ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the contestatory reception of diagnostic genetics on a terrain which was itself in a state of socio-political contestation, gay rights versus gay pathology. It explores the ways in which the 'gay gene' stories marked a point of convergence for a number of discourses, in particular those of science, homosexuality and abortion, whose interplay served to rupture dominant homophobic common sense. The gay gene stories represent not so much an encouraging shift in popular sensibilities around homosexuality, but rather that in clash of monster stories, some monsters might become, if not heroes, then at least not quite so monstrous. The chapter explores the signification spiral and inflammatory reportage that attended the announced finding in 1993 of a 'gay gene'. It focuses on a range of British newspapers, representing tabloid and broadsheets as well as distinctive political orientations from conservative to labour.
