Don that second link is to a student's 'paper' which

'reflects the research and thoughts of a student at the time the paper was written for a course at Bryn Mawr College.
Like other materials on Serendip, it is not intended to be "authoritative" '

As the student herself said however

'The results that Hamer's study did find though, cannot yet be accepted as absolute truth.
Another study took place in 1993 by Macke et al. This study examined the same gene locus as the Hamer study, but found that it had no influence on homosexuality'
and
'Hamer's study, along with others, have tried to located a gene that influences female homosexuality, but they have been unsuccessful'

I think my posting record on mudcat would indicate that I do not believe in discrimination on the grounds of either gender, race, creed or sexual orientation and I have disagreed with akenaton on this issue outside this thread.

I too read Ian McKellen's article, written on the anniversary of Stonewall, and can only agree with his statement that
"There is still a lot to do in this country: we have to address attitudes and the rise in casual homophobia, the young people getting abused, even killed, for being gay"

As he also said
"There is a tradition in British theatre of actors such as Dame Sybil Thorndike and Vanessa Redgrave(who I have a lot of respect for) campaigning for social change."


As a qualified social worker and counsellor I have also disagreed most strongly with GfS's suggestions that homosexuality can be 'treated'; in fact the available evidence seems to suggest that to attempt to do so is potentially (and sometimes actually) harmful

Please folks let's keep this discussion to facts or, where these are simply not available, opinions that can be argued from sound principles and drop the personal attacks

Thanks
'Em'