Validate My Trans Status!

[bcholmes]

In amongst the various news reports that "the transsexuality gene has been found," there's this blurb:

The scientists collected DNA samples from 112 male-to-female transsexuals and found that they were more likely to have a longer version of the AR gene than another group of 258 non-transsexual men.

The longer AR gene was found in 55.4 percent of people in the transsexual group and 47.6 percent of the non-transsexual men, they wrote in an article published in Biological Psychiatry. (link)

So, um, hmm. Really strong correlation, there.

Comments

Some personality traits do appear to be genetic...

[fil512.livejournal.com]

I agree that the data in the above study is weak. And I agree with the spirit of what most of the commenters are saying here which is that personal choices do not require the crutch of genetic validation. It's like the genetic defense in criminal law...my genes made me do it!

But I wouldn't want to write off the entire field of genetic personality research... The following article sounds compelling to me, though I admit I forget what "p = 0.013" means as a measure of statistical significance.

As a father of four boys, I see striking differences in their personality that I can only attribute to genetics: #1 and #3 share many personality traits in common as do #2 and #4, but the odd numbered kids are WAY different from the even numbered ones (I won't bore you with the list of traits, but it's formitable and would be straightforward to measure objectively).

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9A0DE2D61539F931A35752C0A960958260

Link to study summary:
http://www.walkerbioscience.com/powerpoint/bio45/bio45-5/Genes%20that%20affect%20novelty%20seeking%20behavior.ppt