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Science 23 April 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5414, p. 571
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5414.571
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News of the Week

GENETICS:
Discovery of 'Gay Gene' Questioned

Ingrid Wickelgren

Six years ago, molecular geneticist Dean Hamer and his colleagues announced that they had found a genetic link to male homosexuality--an as yet unidentified gene on the X chromosome (Science, 16 July 1993, p. 321). Now on page 665, a research team reports failing to find a link between male homosexuality and Xq28, the chromosomal segment implicated by Hamer's study. In addition, other unpublished work does not provide strong support for a linkage. The authors of the Science paper say that, taken together, the results suggest that if there is a linkage it's so weak that it's not important and that researchers should be looking elsewhere for the genes that contribute to homosexuality. Hamer disputes that contention, however.

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White Americans' Genetic Lay Theories of Race Differences and Sexual Orientation: Their Relationship with Prejudice toward Blacks, and Gay Men and Lesbians.
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Group Processes Intergroup Relations 9, 77-94
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