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It was a new twist on the old prejudice that it's mothers who queer their sons-- a genetic twist, to be precise.

Two years ago, Dr. Dean Hamer, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute, announced evidence that homosexual orientation may be genetically transmitted to males on the X chromosome, which they get from their mothers. It was, Hamer wrote, "the first concrete evidence that 'gay genes' really do exist." Two years later, neither that evidence nor its proponent are faring well.

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amer's findings, published in the prestigious journal Science, set off an explosion of media attention. Up to then, Hamer had led a colorless career as a government scientist. On the wings of his provocative study, however, the 45-year-old researcher penned his memoirs and flew into the political fray. He gave expert testimony to the Colorado Supreme Court that formed the basis of the victorious decision striking down anti-gay Proposition 2. Hamer used his research to bolster the assertion that gay males, at least, (no one has claimed to find a "lesbian gene") deserve civil rights because they have no choice over their sexual orientation. It's just like, as the inevitable comparison goes, black people, who have no choice over skin color. While coy in his memoir about his own sexuality, in lectures Hamer has acknowledged that he is gay and values his research because he believes that it shows homosexuality to be just another natural variation.

But with hardly anyone noticing, Hamer's claims have unraveled. A replication of his study at the University of Western Ontario failed to find any linkage whatsoever between the X chromosome and sexual orientation. And in a follow-up, on which Hamer himself collaborated, a linkage was again found, but it was so statistically insignificant that one of the authors acknowledges that, had this study come first, it would never have been published.

In March, due he says to sickness, Hamer cancelled his participation in a symposium at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, to discuss the differences in findings with researchers at Western Ontario.

Hamer's original study looked at 40 pairs of brothers, all of whom identified as gay. He queried the brothers about homosexuality among their relatives, and found a preponderance of gay family members on the mother's side. Thus Hamer decided to look at each brother-pair's X chromosomes- the ones from the mother- for any areas that they shared in common to a greater degree than would be expected by chance. He found such a shared area at a spot near the end of the X chromosome. Thirty-three of the 40 pairs of gay brothers shared this area, and this, Hamer concluded, is where the gay gene or genes might lie.

Even in the absence of any questions about integrity of data, that was a pretty thin thread from which to hang bold claims about the genetic origins of homosexuality. The "gay gene," after all, was missing in seven of the 40 gay-brother pairs. And Hamer's study violated a fundamental principle of scientific research: it lacked a control group. Researchers never looked at what proportion of heterosexual or hetero-homo brother pairs also share the genetic material that Hamer claims points toward a "gay gene."

Critics of Hamer's work also questioned the initial assumption that the mothers were the likely source of any gay male gene. The apparent preponderance of homosexual relatives on the mother's side, which prompted Hamer's focus on the X chromosome, could have nothing to do with genetics and a lot to do with the fact, well established by sociologists, that women know much more about their relatives than do men.

But more seriously, fraud has emerged as a possible explanation for these discrepancies. Hamer is in the midst of a confidential, federal investigation over allegations by a junior researcher in his laboratory that he cooked his data to distort the evidence for a "gay gene" in the first place. The allegation that Hamer selectively reported his data was made in June 1994 by a researcher at his lab who assisted in the gene mapping in the homosexuality study. She isn't talking to the press, but associates tell the Chicago Tribune, which broke the story this past June, that she was unaware of the problems at the time the article was published almost a year earlier. Around the time she made her claims known, she was summarily dismissed from her post-doctoral fellowship in Hamer's lab. It is not known who dismissed her, but a National Institutes of Health investigation found her claims substantial enough to refer the matter to the next investigative level, and gave her another position in a different lab. That investigation, conducted by the federal Office of Research Integrity is handled secretly until their findings are finalized. But researchers familiar with the matter say the inquiry has been ongoing since January. Hamer is not talking to the press.

Hamer is quite taken with the notion that a genetic basis for homosexuality is a political boon for gay people, and many agree with him. There is nothing wrong with politically engaged scientists- a virologist whose lover has AIDS has motivations and incentives that may well lead to more creative, incisive work. If there is a clear-cut genetic basis to homosexuality, it's likely to be discovered by someone like Hamer rather than a researcher skeptical of reducing complex and culturally vari able behaviors to genes. But when a researcher's ideological commitments lead to scientific dishonesty, it's another story. Did Dean Hamer cross that line? **

Editor's Note: from The Guide, October 1995