CGS : LGBTQI

About Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, & Intersex Communities & Human Biotechnology

New genetic and reproductive technologies affect LGBTQI communities in exceptional ways.

Some of these are beneficial. For example, advances in assisted reproductive technologies enable a growing number of gay men and lesbians to become parents of biologically related children.

However, some advocates of reproductive cloning assert that gays and lesbians in particular should support it, because it would allow same-sex couples to have children that are genetically related only to a member of the couple, free of "external" DNA. Of course, such techniques do nothing to address the underlying issues of inequality and homophobia that plague society.

Genetic theories play as strong a role in shaping our social and individual identities as they do in shaping our families. Recent years have seen a resurgence of assumptions that complex human behaviors, including sexual orientation, are simply products of our genes. Though scientists have yet to find a genetic marker for homosexuality, many continue to try. Such genetic determinism and reductionism open the door to new forms of discrimination.

Homo Genesis [PDF]by Marcy Darnovsky, BitchJune 6th, 2008Techno enthusiasts are marketing extreme reproductive technologies to gay families in a way that could set us on the road to a new chapter in eugenic experimentation.

Conceiving the Future [PDF]Reproductive-justice activists on technology and policyby Andi Zeisler and Emily Galpern, BitchJune 6th, 2008Emerging reproductive and genetic technologies have raised critical issues for social-justice movements. This roundtable discussion features some of the women who've been engaged in these national conversations.

Female sperm and gay guinea pigsby Marcy Darnovsky, San Francisco ChronicleMarch 12th, 2008While gay families and their supporters await the California Supreme Court's ruling on the constitutionality of a voter-approved law banning same-sex marriage, a few researchers and pundits are proposing that same-sex procreation with bio-engineered gametes will undermine one of the key arguments of same-sex marriage opponents.

Are male eggs and female sperm on the horizon?[Quotes CGS's Marcy Darnovsky]by Peter Aldhous, New ScientistFebruary 2nd, 2008In a handful of labs across the world, biologists are trying to make genetically male cells develop into eggs, and female cells into sperm.

Gay couple buys 'designer' sons from USby Peta Hellard, The Daily Telegraph (Australia)October 14th, 2007A gay couple has travelled to the US to buy "designer twin boys" through a surrogate mother at a cost of as much as $133,000.

Can’t discard them as embryos, abort them as fetuses, or cast them out? Try hormone patches.by Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical TimesMarch 16th, 2007A leading evangelical would support hormonal "treatments" for fetuses if genetic tests that can identify them as predisposed to be gay are developed.

LGBT Community Discusses Reproductive and Genetic TechnologiesGenetic CrossroadsMay 12th, 2006A two-day series of events titled Designer Genes: Genetic Technologies and the De-selection of Queer Bodies was held in early May at the New York City LGBT Community Center.

Designer GenesGenetic Technologies and the De-selection of Queer BodiesMay 6th, 2006The LGBT Center, the Committee on Women, Population, and the Environment, and the Center for Genetics and Society invite you to a free panel and discussion tracing the links between reproductive and emerging genetic technologies, our identities as LGBTQI people, and the history of eugenics.

Genetic Technologies and the LGBTQI Community: Myths and FactsApril 17th, 2004This "fact sheet" from CGS offers rebuttals to commons myths about reproductive cloning and other emerging human reproductive technologies, and the LGBTQI community.

Ethical Issues in New Uses of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosisby Edgar Dahl, Human ReproductionJune 1st, 2003In this brief article, German bioethicist Edgar Dahl raises and dismisses five objections to the future use of embryo screening to choose the sexual orientation of children. He does not mention any evidence for, or controversy about, a "gay gene," but concludes that if a "safe and reliable genetic test" for sexual orientation were to become available, "parents should clearly be allowed" to use it, as long as they are permitted to select for homosexual as well as heterosexual children. Dahl has previously argued that PGD should be allowed for sex selection for social reasons.

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