In response to Nancy Suby-Bohn’s letter in the March 3 edition of the Daily titled “Evidence for ‘gay gene’ theory lacking,” I’d be less concerned with her content than with the fact that a person of a technical scientific background such as civil engineering would use such a blatantly religiously biased Web site like Narth (www.narth.com) to prove by scientific means that there is no such thing as a “gay” gene.

Just because a specific gene has not been located, does that necessarily rule out the possibility that a combination of genes or a particular location of genes for that matter doesn’t cause a predisposition to homosexuality? The fact is no one knows for certain. However, anyone taking a human sexuality or psychology class should have learned that core gender and sex-role identities are well-formed by the age of 3 and not “just before their puberty years” as Ms. Suby-Bohn would have everyone believe.

Furthermore, I find it incredibly ridiculous to believe that homosexual people possess some psychosis resulting from sexual abuse, peer-rejection or parental fear. Most likely, homosexuality, like other aspects of the human experience, is not simply caused entirely by nature or nurture alone, but results from a complex combination of the two and is entirely outside the realm of choice.

In addition, Ms. Suby-Bohn states that “I can’t support homosexuality because I can’t support the path of pain they had to go through for them to develop their homosexual lifestyle.” Well, Ms. Suby-Bohn, given the tone of your response, I sincerely doubt that you have first hand experience with gay people anyway, so I would be careful in assuming their “path” or “lifestyle” to be so utterly rife with strife.

Jake Auliff

Senior

Materials Engineering