Iowa State’s coordinator of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Student Services says new evidence suggesting a link between genetics and homosexuality won’t help homosexuals in the long run.

In the study of pairs of homosexual brothers, scientists found a possible connection between a gene inherited from the mother that may influence whether a man is gay. This study echoes similar studies released in 1993.

The study is not a causal study, and the gene does not determine a male’s sexuality, scientists caution.

“Our result says that genes are involved in male sexual orientation, although they certainly do not determine a person’s sexual orientation,” the study’s author, Dean Hamer, told the Associated Press.

Damien Guay, coordinator of ISU’s Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Student Services, said, “It won’t get us anywhere in the long run. What if someone feels heterosexual, but their gene says they are homosexual?”

Sexuality is something that is identified by people; it is a psychological process that people grow throughout their lives, Guay said.

Kristen Johansen, an assistant professor of zoology and genetics, said there is evidence to support the study’s findings.

There is a strain of mutants in fruit flies called Drosophila melananogaster that will court the same sex, she said. Scientists, she said, are closer to identifying the area of the brain that attracts the flies to members of the same sex.

Alan Atherly, also a professor of zoology and genetics, said the study “seems relatively convincing for male homosexuals.”

If the study is proven, Atherly said, religious beliefs may prevent people from believing the results. Atherly said he already teaches in his genetics classes about one form of male homosexuality that may be genetic.

But there are other genes involved with homosexuality and all of the data cannot be explained, he said.

Guay said there will be complications even if scientists find a causal relationship between genetics and homosexuality.

“The root of sexuality is psychological,” he said, adding that if medicine proves a causal genetic link, it will not help the psychological process.

If the gene is proven to cause homosexuality in males, Guay said it might lead people to think the evidence is something that validates a homosexual, or is something to be overcome.

But, Guay said, the social aspect of sexuality is much more important than the genetic aspect. Either way, he said, the campus community needs to make strides in understanding.

“ISU has a long way to go in dealing with homosexuality on campus,” he said.

Guay said there isn’t any “blatant discrimination” on campus, but “the issue is swept under the rug.”