There has been an increasing popular acceptance of genetic reasoning
in debates about gender and sexual orientation. Genetic explanations appear
to be objective, and far less ambiguous than environmental, social, or
behavioral models. They serve to codify what is normal or deviant, while
ignoring the fact that categories such as homosexual, criminal, and deviant
are historical products,
not biological categories. The homosexual body is one area of contention
and debate in genetic
arguments.
The Gay Gamete project was in part a response to recent FDA legislation
which prohibits sperm
banks from accepting homosexual candidates into sperm donor programs.
The legal battles over
gamete screening, donation, and genetic disclosure are areas on which
genetic debates get played
out. In these scenarios gay DNA can be understood as a potential contaminant.
The audience for Gaygamete.com is seemingly the homosexual men and women
who could
potentially become gamete donors. This sites ideology is based on a set
of genetic essentialist
assumptions about homosexual causation. The apparent logic is that if
homosexuality is the product
of genetics, and homosexuals reproduce at a fraction of the rate of heterosexual
people, the gene
or genes which “cause” homosexuality to occur will eventually
die out, causing the eventual
extinction of homosexuality. The organization responsible for gaygamete.com
views homosexuals as
a distinct genetic race, and has an agenda which includes the protection
and advancement of gay
culture through the production of new members. To accomplish these ends,
gaygamete.com
promotes the infiltration of egg and sperm donation clinics by homosexual
applicants. This web site
acts in part as an instruction manual on how a gay person can fulfill
their procreative duty through
the infiltration of a gamete donation clinic. However, this site also
acts as an accurate and
comprehensive informational site about egg and sperm donation processes,
procedures, physical
and legal risks, financial incentives, and screening processes. The site
explains the laws and policies
that govern clinics and applicants, and also investigates desirable and
undesirable donor
characteristics.
Gaygamete.com acts as a location on which dialog about genetic determinist
arguments of
homosexual causation can take place. It is additionally a forum for the
discussion of broader issues
concerning reproductive technologies and genetic essentialism.
