One Small Step for Gay Science, One Giant Step Back for Gay Rights?

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Scientists recently determined how to make gay fruit flies straight, and vice versa. The findings published in Nature
Neuroscience
this week conjure up disturbing images of big pharma manufacturing drugs that erase homosexual desire while the religious right markets them.

This discovery makes Gary Greenberg’s “Gay By Choice?” published in Mother Jones in September/October 2007 all the more relevant. The gay rights movement
has been hoping science would vindicate it for far too long. But what if science proves that gayness is not an immutable trait, or worse, finds a way to “cure” it? Isn’t it time, as Greenberg
argues, “to find reasons other than medical science to insist that people ought to be able
to love whom they love”?

—Celia Perry

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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