Recently I came across this petition by Celina Jaitley demanding equal rights for Gays. It goes without saying that I support her cause. The article 377 of Indian Constitution is really draconian, if you are Gay that is. Some of you might argue that with our society still torn with discrimination on basis caste, religion, gender etc, it’s still too early to demand such ‘advanced’ rites. But you gotta start somewhere and someones gotta stand up for the cause for it to get accepted by society. If you are novice to this subject, homosexuality is a trait the person is born with and it’s not really a matter of choice for him/her. Yes it’s uncommon (not abnormal) to be gay...but so is being left handed and being bald.
Well, so far so good...but actual question that I would like raise here is about the ‘Gay Gene’. Obviously there exists a gene that tends to make an individual gay, just like gene for blue eyes or gene for skin colour. One might argue that hormones secreted during embryonic development are responsible for homosexuality...but there’s gotta be a gene that is responsible for this excess/inadequate secretion of hormones...so eventually it boils down to the ‘Gay gene’. But since this gene makes person gay, how the hell did it manage to pass down the generations?? Maybe it was a recessive gene like Albinism gene or gene for six fingers...but most of these recessive genes either do not affect person’s ability to survive and reproduce or affect the person post 40’s, that is after the person’s fertile age (except for Thalassemia gene, which affects person right from childhood and mostly kills him/her by the age of 13, But Thalassemia is very very very rare...unlike Homosexuality)...and hence manage to propagate down the generations...but the gay gene directly affects person’s ability to reproduce, threatening gene’s own survival.
The only other plausible reason for survival of this gay gene is social norms. It is possible that before Evolutionary process was able to eliminate this gay gene, the human society developed its fascist anti-gay principles. So gay people were forcibly married and were forced to have offspring because it was so called ‘normal’ thing to do. Fierce opposition of homosexuality by most of the religions is sure shot proof of this phenomenon. The only loophole in this theory is that even some of the animals (dogs, cats, etc) exhibit gay behaviour during mating season...but as far as I have observed it’s just because of lack of availability of opposite sex and they’ll immediately pounce on individual of opposite sex if they found one.
So if “norms” set by society is a reason for survival of gay gene and consequently gay people (It is ironical to see that very religion that opposes homosexuality is the reason for its survival...god must be gay)...it is apparent that as we dilute these norms and become more liberal, passing on of this gay gene would become more and more rare. Few generations later the gay gene might totally vanish...so there won’t be any gays around...weather we (meaning our children) like it or not. By this I do not intend to prove that the societal norms should stay...I’m just trying to draw logical conclusions from my elementary knowledge of genetics. Of course we would have Bi’s and metrosexual men around (plus there would be few clever gays who would secretly donate to sperm banks)...so I guess we need not worry about extinction of these species.
THE END
PS: I’m straight...I’m so straight that I would have been the inventor of the pornography and playboy if I would have born in 1950’s
PPS: Lesbianism kicks ass!! :P
Well, so far so good...but actual question that I would like raise here is about the ‘Gay Gene’. Obviously there exists a gene that tends to make an individual gay, just like gene for blue eyes or gene for skin colour. One might argue that hormones secreted during embryonic development are responsible for homosexuality...but there’s gotta be a gene that is responsible for this excess/inadequate secretion of hormones...so eventually it boils down to the ‘Gay gene’. But since this gene makes person gay, how the hell did it manage to pass down the generations?? Maybe it was a recessive gene like Albinism gene or gene for six fingers...but most of these recessive genes either do not affect person’s ability to survive and reproduce or affect the person post 40’s, that is after the person’s fertile age (except for Thalassemia gene, which affects person right from childhood and mostly kills him/her by the age of 13, But Thalassemia is very very very rare...unlike Homosexuality)...and hence manage to propagate down the generations...but the gay gene directly affects person’s ability to reproduce, threatening gene’s own survival.
The only other plausible reason for survival of this gay gene is social norms. It is possible that before Evolutionary process was able to eliminate this gay gene, the human society developed its fascist anti-gay principles. So gay people were forcibly married and were forced to have offspring because it was so called ‘normal’ thing to do. Fierce opposition of homosexuality by most of the religions is sure shot proof of this phenomenon. The only loophole in this theory is that even some of the animals (dogs, cats, etc) exhibit gay behaviour during mating season...but as far as I have observed it’s just because of lack of availability of opposite sex and they’ll immediately pounce on individual of opposite sex if they found one.
So if “norms” set by society is a reason for survival of gay gene and consequently gay people (It is ironical to see that very religion that opposes homosexuality is the reason for its survival...god must be gay)...it is apparent that as we dilute these norms and become more liberal, passing on of this gay gene would become more and more rare. Few generations later the gay gene might totally vanish...so there won’t be any gays around...weather we (meaning our children) like it or not. By this I do not intend to prove that the societal norms should stay...I’m just trying to draw logical conclusions from my elementary knowledge of genetics. Of course we would have Bi’s and metrosexual men around (plus there would be few clever gays who would secretly donate to sperm banks)...so I guess we need not worry about extinction of these species.
THE END
PS: I’m straight...I’m so straight that I would have been the inventor of the pornography and playboy if I would have born in 1950’s
PPS: Lesbianism kicks ass!! :P
wht do u mean by 'straight'??? As if others having different preferences are 'crooked'...]
ReplyDeleteanyway I see that u have 'observed' quite a few things amongst dogs & cats... knowing u its no surprise!!!
and check this out http://p2.voicesagainst377.org/
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