Seventy-five percent of feminine little boys grow up to be gay men; women who behave like Anne Heche are likely more common than most GLBTs would like to admit; homosexuality may be genetically passed through mothers.
Those are just some of the insights discussed at last week's Science and Sexual Orientation forum at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
The forum brought together nationally recognized researchers, scientists and academics to discuss the good and the bad about scientific study of sexual orientation.
Despite their intentions to benefit gays and lesbians with their research, the presenters acknowledged that in the wrong hands, their research could prove harmful by reinforcing stereotypes or holding out the possibility that sexual orientation can be changed.
But, presenter Dean Hamer said, "Not understanding sexual orientation is dangerous."
About 25 people attended the forum, organized by UIC professor Timothy Murphy and sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.
In many cases, the panelists said, their research confirmed what is already commonly thought about gays and lesbians.
Presenter Michael Bailey, of Northwestern University, has found that gay men are statistically more likely to choose female-dominated occupations, while lesbians are more likely to choose jobs dominated by men.
Bailey also found that 75% of boys who remember having feminine childhoods grow up to be gay, though he said comparable research hasn't yet been conducted about tomboys and lesbians.
Bailey's work looking at personal ads in gay publications revealed that gay men actively seek out more masculine partners while making a point to exclude anything that seems feminine. His research on women revealed the opposite, with more women seeking out feminine partners.
In her study of 89 young, non-heterosexual women, Lisa Diamond, of the University of Utah, found evidence on the fluidity of women's sexuality.
Since she began her study in 1994, 60% of the women have changed how they identify their sexual orientation, with 9% "returning" to heterosexuality. One of the women is now transitioning to become male, and another has stopped identifying as bisexual after her friends held a "mini-intervention" that made her realize she isn't really attracted to women.
The ongoing research, Diamond said, indicates the "need to spend as much time looking at why Anne ( Heche ) wanted Ellen ( DeGeneres ) as why Ellen wanted Anne. We need to study all sexuality."
While Diamond said the danger exists that her research could be used to show that homosexuality is a "just a phase," the research done by Hamer, chief of Gene Structure and Regulation at the National Cancer Institute, has already been used by anti-gay forces.
Hamer has conducted research on the genetic location of homosexuality, and some conservatives have argued that in the future, gene therapy will allow for the "cure" of homosexuality.
Hamer, who has been published in the journal Science and The New York Times, presented strong evidence that homosexuality is passed on by mothers. A study of gay siblings found that homosexuality is on the X—or female—chromosome. He has also found that gay men typically have more gay relatives on their mother's side of the family.
The misuse of Hamer's research, said presenter Larry Gross, points to the power of an often overlooked population in discussions of gay research and studies—parents.
Parents, he noted, use such misinformation to justify taking their kids to reparative therapy and gender identity disorder clinics. Gross, of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication, called for a challenge of "the notion of total parental wisdom and control."
In debunking a recent position paper on the supposed effectiveness of reparative therapy, Murphy said, "You would not want your house wired on the basis of this science."
The paper, located at cathmed.org, claims a 30% success rate in changing the sexual orientation of "the truly motivated."
Sana Loue, of Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, emphasized the need to protect the subjects of sexual orientation studies. U.S. law currently considers certain research subjects as "vulnerable populations" that need protecting, she said. Those populations include pregnant women, prisoners and children, but not GLBTs.
For more information, visit www.researchethics.org .
