Abstract

The concept of genetic influence is often misunderstood, especially within the debate over homosexuality. Some Catholic writers and many homosexualactivists and academics mistakenly believe that whether homosexuality is genetically influenced is related to its moral status and malleability. Here I tryto defuse this aspect of the debate by providing a precise defmition of genetic influence, reviewing its implications, and demonstrating its irrelevance to moral and therapeutic issues related to homosexuality. The Church does not compromise any aspect of its teaching by conceding that homosexuality may have a genetic component, but it must beware of deterministic interpretations of such research.