Evolutionary reason for homosexuality?
 

Hey, does anyone know what scientists have decided the evolutionary reason for homosexuals are? Just curious. Thanks.

oh ya, and here's what one recent research has come up with:

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/080208_gaygene

Jesus H Kristoffsky, is gayness the only thing you care about?

no I care about other things, like I hope Obama gets elected.

Have you got the horn for Obama?

"Evolutionary reason" makes no sense. Evolution isn't a path to a goal, it's just what works best. Homosexuality, if it has any genetic basis, may simply be a by-product of something else that either has no effect on procreation or somehow helps. Or it may not be genetic at all.

Obama is handsome but I am hoping he will win the nomination for other reasons.

I'm no biologist, but seeing as the behaviour seems to be prevalent all over the animal world, there must be a good reason. Homosexuality must not harm a gene's chances of survival as much as it would initially seem.

It could be that genes that would make a male gay would make his sister more fertile. In that case, from the gene's point of view, it's a positive as long as the sister reproduces, which could be more likely than it normally would, especially if she has a brother who isn't interested in reproducing himself, and might be more likely to help her raise kids. I believe it's been demonstrated that the more older brothers a male has, the more likely he is to be gay. So that would make sense anyway.

You also have to consider that sexuality is not a polar phenomenon - it's a spectrum. In a world where there is no effective contraception, someone who is gay most of the time, but occasionally has sex with a woman (whether he enjoys it or not) could actually have better reproductive success than someone who is 100% straight. Members of long-lived, social species who have to dedicate a lot of time and effort to raising kids (species like humans) may do better by having fewer offspring, and raising them better. They wouldn't necessarily want to have a kid after every time they have sex, especially if they are also using sex as a means of social bonding... or simply for fun.

I believe there was an ancient Greek who said something like "men are for loving, women are for babies". It's probably a pretty effective strategy compared to many others.

That's exactly what this latest study seems to be saying. That gays in primitive cultures seem to show that they are functional for helping raise kids. I think it's a fascinating new theory.

Yeah, it's amazing what happens when you see a phenomenon and ask why it exists instead of labelling it as the work of the devil and persecuting people for it, huh?

it's amazing that that seems amazing

very, very true.

It's enough to make me vomit sometimes.

Indeed

Gayness isn't genetic. It has a genetic component (what doesn't) since the concordance rate for identical twins is about 85% or thereabouts, somewhat close to the same concordance rate for IQ between identical twins.

Gayness is multidetermined and human sexuality is exceptionally complex, as there is far more to it than innate species-typical breeding mating patterns, but it chaps my ass when those social-pseudoscientists go around stinking up good science with their post-hoc happy bullshit story telling and try to pass it off as evolutionary psychology. It's as bad as religion.

In short, gayness is simply a normal type of behavioral variance in a very complex system, and is far more likely to be related to gestational rather than purely genetic factors.

Evolution didn't plan it. Shit just happens. And judging by the fact that only a very small group of neurons in the very tiny 3rd interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus seems to have a lot to do with whether penises or vaginas get you jiggy, I'd say that it doesn't take a whole lot of unusual influence to make a person turn to teh gay side.

innit though

Yet one can't "catch" gayness from mere proximity to gay people, teachers, for instance.