Simon LeVay's gay-gene promotional tour:
Uses scare tactics to bias thinking about Northwestern's gay-gene study.
Report by Lynn Conway
Draft filed October 2, 2006
[Updated 12-31-06]
In the fall of 2006, Simon LeVay (a strong supporter of J. Michael. Bailey's views about trans women) went on a gay-gene promotional tour, giving talks about the long and so far unsuccessful search for "the gay gene". See for example the article below, published the day after his talk at Syracuse University, in which he elevated the gay-gene to the status of being "the key to acceptance".
"Speaker: Tolerance of gays hinges on science:
Finding a
"gay gene" or similar evidence holds the key to acceptance, he says".
http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-6/115960792954690.xml&coll=1
In that article LeVay raises the spectre that without a confirmation of the gay
gene theory, events "could take us back to that period" when gays were
classified as mentally ill.
It is clear that LeVay is now extremely very worried that his old research
"results" will never be substantiated, and that
Dean Hamer's
essentialist claims to having found a gay gene won't be either.
As a result LeVay is making a big pitch for the massive gay-gene study now being
funded by Hamer, et al at NIH, and he is now resorting to the use of
scare-tactics to press his points home:
"Researchers also are studying genes to determine if a "gay gene" exists, LeVay
said. The National Institutes of Health is currently funding a $2.5 million
project on gay twin brothers to study their genes. "If they don't find anything
there, you can kiss gay genes goodbye," LeVay said."
LeVay's promotional tour is a blatant attempt to pump up the NIH gay gene study,
increase gay community support for the study, and to bias all thinking about it
- so that by some miracle it will succeed in "confirming" Hamer's claim (which
has never been independently substantiated) to the discovery of the gay gene in
1993 (Hamer later claimed to have also discovered the "God Gene"):
"Nature vs. nurture: ‘Gay’gene pioneer tackles God":
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Bailey/Dean%20Hamer/Hamer%20PGN%20Article/Hamer%20PGN%20Article.html
Perhaps Hamer and LeVay hope that with enough data they can somehow find a way
to fudge it all into some slight correlation they can announce as a "total
confirmation" - and finally regain some of their now long-lost scientific fame.
Given the huge amount of money NIH is spending on the study, it would then be
unlikely that any other group would have the moxie, much less the financial
support, to "challenge such important NIH results".
Now consider:
What if Hamer et al pull this off, and at some point announce that some cluster
of genetic information is "the gay gene"?
Will this really help gay people?
Will gay people, especially young gay people, feel compelled to undergo genetic
testing in order to be deemed "acceptable" by parents, friends and society?
But what will happen to gay people who don't test positive for 'it'? Will they
be declared "mentally ill"?
And what will happen to straight people who do have 'it'? Will new forms of
genetic screening for homosexuality exclude them from military service? Or from
certain forms of employment? Or from heterosexual marriage?
And perhaps most importantly, what will happen to all the unborn children who
test positive for 'it'? Will their parents be provided copies of
J. Michael.
Bailey's homosexual eugenics paper - to assuage any concerns they might have
about the ethics of 'eliminating homosexuality'? After all, as Mr. Bailey says,
"It is quite hard to see how being heterosexual causes any harm to the child":
"Parental Selection of Children's Sexual Orientation," by Aaron S. Greenberg and Michael J. Bailey.
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Bailey/Greenberg-Bailey/Homosexual%20Eugenics.pdf
"J. Michael Bailey attempts to defend his writings on homosexual eugenics", by Lynn Conway:
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Bailey/Greenberg-Bailey/Bailey%20attempts%20to%20defend%20his%20writings.htm
Meanwhile, the gay-twin/gay-gene study has hit a serious iceberg: Yep, you
guessed it, disgraced Northwestern University researcher and homosexual
eugenicist J. Michael Bailey was recently exposed as being an actual member of
that research team - and some gay media are now refusing to take ads for
research subjects for the study:
"The Chicago Free Press cancels ad for Bailey sex research subjects"
It's too bad that LeVay, Hamer, Bailey, et al, can't just take LeVay's own
advice from the September 29, 2006 Post-Standard article (see
below):
" . . . why can't we have a society where people are respected, gay or straight
regardless . . ."
http://www.syracuse.com:80/poststandard/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-6/115960792954690.xml&coll=1
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.):
Speaker: Tolerance of gays hinges on science:
Finding a "gay gene"
or similar evidence holds the key to acceptance, he says.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
By Nancy Buczek
Until 1973, the American Psychiatric Association classified being gay as a
mental disorder. Current research "could take us back to that period," said
neuroanatomist Simon LeVay, whose research published in a 1991 journal,
Science, showed brain structures differed between gay and straight men.
Or, LeVay suggested Friday during his hour-long talk at Syracuse University,
research in this area could go down a different path and make society more
accepting of gay people.
LeVay, 63, of West Hollywood, Calif., gave the Syracuse Neuroscience
Organization's Distinguished Lecture for Fall 2006. About 170 people
attended the talk in Stolkin Auditorium in SU's Physics Building.
LeVay talked about research done by Boston University psychiatrist Richard
Pillard that has shown that homosexuality runs in families.
LeVay also touched on research done by Charles Roselli at Oregon State
University that studied sexual orientation in sheep, specifically rams who
prefer other rams. In 2004, Roselli found that a brain region linked with
sexual behavior was bigger in heterosexual rams than in homosexual rams.
LeVay said that is similar to his 1991 findings about the human brain.
Researchers also are studying genes to determine if a "gay gene" exists,
LeVay said. The National Institutes of Health is currently funding a $2.5
million project on gay twin brothers to study their genes.
"If they don't find anything there, you can kiss gay genes goodbye," LeVay
said.
Nancy Buczek can be reached at
nbuczek@syracuse.com or 470-2173.
© 2006 The Post-Standard.
For more about Simon LeVay and his role in the Bailey-Blanchard-Lawrence affair, see:
"Making connections regarding
psychologist Simon LeVay", by Joan Roughgarden, Ph.D., July 11, 2003.
"The Bailey Affair: Psychology Perverted", by Joan Roughgarden, Ph.D., February
11, 2004.
"Simon LeVay on
transsexualism", by Andrea James.
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