Ex-Gay Watch has another good post exposing the way the Christian Right and their tool, NARTH distort and improperly quote the work of legitimate experts to build anti-gay stories that are lies. (http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/2007/05/major-geneticist-francis-collins-responds-to-narth-article/). Here is Professor Francis Collin’s comments (Collins is pictured at left) on the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuals' ("NARTH") misuse of his research:
It troubles me greatly to learn that anything I have written would cause anguish for you or others who are seeking answers to the basis of homosexuality. The words quoted by NARTH all come from the Appendix to my book “The Language of God” (pp. 260-263), but have been juxtaposed in a way that suggests a somewhat different conclusion that I intended. I would urge anyone who is concerned about the meaning to refer back to the original text.
The evidence we have at present strongly supports the proposition that there are hereditary factors in male homosexuality — the observation that an identical twin of a male homosexual has approximately a 20% likelihood of also being gay points to this conclusion, since that is 10 times the population incidence. But the fact that the answer is not 100% also suggests that other factors besides DNA must be involved. That certainly doesn’t imply, however, that those other undefined factors are inherently alterable.
Your note indicated that your real interest is in the truth. And this is about all that we really know. No one has yet identified an actual gene that contributes to the hereditary component (the reports about a gene on the X chromosome from the 1990s have not held up), but it is likely that such genes will be found in the next few years.
NARTH is largely funded by Christian Right organizations and is used as a basis for scientific research to back the "choice" myth marked by the Christianists. I truly wish some of the magor assosiations (e.g., APA, AMA, etc.), would begin working to have the licenses of the quakes at NARTH revoked.
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