Quote:
Originally Posted by Altitude
My point was that the genetic determinism vs. learned behavior is a false dichotomy. You dont need a "gay gene" to be passed on by a gay parent to make a kid that is hard wired to be homosexual. The influence of the environment an embyo develops in on gene expression, exposure to hormores/chemicals in the womb etc. is a big factor in determining how the animal developes, and may turn out to be as big a contributing factor to the animals charicteristics as the raw genetic material.
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I am not a specialist on this issue but I believe that you are jumping from one concept to another. Gene expression is not epigenetics.
For me gene expression occurs when the kid is growing, it is the kid's response to his own environmental factors. As for epigenetics, it occurs when the parents make the kid, it is a transmission to the kid of the parent's responses to their own environmental factors.
Epigenetics could interfere with homosexuality, for instance in an overpopulated area parents could produce more homosexuals. But again it is not what we observe, since there are not more homosexuals in China than in other countries
