The Gay Plague

New evidence around male gay genetics suggest:

It is fixed at birth
It can't be eliminated from a population
and it isn't contagious.

Why are there gay genes at all? Why haven't they burned out of a non-reproducing population? Because gay men are a side effect of a different process which makes the female relatives more reproductively successful creating positive feedback.

First, it implies natural limits to homosexuality. You don't need to worry that gay teachers or television characters will "convert" hordes of boys. Sexually antagonistic selection is self-limiting and impervious to postnatal cultural factors. The authors' computations show no scenario in which male homosexuality spreads throughout a population.

Second, by the same token, you can't culturally eradicate the gay minority. It's sustained by genetics and natural selection.

Third, if the authors are correct, we're not really talking about genes for homosexuality. We're talking about genes for "androphilia," i.e., attraction to men. The importance of the genes lies in what they do not to men but to women, by increasing reproductive output so powerfully that these women compensate for the reduced output among their male relatives. You can't isolate gay men as a puzzle or problem anymore. You have to see them as part of a bigger, stronger, enduring phenomenon.

See? god knows what she's doing.

See also for why gay men should carry guns.