12-10-2007, 03:51 PM
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316316,00.html
Scientists Make Fruit Flies Gay, Then Straight Again
Monday, December 10, 2007
By Robert Roy Britt
"...In the new work, University of Illinois at Chicago researcher David Featherstone and coworkers discovered a gene in fruit flies they call "genderblind," or GB. A mutation in GB turns flies bisexual......"It was very dramatic," Featherstone said. "The GB mutant males treated other males exactly the same way normal male flies would treat a female. They even attempted copulation......."Based on our previous work, we reasoned that GB mutants might show homosexual behavior because their glutamatergic synapses were altered in some way," Featherstone said. "Homosexual courtship might be sort of an 'overreaction' to sexual stimuli."
______________________________________________________
Q: What impact will finding the natural genetic sexual determinants
have on religious acceptance or intolerance of gays?
Q: Will specific genetic profiles for gay orientation lead to either abortion or possible genetic engineering?
There are a whole lot of Pandora's Boxes being opened....where it will end is anyones guess.
I think fundamentalists will counsel gays get cured...i.e. treated to change their orientation via gene therapy....while liberals will argue this is a natural variation.
Of course, fundamentalists have to explain how God allowed such a design "flaw".
Scientists Make Fruit Flies Gay, Then Straight Again
Monday, December 10, 2007
By Robert Roy Britt
"...In the new work, University of Illinois at Chicago researcher David Featherstone and coworkers discovered a gene in fruit flies they call "genderblind," or GB. A mutation in GB turns flies bisexual......"It was very dramatic," Featherstone said. "The GB mutant males treated other males exactly the same way normal male flies would treat a female. They even attempted copulation......."Based on our previous work, we reasoned that GB mutants might show homosexual behavior because their glutamatergic synapses were altered in some way," Featherstone said. "Homosexual courtship might be sort of an 'overreaction' to sexual stimuli."
______________________________________________________
Q: What impact will finding the natural genetic sexual determinants
have on religious acceptance or intolerance of gays?
Q: Will specific genetic profiles for gay orientation lead to either abortion or possible genetic engineering?
There are a whole lot of Pandora's Boxes being opened....where it will end is anyones guess.
I think fundamentalists will counsel gays get cured...i.e. treated to change their orientation via gene therapy....while liberals will argue this is a natural variation.
Of course, fundamentalists have to explain how God allowed such a design "flaw".
