The politics of the gay gene.

A recent study (featured as this issue's cover story) suggests that gay men's brains respond to pheromones similarly to those of straight women, reigniting a long-standing debate over the origins of sexual orientation. It's a controversial topic, one The Advocate has taken up many times, including a cover story 10 years ago on the implications of an identifiable gay gene.

San Francisco--area obstetrician-gynecologist and out lesbian Audrey Koh told the magazine that the discovery of such a gene could lead to a type of genocide, as mothers tested their fetuses and opted to abort. But Northwestern University professor J. Michael Bailey, who authored a genetics study about sexual orientation among twins, believed biological knowledge would itself bring greater tolerance for sexual minorities by dispelling the myth that "gay people are recruiting others."--D.R.

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