Mom's Genes May Produce Gay Sons

A new study published in the February issue of the journal Human Genetics suggests that how a mother's genes are arranged could affect the sexual orientation of her son.

The scientists behind the study report that they have found an extremely unusual trait in the cells of some mothers that have produced two or more gay sons, strengthening the theory that so-called "gay genes" may exist.

Study leader Sven Bocklandt of UCLA said that researchers don't know for sure what the findings mean. Even though mothers of multiple gay sons were about six times more likely than other women to process their X chromosomes in a certain way, about 75 percent of mothers of multiple gay sons do not have the trait at all.

The study raises many questions, though. Especially as researchers try to figure out if homosexuality has genetic roots.

"What everybody wants is the gene, and we don’t have it yet," Bocklandt said. "But this is an independent confirmation that the X chromosome is involved."

Bocklandt was also involved in an earlier study of men who had two or more gay brothers. Also in that study, mothers were found to have an unusually large role in their son's sexual orientation.

The results from these and other recent studies suggest that there are multiple genetic factors involved in determining a person's sexual orientation and that it may also differ from person to person. Most probably it is a combination of several genetic factors, combined with environmental influences, that determines if a person is gay.

"We think that there are going to be some gay men who are X-chromosome gay men and some who are chromosome-7 gay men or chromosome-10 gay men or some combination," Brocklandt said in an interview with Fox News.