Monday, October 19, 2015

Researchers claim they can predict male sexual orientation

In a report presented to the American Society of Human Genetics' annual meeting in Baltimore earlier this month, researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have developed a "predictive model for sexual orientation based on molecular markers."

By studying genetic information in the DNA of 37 pairs of twins (one of which was gay and the other straight) and 10 pairs of twins who were both gay, the researchers devised a machine learning algorithm that found that DNA methylation, which affects when and how strongly a gene will be expressed, can be used to predict sexual orientation with 70 percent accuracy. 

The headline of the paper says the epigenetic algorithm accurately predicts male sexual orientation, but 70% doesn't sound accurate.  Yes, it is better than fifty-fifty but not near 100%.  The researchers admit they don't know how the methylation patterns are related to sexual orientation and the article posted doesn't state whether this method can be employed in utero, which is a scary thought. 

I have a friend who's mother told him if she knew he was going to be gay when she was pregnant with him, she would have aborted him. 

Thanks for the unconditional love, mom. 

It's my fear this will be used to predict the sexual orientation of fetuses and an unlucky 30% (minimum) will be aborted based on an algorithm.  Why else would researchers want to know who is gay or not?  First of all, it's none of their business.  Second, they can just ask and hope for a response.  So why come up with an algorithm?  Pure science?  Or a weapon for fundamentalists?

Epigenetic algorithm accurately predicts male sexual orientation -- ScienceDaily

No comments: