JUST how 鈥済ay genes鈥� could be passed on to future generations was revealed some years ago when Italian researchers showed that the female relatives of gay men tend to have more children. Now Andrea Camperio Ciani鈥檚 team at the University of Padua in Italy have also shown that the same is true for bisexuality.
The researchers found that the mothers, maternal aunts and grandmothers of both bisexual and gay men had more children than the relatives of heterosexual men. Camperio Ciani stresses that, rather than being a 鈥済ay gene鈥�, this unidentified genetic factor is likely to make both men and women more attracted to men. So it would probably make a woman likely to have more children by influencing her attitude to sex rather than actually boosting her fertility.
Neuroscientist Simon LeVay, who has searched for a biological basis for homosexuality, agrees that the 鈥渉yper-heterosexuality鈥� that this genetic factor bestows on women could outweigh any negative effects on male fecundity.
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Camperio Ciani says the same genetic factor appears to be present in both bisexual and homosexual men. This supports the idea that 鈥済enetics is not determining the sexual orientation; it鈥檚 only influencing it,鈥� he says.
