Sexual Orientation

Paper Summary:

This paper reveals that, while many studies suggest a strong genetic and biological basis to sexual orientation, there is little causal evidence to support this claim; therefore, this research proposal attempts to resolve conflicting evidence that male homosexuality is correlated with similarities in the genetic markers from region Xq28 of the X chromosome. The author points out that, interestingly, female homosexuals have not been shown to exhibit a similarity in a specific genetic locus. Studies on the Xq28 region showed that the Xq28 region of the X chromosome was similar in only male homosexuals and not female homosexuals. The paper stresses that this proposed study attempts to address many of the common methodological problems that have been associated with research into the genetic basis of homosexuality in the past, including common use of self-selecting samples, small sample sizes, and problems with the definition of homosexuality.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Literature Review
Proposed Research
Materials, Methods, and Procedures
Statistical Analysis
Expected Findings and Relevance

From the Paper:

"Sexual orientation has also been linked to hormonal changes during pregnancy. The probability that a male child will have a homosexual sexual orientation as an adult increases nearly 33% for each older brother that the child has, while older sisters have no effect on the sexual orientation of a younger, male sibling. An immune response within the mother during pregnancy may account for this effect. Specifically, the mother may produce anti-H-Y antigens during pregnancy that affect aspects of sexual differentiation that occur during development. In addition, homosexual males who have older brothers weigh less at birth than heterosexual males with older brothers who in turn weigh less than heterosexual males with older sisters."

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