mauvepink wrote earlier in the light of all the recent research showing that homosexuality probably has a genetic basis

I offer a warning about this one. I asked a question about the genetic basis of homosexuality about a year ago on one of Dawkin's web sites because it seems to me there is an intellectually interesting problem. A couple that are exclusively homosexual will not have offspring and so at first sight you would expect it to be selected against in evolutionary terms. However, we know that in most species we have studied that it is present. We also know that there are some species in which substantial subgroups have no offspring, but this can be explained mathematically in terms of how closely interrelated members of that group are. So I naively asked for any references to papers where people had studied this, not necessarily in humans.

Well, I was not so much flamed as burned alive. The mere suggestion that it might have a genetic component marked me out as an infidel, and probably some mad creationist with an agenda who would never be able or prepared to take part in a rational discussion ...