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Study: Gay men tied to population growth
The researchers said male homosexuality is associated with a phenomenon called sexually antagonistic selection, in which a genetic factor confers a reproductive advantage.
University of Padova Professors Andrea Camperio Ciani and Giovanni Zanzotto, along with Paolo Cermelli of the University of Torino, said the persistence of gay men in a population isn't easily explained by Darwin's theory of evolution, because men who possess genes predisposing them to homosexual behavior are much less likely to reproduce.
Gay men's lower rate of reproduction would be expected to lead to their eventual disappearance from a population, the researchers said. Empirical studies, however, have revealed steady rates of gay men in populations.
The researchers screened a large set of explanatory models and eliminated those inconsistent with observed data. They concluded that male homosexuality benefits populations by promoting female fecundity. Gay men, therefore, give rise to an increase of the fecundity of the whole population, they said.
The study is reported in the online journal PLoS One.
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
This news arrived on: 06/24/2008
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Posted Comments:
06-26-2008 23:45
John U.K. wrote:
Gay men
It's nonsense to suppose that gay men's lower rate of reproduction would be expected to lead to their eventual disappearance from a population. All it suggests is that they themselves don't increase their own numbers. They don't arise, in the first place, from their *own* sexual practices but from the practices of *heterosexuals*! As long as heterosexuals are reproducing, homosexuals will inevitably arise - and at the same rates as always. This occurs merely according to the principle that genetic mutations (of all kinds) are always happening; it is by this process that evolution works.
06-26-2008 09:02
Steve wrote:
Points to the impact of environment on this behavior
I'd think this study points to the influence of environment on this behavior rather than heredity. Hence the influence of gay marriage etc. and the fight for societal acceptance by the gay movement in influencing others to choose this lifestyle.
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