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Biologists Say Bisexuality Smells; Gays are “Gender Blind”

A group of neurobiologists at the University of Illinois at Chicago have figured out how to put the “fruit” in fruit flies. Researchers at the Featherstone Lab have discovered that sexual orientation in fruit flies is controlled by a gene they named “gender blind,” or GB. If the fly’s GB gene is “mutated,” the fly is gay. The “mutation” causes the flies to overreact to pheromones, the chemical smell that identifies the gender of other flies.

Associate Professor David Featherstone, Ph.D. and his fellow scientists also found a way to turn homosexuality on and off in the fruity little flies using drugs. By spiking apple juice, the flies’ synapses could be weakened, causing GB-mutated fly fags to stop engaging in homosexual behavior. The scientists also achieved the reverse, giving hetero male files drugs that strengthened their synapses, causing them to court both males and females. Biologists can make flies bisexual.

Featherstone told the Chicago Sun-Times, “I never thought we’d be able to do that sort of thing, because sexual orientation is supposed to be hard-wired. This fundamentally changes how we think about this behavior.”

The significance of fly sex should not be dismissed: biologists say that fruit flies and humans share essentially all of the same molecules and mechanisms to build and operate our respective brains. Fruit flies are often used in research because they use something called “glutamatergic synapses” for brain function and controlling complex behavior, same as us. In an attempt to explain glutamate to the non-scientist, the Featherstone lab describes this amino acid as “the voice by which brain cells speak ” and their receptors as “the ears by which they hear.”

I am no scientist, but this research smells like trouble. I suppose there is good news and bad news when you extrapolate fly sexuality to human sexual orientation. On the one hand, Featherstone’s biology suggests that queerness is in our cells. It is nature, not nurture. On the other hand, it offends me that the study, and many of the articles written about it, are describing homosexuality as a “mutation.” This seems to me to imply imperfection or damage. Perhaps mutation has a slightly less sinister meaning for scientists, but it seems a dangerous word to inject into mainstream coverage of science. And in an audio interview with Dr. Featherstone, he describes heterosexuality as “the normal behavior.” I don’t mean to overreact, but it bugs me.

Of course, human brains are far more complex than the fruit fly, and this research may not ultimately have implications for human sexual behavior. But I would not be surprised to see social conservatives try to turn this science against us.

Perhaps queers should be prepared to leverage this biology to our advantage. If Christian Conservatives think there’s a gay agenda now, imagine the right-wing hetero fear of Homo Mutant Glutamate Sex. Queer smellers with the strong synapses. Gender blind with lust. How’s that for weird science?

To learn more, check the following links:

Gene Makes Fruit Flies Bisexual,” Chicago Sun-Times

In Fruit Flies, Homosexuality is Biological But Not Hard-wired,” Science Daily

The Featherstone Lab’s recently published scientific article on their research is not for the non-scientist. But for the scientifically inclined, you can see a free abstract of the research (or purchase the entire article) at the Website for the journal Nature Neuroscience: “A Glial Amino-Acid Transporter Controls Synapse Strength and Homosexual Courtship in Drosophila.”