Op-ed clarified

To the Journal editor:

In my op-ed published Sunday in The Mining Journal, in which I discussed biological bases for homosexuality, I referenced a 1997 study by Ray Blanchard and R. Klassen.

I stated that this study revealed that, within families with sons only, each additional brother or half brother by the same mother increases by 33 percent the odds of the youngest brother being gay.

I meant to state that each brother or half brother by the same mother increases by 33 percent the normal odds of the youngest brother being gay. Normal odds are about 3 percent. Having several older brothers thus increases these odds to about 6 percent.

Though seemingly small, these 33 percent increases above the norm are statistically significant, and appeared consistently across not only the Blanchard study but across the 2006 study by Anthony Bogaert as well.

I regret any confusion the original wording of my op-ed might have caused. Blanchard’s and Bogaert’s demonstrations of prenatal causative factors for homosexuality remain scientifically valid.

Craig L. Teed

Marquette