# Homosexuality can be turned on and off in Fruit flies **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 10, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuality-can-be-turned-on-and-off-in-fruit-flies/429548 "2007-12-10T22:43:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2007, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuality-can-be-turned-on-and-off-in-fruit-flies/429548/101 "2007-12-14T10:00:56Z")
missed edit window: Though it _could be_, it may not really be a “cultural” effect. I know even some of the simplest of creatures change mating behaviour because of environmental or sexual ratio issues. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2007, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuality-can-be-turned-on-and-off-in-fruit-flies/429548/102 "2007-12-14T10:23:09Z")
[QUOTE=CarnalK] Oh, but if it was a cultural effect, ie knowing they had a gay/permanent bachelor relative caused other family members to have more kids, then my social engineering would perhaps fail. [/QUOTE] Sure, behaviour’s complex. There’s every possibility that a couple might decide to have more kids because Brother Joe is showing no sign of having any of his own - especially if the extended family is pooling resources and so the extra kids are affordable. As I thought I’d been saying all along, a putative homosexuality gene could look at first sight like it would have to be a severe defect from the point of view of the reproductive capability of the individual possessing it, and yet be well able to pass itself along for a whole bunch of reasons. > [@CarnalK](#): > > I know even some of the simplest of creatures change mating behaviour because of environmental or sexual ratio issues. Indeed. It’s a well-known factoid (I don’t know if the experiment’s been discredited) that rats can turn queer if forcibly overcrowded. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuality-can-be-turned-on-and-off-in-fruit-flies/429548/103 "2007-12-16T17:26:32Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] If you want to argue that we’re having orders of magnitude more children, please specify whether or not that is per head of population or absolute [/QUOTE] The original subthread was about having enough people to transmit a culture. The fact that absolute rather than per capita numbers are the relevant ones is so blindingly obvious that I thought it would be insulting to spell it out. Evidently I was mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![Sockmunkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Sockmunkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sockmunkey)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuality-can-be-turned-on-and-off-in-fruit-flies/429548/104 "2007-12-18T15:46:36Z")
The downside of proving biological causation is that the anti-gay crowd’s immediate response will be “Great! Now we can get cracking on a genetic cure!”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuality-can-be-turned-on-and-off-in-fruit-flies/429548.md?page=5)