I just have one amendment: with regard to the paragraph below, if there is a "homosexual gene" (i.e., a gene that creates a potential for wanting homosexual behavior), it's likely that there are more than one of these genes.[*] The potential personality/urges of an individual would then reflect a combination of gene influences. Someone with the potential to be all the way to the left on the Kinsey scale would have a different combination than someone with a potential to be slightly to the left, etc. Also, it seems that biologists are opening up to the idea that proteins, etc. may play a role in determining an individual's biological potential.
[*] This seems to be the trend in this field of study, i.e., that there might be more than one gene creating a potential for depression, schizophrenia, autism, etc., etc. BTW, it's not that homosexuality is a "disorder" like those on this list; rather, it's these disorders are what people study, not the genes that promote "normality."
> if the trait of homosexuality is genetically coded, as a recessive
> allele, then 1 of 4 (statistically) of the children of heterosexual
> parents (both with the recessive allele) has the chance of being
> homosexual. there is no reason to believe that there is a crushing
> fitness disadvantage to carrying the unexpressed (or perhaps
> semi-expressed) allele in such parents i.e., no reason to believe that
> the recessive allele will be wiped out of the population due to
> selection. perhaps there may even be reason to believe, if theories of
> the influence of recessive genes are correct, that it may increase fitness.
-- Jim Devine "Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" -- Richard Feynman