LeVay’s (1991) study was roughly 2 1/2 published pages, and appeared in the back of the issue with other technical reports. In it, he reported findings from analyses of four separate interstitial nuclei of the anterior hypothalamus (INAH), thought to be associated with sexual behavior. A total of 41 tissue samples were taken from the hypothalamic area of the brain and included samples from 19 homosexual men who had died of AIDS, 6 presumed heterosexual men who died of AIDS, 10 presumed heterosexual men who had died from causes other than AIDS, and 6 presumed heterosexual women. The number of cells in each nuclei, and the area contained within the nuclei (spatial dispersal of cells) were measured. For three of the nuclei (INAH-1, INAH-2, and INAH-4), no differences were found on any measure for any group. For one nuclei (INAH-3), there was no difference in the number of cells, but there was a slight shift in the measurement for total area or volume, measured as the spatial dispersal of cells. The scores (in cubic millimeters) for presumed heterosexual men ranged from.02 to.21, with an average of.12, whereas those of homosexual men with AIDS ranged from.005 to .19, with an average of.051. The scores for the 6 women ranged from.02 to .16, with an average of.056. There was virtually complete overlap in the two distributions, with some heterosexual men having scores lower than the lowest scores among homosexual men. Had LeVay chosen to base his analysis on the actual number of cells rather than on how they were distributed in space, he would have reported no differences between the two groups. Despite numerous uncertainties about the validity of the data, in regard to staining techniques or the appropriateness of the measurement (spatial dispersal of cells as opposed to number of cells), the study was widely viewed as providing a neurological basis for homosexuality.
Certainly a study design using so few participants in any one condition would warrant skepticism. In any case, it is entirely possible that the ravages of a disease such as AIDS and the related regimens of medications could have caused the changes in the nuclei. With only six heterosexual men having died from the disease, valid comparisons would be almost im
possible within the AIDS group. Most important, the heterosexual group serving as control, including the sample of six women, was actually of undetermined sexual orientation. There is no way to know if the control sample constituted an exclusively heterosexual group. Also, it is known that testosterone levels are affected by AIDS, and thus it is possible that the hormone levels resulting from the disease caused the questionably measured differences (Byne, 1994). As of yet, the results of LeVay’s study have not been subject to replication.
The details of laboratory research often are lost or supplanted by cultural myth (Latour & Woolgar, 1979), and they were clearly lost in this case. Even though scientists such as LeVay often provide disclaimers in their work, these disclaimers, almost without exception, are not emphasized adequately or are completely ignored in the popular media: a media seemingly preoccupied with establishing biological origins for sexual preference. In the case of LeVay, limitations concerning the design of the study were buried by the sensationalism of the popular press. The publication context of the original LeVay article established a prolog that would decrease criticism and increase the likelihood of acceptance. A chronology of media coverage additionally illustrates the amount of energy invested in the popular image of a deterministic, biological model for sexuality.