ratbastid

Well, unfortunately, it actually doesn't quite say that, much as we might wish it did. Although there's room to quibble over the definition of "hardwired".

What these articles say is that the brains of homosexuals respond to a chemical derived from various human hormones similarly to the brains of the opposite sex.

Now, the nature of the brain is: it's highly plastic, especially in childhood, but even to some degree in adulthood. The fact that adult homosexual men's brains respond in a certain way to a certain something in a particular, though interesting, does NOT imply that it was that way from birth. That may very well be the result of brain structure changes brought on by behavioral factors--and these studies don't present any evidence on that one way or the other.

This first article is slightly irresponsible in its portrayal of this research--particularly in the subhead "Biological basis to sexual orientation?". The body of the article uses the more responsible phrase "biological involvement", which doesn't indicate causation. A "biological basis" for sexual orientation doesn't seem to be implied by the body of the article. I presume that if such an implication was made by the study, this article would have proclaimed it loudly, rather than couching it in an interrogative-softened subheading.

The second article quotes the researcher saying (and pay close attention to exactly the words she chooses here): "The important thing is to be open to the likely situation that there are biological factors that contribute to sexual orientation." She's not implying that they've discovered innate causal factors. She's not even implying that there ARE innate causal factors. She's not saying whether the biological factors that contribute to sexual orientation are innate or developed. It's the kind of statement that scientists really labor over to get exactly right, which then get misunderstood by the press and the lay public all the time.

So... Regrettably, this news isn't the gay missing link.