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Quote: The X Chromosome In 1993, a group of medical researchers at the american National Cancer Institute (NCI) led by Dr. Dean H. Hamer released a study of 40 pairs of brothers that linked homosexuality to the X chromosome. The research, published in Science, reported that 33 of the pairs of brothers had DNA markers in the chromosome region known as Xq28. The study won an enormous amount of media attention, and Hamer’s own activities as a homosexual activist within NCI were ignored when Hamer offered interviews only when reporters agreed not to identify him as a homosexual. But even Hamer tempered his enthusiasm about the research results. We knew that the genes were only part of the answer,” he said in a speech given in Salt Lake City. “We assumed the environment also played a role in sexual orientation, as it does in most, if not all behaviors. In a later interview, Hamer said, “Homosexuality is not purely genetic. … [E]nvironmental factors play a role. There is not a single master gene that makes people gay. …I don’t think we will ever be able to predict who will be gay.” Hamer’s results are often misunderstood. Many believe that the study found an identical sequence (Xq28) on the X chromosome of all homosexual brothers in the study. In reality, what it found was matching sequences in each set of brothers who were both homosexual. Dr. Byne argues that in order to prove anything by this study, Hamer would have had to examine the Xq28 sequence of homosexual men’s heterosexual brothers. Hamer insisted that such an inclusion would have confounded his study. Byne responds: “In other words, inclusion of heterosexual brothers might have revealed that something other than genes is responsible for sexual orientation.” In the same edition of Science that carried the Hamer study, Elliot Gershon, chief of the clinical neurogenetics branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, said, “There’s almost no finding that would be convincing by itself in this field. We really have to see an independent replication.” The National Cancer Institute sponsored the “gay gene” research. This study alone cost $419,000 of the institute’s taxpayer-backed funds, according to The Washington Times. The National Institutes of Health’s Office of Research Integrity investigated Hamer over allegations by a colleague that he ignored evidence that conflicted with his hypothesis. NIH never released the results of the inquiry, but Hamer was shortly thereafter transferred to another section . He had done the “gay gene” research under a grant to work on Kaposi’s Sarcoma, a skin cancer that inordinately afflicts homosexual men. One of Hamer’s researchers told the Times that homosexuality is “not the only thing we study,” but it is “a primary focus of study.” Hamer reportedly stated he has pushed for an Office of Gay and Lesbian Health inside the National Institutes of Health, and he testified in opposition to Colorado’s Amendment 2, which sought to keep homosexual activists from winning minority class status. Then-Sen. Robert C. Smith (R-New Hampshire) accused the doctor of “actively pursu[ing] … a gay agenda.” Another fact that casts doubt on Hamer’s conclusions is that other researchers tried to replicate his study but failed. In 1999, Drs. George Rice, Neil Risch and George Ebers published their findings in Science after attempting to replicate Hamer’s Xq28 study. Their conclusion: “We were not able to confirm evidence for an Xq28-linked locus underlying male homosexuality.” Moreover, they added that when another group of researchers (Sanders, et al.) tried to replicate Hamer’s study, they too failed to find a genetic connection to homosexuality.