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A Separate Creation: The Search for the Biological Origins of Sexual Orientation

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This book is wide ranging, covering topics as diverse as handedness (and how to tell if a rat is left handed), bird songs, vision problems in siamese cats, and far, far more than I ever wanted to know about the reproductive tract of hyenas. It all comes together beautifully, scientific explanations simple enough to be understood by the layman but thorough enough to insure understanding. It is also a fascinating look at genetic research at the end of the 20th century, and how technical problem are sometimes easier to solve than political ones.
Buy it, read it, loan it to family and friends. Give it to anyone who still thinks that sexuality is a choice. The only thing wrong is that it's gone out of print, but I hope that's because the author is preparing a second edition.

The excellent book A Separate Creation by Chandler Burr provides a fascinating account of the search for the genetic origins of sexual orientation.

Burr interlaces the story of scientific discovery with tales of eccentric and passionate characters, political intrigue and the moral and ethical implications of the research. He carefully unravels the scientific evidence, explaining the concepts in simple but not simplistic terms much as a mystery writer spools out clues for the reader. Besides being informative and provocative, this book is enormously fun to read.

It is true that Burr discusses the manner in which scientific reearch can be politicized and misused. However, to suggest, as the Amazon.com reviewer does, that Burr "criticizes" the conclusions of the research for this reason is incredibly inaccurate. Burr makes abundantly clear that the scientific evidence is what it is and can only be supported or opposed with other scientific evidence. Nor does Burr criticize Levay's research, as the Amazon.com reviewer suggests. Since his book is primarily about genetic research, Levay's research, which is anatomic and not genetic, is simply not the central focus of the work. Burr's analysis is both balanced and reasonable.

This book is a superb example how to research, explain and narrate scientific research. The writing style is lucid, and the concepts are explained clearly for a non-scientific audience. It is provocative, sensitive, balanced, intersting, funny, infuriating and an all around good read.

You are missing an exceptional book if you don't read this one

A Separate Creation offers a valuable perspective on the underlying truths about homosexuality. The points raised evolve toward a discussion about gender and how we are divided, male and female.

In the world today, it seems conceded that, although the specific mechanism is still disputed, homosexuality is something that arises biochemically. The disagreements on this point are interestingly enough coming from both the left and the right. The left reiterates its continued desire to view humanity as a "blank slate" upon which genetics has little or no influence. The religious right has far too much invested in categorizing homosexuality as a moral failing to consider the alternatives. Speak to most any gay man or lesbian and you will likely find that very few were molested or otherwise "recruited" into their orientation. Nor are many anything other than law-abiding citizens (sodomy violations aside). Gay people are homosexual the same way they are right or left-handed, it is just something that exists.

Author Chandler Burr does a very good job at highlighting the current research. My only negative comments revolve around his failure to link the genetic discoveries regarding gender and homosexuality into a cohesive whole.

In the scenario presented with the gay man who decides to become straight, the subject's attitude is too cavalier. Burr misses the 800 pound gorilla in this scenario; many gays want to become straight because of their desire to become a part of a family. This means a nuclear unit balanced by the different male and female contribution and dynamic, with the outcome being offspring that are born and carry with them the memory and genetic make-up of their parents. As a practical matter, this is the only immortality available to humankind. A homosexual relationship simply cannot produce this rather unique and extraordinary outcome. Its importance in calculating this equation cannot and should not be diminished.

My favorite part of the book is Hammer (the geneticist who discovered Xq28--the GAY-1 gene, responsible for the gayness of 17% of the gay male population) saying"....you have to be sure first that the trait isn't chosen before you look for its gene." He pauses, incredulous, "Can you imagine any sane, reputable biologist spendijng years of their life and their resourses looking through chromosomes for a gene for something that's CHOSEN? I suppose you could do it, but you'd have to be a complete idiot because it would be the equivilent of staking your entire scientific career and reputation on finding a gene for"--he searches for an example--"being a Methodist."

Interesting, exciting, and sometimes really funny, the book is accessable to even those of us who had trouble with first year algebra and geometry...though an occasional chart or set of figures will give such people pause (don't give up! Go on to the next sentence...).

As far as being wide-ranging is concerned, I once read a short story in which a guest lecturer in a 10th grade high school science class based his entire lecture, and the following discussion, called "The Genetics of Baseball"(sic) on what he had learnd from this book...

I picked up this book with a few reservations. I was interested enough to order it, but I thought it had the potential to be too narrow, and that it might not be critical enough about the science (a problem, strangely, that many scientists don't have, but most popular science books do). I was pleasantly surprised to find that Burr's explanations were thorough and enjoyable, that he spared no pains in explaining what potential problems with the research were, how the researchers tried to overcome the innate limitiations of their chosen topics, and what various researchers said about each other's work.

For me, this in itself made it a treat to read. This is a great book to consider if only as an explanation of how biological sceince really works.

Now on to the gay bits. I had one major problem with the way they (the researchers, and hence Burr) tried to categorize men as either 'straight' or 'gay', with very little mucking around in the middle. In my experience there are a lot of other things going on, even with men who identify straight and whose main, only, objects of fantasy and attraction are women. Other than that, I suppose, 'A Separate Creation' didn't really change the way I view gay and being gay. Like the author took great pains to make clear, finding a gay gene, or a structure in the brain that is related to to homosexuality, doesn't change the fact that some men get turned on by other men, and some men get turned on by women. It also has little bearing on the specious 'nature/nurture' or 'choice/biological destiny' debates. None of the researchers debated that some men are born gay, and others aren't. Finding the gene or neural structure wasn't going to change that.

So, the book provides lots of cool facts, quite a bit to mull over, and some really fun insights into biological science (and into the way scientists encounter the media). But it doesn't aim to change the way anyone lives their life, which is fine. I wish it had a lot more on evolutionary explanations, and, maybe, a bit on homosexuality in other species, just to put this whole 'gay gene' into a larger context, but, other than that, I enjoyed the book, and recommend it.

I enjoyed this book enormously and learned a great deal about homosexuality and about genetics. I especially appreciated Chandler Burr's letting the researchers speak for themselves, and got used to his (and their) not crossing all the t's and dotting the i's when discussing not-simple subjects. Some of what the researches say is wide-ranging and quixotic, but all of it is pretty consistently thought-provoking. For example, there's a statement on page 275 by David Botstein ("of Stanford"), having to do with genetic research, violence, IQ, and blacks (and nothing to do with homosexuality.) Chandler Burr writes: ". . .consider the search for the gene (sic) for violence." Botstein picks it up:

"I think there's more scientifically to that one, a greater likelihood of finding it, more than IQ. But it's COMPLETELY unacceptable at the moment. You can't even talk about it. Go to any university, research center, no one -- NO ONE -- will talk to you about this. Why? Simple. Because of the fear that there will be a racial correlation. And there could be. . .and I have some sympathy for this fear, mean (sic) that any scientific evidence linking some undesirable trait with black people will be used as an excuse for explicit or implicit genocide. Okay? That fear is not totally irrational. . ."

Geneticists everywhere are afraid of finding a gene for violence in "black people" in America? Huh? Well, the only way I could explain researchers fearing that they will find a "black" gene for violence instead of a "non-black" gene for violence is that their research would be based on disregarding the incidence of inter-racial violence in America (presumably, by defining inter-racial violence as a product of a "prejudice" gene, not a "violence" one?). But isn't that explanation absurd? Or despite having read this book, do I still fail to understand how genetic research experiments must be designed? Like I say, thought-provoking.

Presumably most geneticists working on DNA are white. And presumably in America a lot of geneticists are infected with the same myth-viruses as the mainstream public at whom corporations direct their advertisements and programming. But good golly, miss molly!! NO university or research center will talk about the gene for violence? I say let the chips fall where they may. Knowledge is knowledge. And as a white I'm not much concerned that blacks will want to impose eugenic solutions on me once research shows it is whites who have violence genes. Such measures would constitute violence, you see, and blacks would lack the genes for it.

Mr. Burr walks you step by step through the sciences of genetics and endocrinology to help you understand the technologies involved in discovering the truths about homosexuality. May the conservatives and religious zealots run for cover---this book will be quoted for a long time to come!