A look at what the research shows and what it means for you

JEFF JOHNSTON INTRODUCTION

Introduction 2 In 1992, Newsweek The Wall Street Journal, and The Times magazine’s cover trumpeted the possibility that people were “born pictured a baby’s gay” because of a “gay gene.” Is There a “Gay Gene”? 3 face with a question superimposed More than 20 years later, a great deal of research Didn’t Researcher on top: “Is This has been done, and despite the hype from different Dean Hamer Discover Child Gay?” The news outlets: a “Gay Gene”? 4 article inside was titled, “Born or ■■ there is no “gay gene”; What Do Twin Studies Show? 7 Bred: The Origins of .”1 ■■ twin studies show homosexuality Newsweek is primarily environmental; and, Do Some People Source: BackIssues.com highlighted the Have “Gay Brains”? 9 ■■ homosexuality is not caused by a “gay brain.” work of researcher Simon LeVay, whose research showed a tiny part of the hypothalamus was So, we can say with a great deal of confidence: What Conclusions can we different in homosexual-identified males than People are not “born gay.” Draw from The Research? 11 in heterosexual males.2 The story also reported on the work of Michael Bailey and Richard Let’s look at each of these areas of research in Pillard, who studied the shared incidence of male turn, and also answer a few more questions about What Does This Mean to You? 12 homosexuality in identical twins versus the shared homosexuality. incidence in fraternal twins or in brothers.3

The next year, Time magazine featured a cover “Complex social activities, such story, “Born Gay: Science Finds a Genetic Link.”4 as sexual behavior, cannot be Researcher Dean Hamer had published an article directly traced to the activity of demonstrating there might be “…linkage between a single gene.” DNA markers on the and male .”5 Time also spotlighted the work —Dr. Douglas Abbott 6 of LeVay, Bailey and Pillard. Major news outlets in the early 90’s, such as National Public Radio,

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 2 IS THERE A Each human has 46 chromosomes, 23 pairs, with one of each pair inherited from mom and the other from “GAY GENE”? dad. In their book (with the tongue-in-cheek title) My Maybe you’ve read about Gregor Mendel, the Genes Made Me Do It! A Scientific Look at Sexual Moravian monk and scientist who studied peas by Orientation, Dr. Neil and Briar Whitehead write: breeding them for a certain trait and then cross- pollinating “Each chromosome is made up of one highly them with folded strand of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) other peas made up of an extraordinary twisted ladder with a of 60 to 185 million rungs depending on the different chromosome. If you joined, end to end, each trait. Mendel unfolded, untwisted chromosome in a single cell, conceived you’d have about three billion rungs.”7 and developed Each chromosome is made up of genes, which the ideas of are shorter sections of DNA “in a particular location recessive on a specific chromosome,” carrying instructions and about making different proteins or about activating dominant or deactivating other genes. Each of us has traits and somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 genes, worked to and each gene has anywhere from 1,400 to decipher how 4,000 rungs.8 traits are passed from The Whiteheads paint a picture of the incredible parent plants God-designed complexity of genes at the beginning Source: Time.com, Cover Credit: STEVE LISS to offspring. of a human life, as they describe the activity in a single-cell human embryo: While Mendelian ideas work well on some traits in plants and on some physical traits in humans, such “Biochemists themselves rarely appreciate how as eye or hair color, human is much more complex a single cell is. To use a metaphor: one complex. It’s inaccurate to say that a single gene single fertilized ovum, for example, resembles a causes a certain behavior. vast plain crammed with about a billion dancing

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 3 figures on a complex grid, either spinning “The simple world of monk Gregor alone or briefly forming long chains or small Mendel and his peas—in which groups or circles, only to break away and form single traits like tallness, colour and thousands of others. There are about one billion seed shape are each determined by a biochemical reactions each second (plus or single gene—is almost never seen in minus a factor of ten) within this single cell—a human genetics.” dazzlingly complex mesh of actions, interactions, —Dr. Neil Whitehead and Briar reactions, feedback and control paths, and co- Whitehead, “My Genes Made Me Do It!” 10 operation and interference, causing thousands of genes, and all the gene products within the cell, to interact. More than 100 trillion other cells Most scientists who study genetics know that in this potential human body have yet to only a portion of how we behave is affected by develop in the same way and begin genes. Other determining factors include our to interact with each other in this environment—the family and culture we are extraordinary dance of life.”9 born into—and our decisions, the choices we make with our will. We’ll talk more about that later As the Psalmist says, in this resource. Adenine God’s works are wonderful, and we are Guanine fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm DIDN’T RESEARCHER Cytosine 139:4, ESV). DEAN HAMER Thymine Most genes don’t act DISCOVER A independently: They are activated and affected by “GAY GENE”? other genes, as well as by other factors and chemicals in In 1993, researcher Dean Hamer performed what the body. Our genes are what make is called a “linkage study” for behavior: us human—they cause our bodies to be formed and grow in certain ways. So all human “In linkage studies for behavior, researchers look behavior, to some degree, is affected by genes. for an extended family with an unusually high

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 4 incidence of some behavior, such as bipolar however, when researchers tried to replicate disorder, and then take samples of tissue from all the initial findings, they were unable to do so. available members and analyze the DNA, looking Sometimes researchers reanalyzed the results and for segments in common using sets of tiny, came to a different conclusion. Other times they synthesized DNA segments, called ‘markers’— found the link was not as strong as first reported. an identical set for each person.”12 Here’s what Robert Pool wrote in Science, in the same issue that published Hamer’s study, signaling Hamer and his team that the results should be received with caution: “Any dispassionate but critical looked at 40 families review of the research leads to with two gay-identified “The field of behavioral genetics is littered with the clear conclusion that there brothers in each family. apparent discoveries that were later called into are substantial genetic and He also studied their question or retracted. Over the past few years, environmental effects on almost all extended families and several groups of researchers have reported types of behaviour and all forms found more homosexual- locating genes for various mental illnesses—manic of psychopathology or mental identified relatives on depression, schizophrenia, alcoholism—only to disorder…. None of the findings are the mother’s side of the see their evidence evaporate after they assembled in the least bit compatible with a family, leading him to more evidence or reanalyzed the original data. genetically deterministic view.” suspect a genetic link ‘There’s almost no finding that would be convincing —Sir Michael Rutter, on the X chromosome. by itself in this field,’ notes Elliot Gershon, chief of “Genes and Behavior” 11 The X chromosome the clinical neurogenetics branch of the National comes from the mother; Institute of Mental Health. ‘We really have to see the Y chromosome an independent replication.’”13 comes from the father. Hamer found that 33 of the pairs of brothers shared five markers on their These problems were true of Hamer’s work. One X chromosome at a position on the chromosome Canadian research team tried to replicate Hamer’s known as “.” findings using a larger sample of 52 gay-identified sibling pairs from 48 families. The team looked for Although scientists have found genes for numerous markers at the same site, Xq28, and said, “Allele physical conditions, they have not had the same and haplotype sharing for these markers was success in finding genetic markers for behaviors. not increased over expectation. These results do In many cases, researchers or the press have not support an X-linked gene underlying male announced a possible genetic cause for a behavior; homosexuality.”14

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 5 Not only was Hamer’s “There is a clear consensus among sexual orientation, as it work not replicated in scientists that a gay gene does does in most, if not all other studies, it was not exist. Complex psychosocial behaviors…”17 critiqued because there behaviors, such as sexual was no control group. orientation, cannot be directly Later in the book, Perhaps other men who traced to the activity of a single he writes: didn’t identify as gay had gene or even a group of genes.” the same genetic markers “The pedigree study on their X chromosome. —Douglas A. Abbott and failed to produce what The study was also A. Dean Byrd, “Encouraging we originally hope to 16 criticized because of lack ” find: simple Mendelian of statistical significance inheritance. In fact, we in the findings. never found a single family in which homosexuality was distributed Here is what Hamer himself, along with a few other in the obvious pattern that Mendel observed scientists and researchers, had to say about genes in his pea plants.”18 (emphasis added) and behavior, including the “gay gene” theory: Here’s what The Globe wrote about this in From Time magazine’s original story about 1999—six years after the initial Hamer research: Hamer’s study: “The research project in 1993 that indicated many “Homosexuality is not simply programmed but is gay men shared a common genetic marker in a complex expression of values and personality. the X chromosome was hailed as a momentous As researcher Hamer says, ‘Genes are part of the scientific discovery—one that would help society story, and this gene region is a part of the genetic to transcend bigotry, heal family wounds, and lay story, but it’s not all of the story.’”15 to rest the nagging question: Is sexual orientation genetic? Six years later, however, the gene still has Commenting on his own research in a book not been found, and interest in—and enthusiasm published a year after the study, Hamer noted: for—the “gay gene” research has waned among activists and scientists alike. And there is a “We knew genes were only part of the answer. We growing consensus that sexual orientation is much assumed the environment also played a role in more complicated than a matter of genes.”19

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 6 More recently, Dr. Francis Collins, head of the (or almost identical) chromosomes. They are Human Genome Project, summed up the research genetically the same. Because of this, populations on homosexuality by saying: of identical twins are often studied and compared to fraternal twins (“dizygotic” (DZ) twins, meaning “...sexual orientation is they come from two separate fertilized ova). Your Thoughts: genetically influenced but not Optimally, twin studies would compare identical hardwired by DNA, and that twins raised separately, but because this is a very whatever genes are involved small population, and because the percentage of represent predispositions, not homosexual-identified individuals is also small, this pre-determinations.20 is nearly impossible to do.

As a comparison, Collins If twins share the same trait, this is known as indicates the potential genetic “pairwise concordance.” And if they share the same component for homosexuality trait while their siblings or fraternal twins don’t, that is much less than the may mean that the trait is genetically produced. genetic contribution that Michael Bailey and Richard Pillard’s first study has been found for common examined 56 pairs of identical twins, 54 pairs of personality traits, such as fraternal twins, 57 adoptive brothers of twins and general cognitive ability, 142 biological siblings of twins. They found the extroversion, agreeableness, following results: conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness, aggression and ■■ 52% of the time, both identical (MZ) twins traditionalism.21 were gay-identified;

■■22% of the time, both fraternal (DZ) twins were homosexual-identified; WHAT DO TWIN ■■ 9.2% of the time, both non-twin brothers STUDIES SHOW? were gay-identified; and

Identical twins come from a single fertilized ovum ■■11% of the time, both adoptive brothers (they are fraternal meaning they come from one identified as homosexual.22 ovum or one fertilized egg cell) and have the same

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 7 As author Joe Dallas writes, this does not A more recent study by Bailey and others in 2000 demonstrate that homosexuality is genetic: used the Australian Twin Registry, which gave them a much larger sample.26 When Stanton Jones “Pillard and Bailey’s findings actually indicate and Mark Yarhouse analyzed the data from this that something besides genes must account for study, they found that for self-declared lesbians homosexuality. If 48 percent of identical twins, and gays, the pairwise concordance is 14 percent who are closely and 11 percent, linked genetically, do respectively.27 “Over the last decade, studies of twins not share the same have provided some of the strongest sexual orientation, Dr. Neil Whitehead numerical evidence that ‘our genes then genetics alone has reviewed more do not make us do it.’ ... In a nutshell, cannot account for than 10,000 studies if you take pairs of identical twins in homosexuality. Bailey on homosexuality. which one twin is homosexual, the admitted as much identical co-twin (a monozygotic Working with his wife, by stating, ‘There [MZ] twin) is usually not homosexual. author and journalist must be something Briar Whitehead, in the environment to “That means, given that identical they explained: yield the discordant twins are always genetically identical, twins’ (author’s homosexuality cannot be genetically “This means that for emphasis).”23 dictated. No one is born gay. The every nine sets of predominant things that create male identical (MZ) Within a year, the homosexuality in one identical twin twins, one of whom is percentages were and not in the other have to be post- homosexual, the other challenged by a British birth factors.” is homosexual only study that found only —Dr. Neil and Briar one time in nine, or 20 percent of the Whitehead, “My Genes 11% of the time, which homosexual twins in Made Me Do It!” 25 is not very much. That their research had a is, identical twins gay co-twin, leading the usually differ.28 researchers to conclude that “genetic factors are an insufficient explanation of the development of sexual orientation.”24

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 8 Dr. Stanton Jones writes about Bailey’s later use “Many early attempts (in the nineties) to find male/female, heterosexual/ of the Australian study, which showed a much homosexual differences in adult brains lower concordance rate for male homosexuality gave contradictory results. Where in identical twins. He notes the lack of media differences appeared to exist, further coverage for this research: studies failed to reproduce them.”

“Using a much more (if still —Dr. Neil and Briar Whitehead, imperfectly) representative “My Genes Made Me Do it !” 29 sample from the Australian Twin Registry, Bailey produced almost identical results to Bailey’s more saw the recent findings: 7 out of 71 (9.8%) identical male concordance twin pairs in which one twin is gay matched such for identical that the second co-twin was also gay, a stunningly male twins low finding also ignored by the media.30 fall from 52% in 1991 to a mere Twin studies have not shown that homosexuality 20% in his Australian is primarily genetic. In fact, they demonstrate Twin Registry sample, the opposite: Environment and an individual’s and the descriptive matching responses to that environment are much for homosexual orientation fall more important. to a mere 3 out of 27 (11.1%) identical male twin pairs.

“Bailey reported truthfully that the genetic DO SOME PEOPLE contribution to homosexual orientation failed to reach statistical significance in this new study. HAVE “GAY BRAINS”? The refutation, of course, failed to capture any Simon LeVay is a neuroscientist who studied attention in the popular media, and similarly the brains of 41 cadavers, a very small sample is often left out of the textbook treatments of size. Nineteen of the men were reportedly the subject. In 2010, an impressive and much homosexual, sixteen other men were reported to larger study utilizing the Swedish Twin Registry be heterosexual, and six women were reportedly

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 9 heterosexual. He focused on measuring a region on the basis that their sexual orientation was of the brain in the hypothalamus, known as the not mentioned in their charts. This leads us “interstitial nuclei of the anterior hypothalamus” or to suspect that LeVay did not know for sure INAH3, and found that the area was smaller in the whether the brains of nearly half the [men] he was homosexual men than the heterosexual men, closer studying were from homosexual or heterosexual to the size of that in the women.31 persons (emphasis theirs).”32

A number of Also, his results were inconsistent. Three of issues marred the reportedly heterosexual men did not fit his Your Thoughts: LeVay’s study, conclusion, because their INAH3 region was smaller including the fact than the average of the allegedly homosexual men, that he did not and three of the reportedly homosexual men did not have full sexual fit his conclusion, as the INAH3 region in their brains histories of all was larger than the heterosexuals.33 the men and women. Jones Joe Dallas comments on another possible problem and Yarhouse with the study: explain why this is problematic: “…LeVay did not necessarily measure the INAH3 properly. The area LeVay measured was quite “Questions have small—smaller than snowflakes, according been raised to scientists interviewed when his study was about the fashion released. His peers in the neuroscientific in which LeVay community cannot agree on whether the INAH3 determined the should be measured by its size and volume or orientation of the by its number of neurons.”34 person whose brains he was dissecting after death. Nineteen In 2000, a group tried to replicate the study, of the men were assigned the designation conducting it “blind”—they did not tell the homosexual based on it being noted in their researchers looking at the cells whether the subject medical charts by their doctors; the remaining was male or female, gay- or straight-identified. 16 men were presumed to be heterosexual While researchers found male-female differences,

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 10 they did not find any differences between nor find a genetic cause for being gay. I didn’t homosexual- or heterosexual-identified men.35 show that gay men are ‘born that way,’ the most common mistake people make in LeVay’s study also fails to take into account what interpreting my work. Nor did I locate a we know about the brain, which is that the brain gay center in the brain…”37 is “plastic,” or changeable. The brain changes greatly based on human Dr. Neil and Briar Whitehead give hope to those behavior and thinking. For as they write about this issue and explain how example, taxi changeable our brain actually is: drivers have an enlarged area of the brain dealing “The brain can change a huge amount—very with navigation.36 This is encouraging news to anyone who is stuck in not inborn, but is created a habit or pattern of behaviour.”38 over time, by behaviors. The same is probably also true for sexual thoughts and behaviors, which WHAT CONCLUSIONS change parts of the brain over time. So we don’t CAN WE DRAW FROM know if any differences THE RESEARCH? between lesbian-identified and straight-identified Research has not demonstrated that homosexuality women’s brains are inborn is inborn or genetic. Scientists have not found or caused by thoughts a gene or brain wiring that leads, in some pre- and actions. determined way, to homosexuality.

When looking at these supposed differences Twin studies, which once were thought to point reported by LeVay, we should keep in mind what toward this genetic determinism, actually point to he said about his own study: the opposite—the environment and an individual’s responses and choices are actually much more “It’s important to stress what I didn’t find. important. People are not “born gay.” …I did not prove that homosexuality is genetic,

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 11 WHAT DOES THIS this mean for me? Am I just fooling myself about change? Does this mean I’m really gay?” It took MEAN TO YOU? some time to work through thoughts and feelings Let me step away from all the research for a about those articles, but this is what it finally boiled moment and talk to you from my own experience. down to for me:

I know what it’s like to be a Christian living I knew what the Bible said about God’s design with unwanted same-sex attractions. I was in for marriage and about mankind being made in my twenties when a youth pastor invited me His image, male and female. to a conference called “Hope and Healing for the Homosexual.” I’d struggled with same-sex So I had a decision to make: “Am I going to follow desires for years, but I’d only—with great fear Him and His Word, even if I never changed? and trembling— Even if someday science discovered a genetic or spoken with a few biological component to homosexuality, how would Your Thoughts: people about it. For I reconcile that with God’s truth about sexuality?” me, attending that conference was the I decided to pursue Christ, to pursue relationship beginning of a long, with Him and healthy relationships with others difficult journey out in the church. Each year, I am more and more of homosexuality. grateful that I’ve made that choice.

I remember when the Now, several decades later, there still is no gay Newsweek and Time gene and no one has demonstrated that those articles came out—the with same-sex attractions are somehow built ones described in differently from other men and women. In addition, the first part of this twin studies—and other sociology studies not resource—trumpeting referenced in this short resource—demonstrate with great fanfare that homosexuality is mostly driven by unique about “gay genes” responses in an individual to environmental and “gay brains.” At circumstances. Sin is a reality in this fallen world, the time, I thought to and the result of sin is that some of us will struggle myself: “What does with homosexual temptations, lust and behavior.

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 12 We’ll struggle with who we’re attracted to and how “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not we identify—just like the rest of fallen humanity. inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor I’m not saying I’ve arrived or that I’m totally healed, adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, but God has worked tremendous transformation nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor and healing in my life. Through a multitude of revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom people and ways, God has brought—and continues of God. And such were some of you. But you to bring—freedom and change to me. If you were washed, you were sanctified, you were struggle with unwanted homosexuality, I urge you justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to pursue the life and renovation of the heart that and by the Spirit of our God.” –1 Corinthians the Father offers us through Christ and through 6:9-11, ESV the power of the Holy Spirit. I invite you to pursue Christ—whether or not those same-sex desires ever completely leave you. From the Author:

And if you have a loved one with same-sex “I’m not saying I’ve arrived or that attractions, I plead with you to continue praying I’m totally healed, but God has worked for them, even as you pursue a closer relationship tremendous transformation and healing with God. In prayer there is great power, and we in my life. believe that God is drawing homosexual-identified men and women to Himself, just as He has for “Through a multitude of people and ways, thousands of years: God has brought—and continues to bring— freedom and change to me.”

—Jeff Johnston

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 13 1 David Gelman, “Born or Bred: The Origins of Homosexuality,” 21 Ibid., p. 258, ff. Newsweek, February 24, 1992, p. 46 22 J. M. Bailey and R.C. Pillard, op. cit., see also: Stanton L. Jones and (http://www.newsweek.com/homosexuality-born-or-bred-200636). Mark A. Yarhouse, Homosexuality: The Use of Scientific Research in the 2 Simon LeVay, “A Difference in Hypothalamic Structure Between Church’s Moral Debate, (Downers’ Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), Heterosexual and Homosexual Men,” Science, August 30, 1991, pp. 73,ff., n.b., Jones and Yarhouse note some overstatement in these p. 1034-1037. percentages and other problems with bias in this study. 3 J. M. Bailey and R.C. Pillard, “A Genetic Study of Male Sexual 23 Joe Dallas, “Responding to Pro-Gay Social Arguments: (Part 1)” Orientation,” Archives of General Psychiatry, Dec. 1991; 48 (12), http://www.pureintimacy.org/r/responding-to-pro-gay-social- pp. 1089-1096. arguments-(part-1)/ (02 01 2016); Bailey quote from David Gelman, op. cit. 4 William A. Henry III, “Born Gay?” Time, July 26, 1993, pp. 36-39: publ. online, June 24, 2001, http://content.time.com/time/magazine/ 24 Joe Dallas, op. cit., and King and McDonald, “Homosexuals Who Are article/0,9171,162082,00.html (02 01 2016). Twins,” The British Journal of Psychiatry, March 1992, Vol. 160, p. 409. 5 Dean Hamer, “A Linkage Between DNA Markers on the X Chromosome 25 Neil and Briar Whitehead, op. cit., p. 175, http://www.mygenes.co.nz/ and Male Sexual Orientation,” Science 261, July 16, 1993, p. 321-327. PDFs/Ch10.pdf (02 01 2016). 6 Douglas A. Abbott Ph.D., “Myths and Misconceptions About Behavioral 26 J. M. Bailey, M.P. Dunne, and N.G. Martin, “Genetic and environmental Genetics and Homosexuality,” July 2007. influences on sexual orientation and its correlates in an Australian twin sample,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Mar 2000, 7 Neil and Briar Whitehead, op. cit., p. 15, http://mygenes.co.nz/PDFs/ pp. 524-36. Ch1.pdf (01 25 2016). 27 Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse, op. cit., pp. 75, ff. 8 Douglas A. Abbott and A. Dean Byrd, Encouraging Heterosexuality, Helping Children Develop a Traditional Sexual Orientation, (Orem, UT: 28 Neil and Briar Whitehead, op. cit., p 177, http://www.mygenes.co.nz/ Millennial Press, 2009), p.21. PDFs/Ch10.pdf (02 01 2016). 9 Whitehead and Whitehead, op. cit., p. 19, http://mygenes.co.nz/PDFs/ 29 Neil and Briar Whitehead, p. 160, http://www.mygenes.co.nz/PDFs/ Ch1.pdf (02 01 2016). Ch8.pdf (02 01 2016). 10 Ibid., p. 20. 30 Stanton L. Jones (January, 2012), “Sexual orientation and reason: On the implications of false beliefs about homosexuality,” p. 8, http://www. 11 Rutter Michael, Genes and Behavior. (Malden, Maryland: Blackwell, wheaton.edu/~/media/Files/Centers-and-Institutes/CACE/articles/ 2006); quoted in Whitehead and Whitehead, op.cit., p. 14, http:// Sexual%20Orientation%20and%20Reason%20%201-9-20122.pdf; mygenes.co.nz/PDFs/Ch1.pdf (01 25 2016). an abbreviated version of this essay was published as “Same-sex CONTACT US: 12 Ibid., p. 166, http://mygenes.co.nz/PDFs/Ch9.pdf (01 25 2016). science,” First Things, February, 2012, pp. 27-33. 800-A-FAMILY (800-232-6459) 13 Robert Pool, “Evidence for Homosexuality Gene,” Science, 31 Simon LeVay, op. cit. July 16, 1993. 32 Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse, op. cit., p. 70. 8605 Explorer Drive, 14 George Rice, et al, “Male Homosexuality: Absence of Linkage to 33 Joe Dallas and Nancy Heche, The Complete Christian Guide to Microsatellite Markers at Xq28,” Science, April 23, 1999. Colorado Springs, CO 80920 Understanding Homosexuality, (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 15 Henry, p. 39. 2010), p. 181. FocusOnTheFamily.com/SocialIssues 16 Douglas A. Abbott and A. Dean Byrd, op. cit., p. 21. 34 Joe Dallas and Nancy Heche, op. cit., pp. 181-182. [email protected] 17 Dean Hamer and Peter Copeland, The Science of Desire, (New York: 35 Neil and Briar Whitehead, p. 151, http://mygenes.co.nz/PDFs/Ch8.pdf Simon and Schuster, 1994), p. 82. (02 01 2016). Facebook.com/ThrivingValues 18 Ibid., p. 104. 36 Ibid., p. 156, http://mygenes.co.nz/PDFs/Ch8.pdf (02 01 2016). 19 Matthew Brelis, The fading `gay gene,’ Boston Globe - Boston, Mass, 37 David Nimmons, “Sex and the Brain,” Discover Magazine, March 1, YouTube.com/ThrivingValues Feb 7, 1999, C.1, ff. 1994, http://discovermagazine.com/1994/mar/sexandthebrain346 (02 01 2016). 20 Francis S. Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, (New York: Free Press, 2006) p. 260. 38 Neil and Briar Whitehead, op. cit., p. 157, http://www.mygenes.co.nz/ © 2016 Focus on the Family. All rights reserved. PDFs/Ch8.pdf.

ARE PEOPLE BORN GAY? 14