make me straight either. (the hidden message here boys and girls is that I'm bisexual and that he discriminated against me based on bias). Ok, i'm done ranting on this post.

I agree. I was talking to a long time friend a few months ago and he was upset because he saw on someone's myspace /facebook page that they were gay. My friend is a homophobe (religiously based but I think psychologically as well) and it baffled me why he was so upset by it. I told him if he really believed the bible opposed it then he should just not like that the guy engaged in sex with another man but should still be friends with him and not let it affect him. It should be no different to him than if someone else liked eating mushrooms and he couldn't stand mushrooms. Ok, well maybe not that extreme. Mushroom eaters should all die! :-)

At any rate, being that he was my best friend growing up and I'm godfather to one of his kids, I'm still friends with him, but I'm not sure we're so close any more. It's a sad sad thing people are so closed minded.

How about making a person more of what they already are instead of changing them?

What? More of... You mean like this?

Doctor: "Mr and Mrs. Smith, we've discovered that your son will be homosexual. Now, with a certain hormonal injection we can solve that and ma-"

Mr. Smith: "Solve it? Solve it?! Fuck no! Doctor, if my son's going to be gay. He's going to be gay. And if he's going to be gay, then he's going to be super fucking gay."

Mrs. Smith: "Honey?"

Doctor: "I don't follow."

Mr. Smith: "Yeah I'm talking picking flowers while daydreaming about boy bands. No sir, one cock will never be enough for my son. If he's gonna love the cock he's gonna fucking love the cock, you get me? Cocks coming in all over the place, two in each hand and as many as he can cram in his gay ass. Yes sir."

Doctor: "Sir... there's a limit to what we can do at this stage if..."

Mrs. Smith: "I'm not so sure you're making sense, dear."

Mr. Smith (noticeably jumpy): "Left and right! Cocks everywhere! Every day will be a race between chasing fags and getting his purple and pink spandex off!!!"

Mrs. Smith (standing): "We'll... talk to you later Doctor."

...

Yeah I don't really follow with making them more of what they are. However, it was material for that, so thanks?

At least the study pointed out that the human brain is more complex than a worm's brain.

Sometimes I wonder about that.

Maybe I'm not understanding this correctly, but how does this enable me to fuck worms?

while I am straight, somehow I still find myself making comments like "omg her ass is poking out of her skirt! that's so fucking hot! /drool." and I still manage to get drunk and make out with my girl friends, but I doubt that'd come off real well to my future boyfriend.
I will most definitely be looking forward to future research so I can switch off my offhanded remarks. LOL

eh..not everyone is comfortable with parts of themselves, including their turn-ons/turn-offs. That's why people get boob jobs and sex changes. I'm not comfortable with my social anxiety so I treat it with medication until there's a cure/surgery for it.

Dude. What's stopping you?

Shit. I've been waiting all this time for science...

Where's your sense of adventure?

Um. . .well, I don't know. Does it disable you with regards to worm fucking? Have you tried? Recently?

Uh, what worms are they using? If my science classes have stuck with me...



aren't worms asexual? Having both sex organs, hermaphrodites, that can fertilize their own eggs or cross fertalize.


How the fuck can this be linked to human "gayness?!" How can you fiddle in the brain of an organism that doesn't have a defined sex and make attracted to another non-defined sex organism?

I doubt that.