The DNA of Desire

IS THERE A GAY GENE?

(...and if so, can it be eliminated?) For long, scientists have been trying to understand if sexual orientation is a outcome of nature or nurture or both? For example, are gays born or made? While the debate has not yet been conclusively settled, recent scientific research does suggest that male sexual orientation is strongly influenced by the presence or absence of specific genetic markers at the far end of the X chromosome.

Meanwhile, on 17th August, 2012, the molecular biologists Dr. Jennifer Doudna and Dr. Emanuelle Charpentier et al, published a seminal paper in Science. It described a monumental discovery that they had made - a simple, elegant and immensely powerful technique for editing genes, named CRISPR. The technique makes it possible to cut out "bad" genes and replace them with "good" or "better" ones, much like a word-processing software. CRISPR augurs the arrival of a golden age of medicine when humanity can finally rid itself of ancient scourges like cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes. But it also foreshadows a brave new world, one that hath a new class of people in it - "designer humans". Made-to-order humans who are taller, fairer and lovelier than the rest. And cleaner. Cleansed not only of dreaded diseases like cancer but also of undesirable "defects", such as homosexuality or autism.

On 4th January 2006, six years before Doudna and Charpentier's discovery of gene editing, the police force of Lucknow (capital of India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh) were busy editing out undesirable elements from the city's gene pool, in their own way. Four gay men were lured into a honey trap laid by the police and arrested under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) - a 150-year-old colonial law which criminalizes people for indulging in what it calls "acts against the order of nature." While the criminal prosecution of homosexuals is rare in India, blackmail and social stigma is commonplace. Millions of gays are forced to lead half-lives, circumscribed by shame, secrets and despair in a society in which they are largely regarded as depraved and "unnatural".

But what is "the order of nature"? Hamer's and other scientific studies show that variations in sexuality are as natural and as strongly influenced by our genes as are variations in our eye or hair colour. But will we accept the true order of nature as revealed by science? Or will we super-impose our own human order upon it - legal, social or otherwise? Will the scalpel of genetics be used to alleviate suffering and disease or will it render obsolete the blunt instrument of Section 377?

Like the winding strands of the double helix, the genetics revolution of the twenty-first century is converging upon the Victorian morality and laws of the nineteenth, giving rise to a world that is brimming with possibilities - both exhilarating and terrifying. Inspired by true events, "The DNA of Desire" is the story of these possibilities - an exploration of the twin forces that shape human identity - his environment and his genes.