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From Socialist Review, No. 181, December 1994.
Copyright © Socialist Review.
Copied with thanks from the Socialist Review Archive.
Marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Tom Hurlock’s letter in November SR touches on one of the debates common among some members of the gay movement since the announcement of the discovery of the so called ‘gay gene’.
It is important to understand the issues that lie behind the gay gene, and to realise that the scientific evidence that exists for the gene in no way proves its existence. The main thrust behind the argument is based on the finding that among a very small sample of 40 pairs of gay brothers, relatives of these men were more likely to be openly gay.
All this research proves is that gay men can ‘come out’ more easily within a family which already has openly gay members.
It is more important for us to ask what is the thinking behind the gay gene, especially since all serious scientific studies show that there is no evidence for two distinct sexualities, either gay or straight. Rather there is a range of human sexualities, and in this society we are expected to put ourselves into one of two categories. The concepts of being gay or straight have only existed since the birth of capitalism, and with the rise of the family as the only way to raise the next generation of workers. This is reflected in the views of the right wing.
Human sexuality is much too complicated to reduce to simple biology. The claim that sexuality is hereditary can lead to the idea that homosexuality is an illness which can be eradicated.
Socialists are not opposed to all research into genetics. However the attempts to reduce human behaviour to genetics are something to which we are opposed.
To fight for equality we don’t have to accept genetic arguments, which pander to the idea that being gay is an abnormality, but rather to understand that gay oppression is part and parcel of capitalism and in a classless society no one would bother with labels like gay and straight.
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