Brains of Gay Sheep Differ From ‘Straights’

Gay sheep that mate only with other rams have different brain structures from “straight” sheep, a finding that may shed light on human sexuality, researchers said. Differences are similar to those in some homosexual humans, but probably go only a small way to explaining causes of different sexual orientations, an Oregon Health & Science University team said.

“We are not trying to explain human sexuality by this study,” physiologist Charles Roselli said. “Whether this is a big component of what contributes in humans, that’s still debatable.”

Working with a team at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho, Roselli’s team studied 27 sheep -- 10 ewes, nine rams that mated only with other rams and eight rams that mated only with females.