Do these studies on homosexuality have any meaning?

Answer:

Survival of genetic homosexual traits explained

Pay attention to the wording:

"Italian geneticists may have explained how genes apparently linked to male homosexuality survive, despite gay men seldom having children."

"The researchers discovered that women tend to have more children when they inherit the same - as yet unidentified - genetic factors linked to homosexuality in men."

"We think of it as genes for 'male homosexuality', but it might really be genes for sexual attraction to men. These could predispose men towards homosexuality and women towards 'hyper-heterosexuality', causing women to have more sex with men and thus have more offspring."

"But it's worth noting that the data on the sexuality of family members may be unreliable, so more studies are likely to be needed to confirm these findings."

This is a hypothesis about how a genetically based set of homosexuality genes might have been passed on. However, since the existence of such genes has not been proven, the hypothesis can't even be adequately tested. What is more interesting is that this article confirms what many have been saying all along: no research to date has proven the existence of homosexual genes.

What is also interesting is the admission that this hypothesis doesn't explain everything: "Even if the maternal factors identified by Camperio-Ciani's team are linked with male homosexuality, the research team's calculations suggest they account for only about 14% of the incidence."

This is all guesswork dressed up with numbers. There are no actual facts backing the results.

Is There a 'Gay Gene'?

Again, we note the wording:

"The results suggest that several genetic regions may influence homosexuality."

"Since then, questions arose regarding the validity of those results. Other researchers are attempting to replicate and verify Hamer's findings."

"Previous studies in male twins have suggested that between 40%-60% of the variability in sexual orientation is due to genes. The rest is thought to be due to environment and possibly other biologic but nongenetic causes."

Note that this article conflicts with the numbers given in the other article. This is a warning flag that numbers are being pulled out of the air -- a likely case since there is no hard data, only guesswork.

"Researchers say the next step is to verify these results in a different group of men to see if the same genetic regions are associated with sexual orientation."

As typically happens, results are announced before a study can be verified to be consistent. You hear of the initial announcement if it is what people want to hear. Later, when the studies can't be replicated, you generally don't hear about it.

But once again, we have only possibilities. This particular study doesn't even try to locate genes. It is only looking at the probability that some might be in the neighborhood.

Why Gays Don’t Go Extinct

This is another write up on the same study in #1. It presents no new evidence. Again, it shows the same level of uncertainty:

"Homosexuality in males may be caused in part by genes that can increase fertility in females, according to a new study."

"I would like to see the first observation reproduced in a different population and possibly with a larger sample to make sure that this holds up," he said. "If it is replicated, that's a very interesting finding. It's a possible scenario."

Some, as you noted, doesn't pass the sensibility test.

"Blanchard found that with each older brother in a family, the odds increase by about a third that a boy born later will be gay. This effect is not thought to be caused by genetics, but rather by antibodies produced by the mother's immune system during pregnancy."

I recall one author noting that homosexual studies tend to go in cycles. They look at environmental factors, which get shot down; so they look at societal factors, which gets shot down; so they look at genetics, which gets shot down; so they go back to older theories. What is always avoided is choice because that means responsibility.

Also noteworthy is that even the hypothesis isn't complete.

"This system does not address causes of homosexuality in women, he said. "We're still working on lesbianism, but were not getting to the same result, and possibly we'll come out with a completely different explanation," he said."

Gay from the Womb if Biological Older Brothers Matter

"Gay orientation may start in the womb for a boy who was preceded into the world by a band of biological big brothers, according to a researcher here."

"The results "strongly suggest" that the so-called fraternal birth-order effect found in earlier studies has a biological basis, Dr. Bogaert reported, although exactly what that basis is remains unclear."

"Whether this is what is really happening for sexual orientation remains to be seen, but it is a provocative hypothesis," the authors wrote.

This is a report on the study that the other two mentioned when they said that other factors may be involved. It isn't arguing for a genetic cause but some mysterious biological cause. But that would mean that they are claiming that homosexuality is caused by some type of biological damage, and where there is damage, there can be a correction. Of course, the problem is that if there is damage and what the damage might be is complete speculation at this time.

This particular study claims to disprove societal factors. They say that only environmental factors are left, but that isn't true, there is still the matter of choice.

Even here, the claim of this imagined cause doesn't explain it all. "In earlier work, Dr. Bogaert and colleagues estimated that about 28% of homosexual men owe their orientation to fraternal birth-order—'a minority, but not a negligible minority, of all homosexual men.'"

Conclusion

These are just more proposed hypotheses about possibilities. There is nothing in any of them proving the existence of a genetic or environmental cause of homosexuality. What you have here is people copying articles without actually reading what they said.