[All-In Flynn]

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It could also be an unavoidable, rare by-product of something else. Not everything is fit. Do you think Tay-Sachs has a genetic basis?

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~10% = not 'rare' by my standards... The (possible) unfitness of gayness only becomes a problem if you believe the gene to be very old, which I've already said I do. My thinking is that if it is that old, it can't be unfit. Yet I can't see how it could be fit. Show gayness as a recent emergence and the problem goes away. Get me?

And while I'm not a doctor, Wikipedia certainly thinks Tay-Sachs is genetic...

"Most HEXA mutations are rare, and do not occur in genetically isolated populations..." so as a counterexample for gayness it's apples and oranges (Tay-Sachs for Gay Sex, Homosexual unfitness for Hexosaminidase A deficiency [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img])

But the problem with the by-product theory is that the correlation needs to be weak or otherwise rare - if the link between catalyst and catamite is too strong, I don't see how the trait could spread to become ubiquitous - gayness seems to be too strong a disincentive to successful reproduction.

Forgive the puns please.