“‘Cause God makes no mistakes. I’m on the right track, baby, I was born this way.”

Several years ago, Lady Gaga made it a point to express her view on sexuality and that it is acceptable to be gay because that’s how you were born. But scientifically, can you really be born gay? Is there such a thing as a gay gene?

As stated by the CitizenLink team, since the early 1990s, an abundance of  studies have been making an effort to tackle a specific genetic cause for homosexuality, and for over twenty years, one still cannot be classified as valid or consistent proof. This raises the argument of nature vs. nurture, and due to the lack of proof, nurture seems to be the reasonable solution.

CitzenLink goes on to say that Dr. Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, concluded his homosexuality research by stating, “Sexual orientation is genetically influenced but not hardwired by DNA, and that whatever genes are involved represent predispositions, not predeterminations.” Dr. Francis Collins is indicating that the impending genetic factor for homosexuality is far less than the genetic contribution that has been proven for communal personality traits that he listed as “general cognitive ability, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness, aggression and traditionalism”.

The Huffington Post re-introduced a controversial study from 1993 that presented the idea that families with out of two homosexual brothers, specifically twins, at least one was highly likely to have particular genetic markers on a part of the X chromosome called Xq28. But how could the “gay gene” have originated?  If the “gay gene” did exist in a family, that would mean the family would have a history of gay couples. That alone could be countered with anecdotal examples. Within this gay family, a trickle-down effect would have to take place, which could negatively impact the family’s level of reproduction or eliminate it as a whole over the course of time. The likelihood of this occurring commonly within families solely due to the “gay gene” is highly unlikely. Once again, the biggest influence on the correlation with families and homosexuality relies on the environment, or nurture.

“You begin to display gay behavior when you’re young,” many pro-gay gene individuals claim. This may be true, but this does not prove that it is biological. At a young age, we begin to display our personality with subtle or sometimes obvious actions. Our environment as a child strongly influences the way we grow as adults. As a child, if one is surrounded by a vast majority of women, the child is likely to act in a feminine manner. If a child has the misfortune of coming in contact with molestation/sexual abuse with the same sex, male or female, their sexual orientation may be skewed. Or, if a child grows up with a male on male couple, he may grow up believing that is the way that a relationship should be. On the issue of how much influence parents have on their child’s sexual orientation, a parent told Patrick J. McGrath, “A friend has always projected a very tough facade. She was sexually molested at around 12 years of age. Her daughter has taken the ‘toughness’ to heart and anything remotely feminine is shunned.”

So many confounding variables play a role in the environment, culture, and development in one’s childhood that it is nearly impossible to say that a baby came out a particular way and has not changed since birth. In the battle of nature vs. nurture, nurture wins. There is no way to prove that an individual is born gay and stays gay due to the “gay gene”.