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Genetics Studies: Homosexuality, Bisexuality & Gender Identity

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In 1993, Dean Hamer published a study in Science that linked homosexuality to a specific region on the X chromosome, which he called Xq28.  This study was widely reported in the media as evidence that homosexuality is genetic. However, subsequent research has failed to replicate Hamer's findings, and the existence of a "gay gene" is now considered to be unlikely. The study involved 40 pairs of gay brothers, and Hamer found that 33 of these pairs shared a common marker on the X chromosome.  This suggested that there was a gene in this region that was associated with homosexuality.  However, Hamer's study was small and did not include a control group of heterosexual men.  It is possible that the marker that Hamer found is simply more common in the general population than he realized. In addition, other studies have failed to find a link between homosexuality and the Xq28 region.  For example, a study published in Nature Genetics in 1999 found no evidence of a "gay...