About 8 percent of rams have the hots for other rams. Show them the sexiest ewe in the world, and they’ll still go for the stud next to her. I see this as just another example of the sexual diversity that typifies the animal kingdom. But for sheep breeders, it’s a big problem. Breeding rams are worth up to $500, and no one wants to drop bank on a gigolo who won’t sleep with women.

That economic consideration was one reason Charles Roselli began studying ram sexuality. Roselli, who works for Oregon Health and Sciences University, is trying to understand what makes some rams gay and others straight.

How do you tell if a ram is gay, anyway? Roselli’s behavioral essays go something like this. One young ram gets to pick between four mates. He is free to walk around, while his potential partners (two rams, two ewes) are restrained. The ram is allowed to sow his wild oats, and the researchers observe who he goes for.

Roselli has taken other approaches to understanding homosexuality in rams. Most recently, he tried to create gay rams by depriving male fetuses of estrogen stimulation. The experiment was inconclusive, but the response to it was anything but.

After a London paper ran a story about Roselli’s work, the blogosphere churned with indignation. PETA called the study “an affront to human dignity and a colossal waste of precious research funds.” Lesbian tennis star Martina Navratilova called the experiments “homophobic and cruel” and demanded that they end “at once.” Her concern is that the research could be used to try to ‘cure’ gay adults, or to selectively abort gay fetuses.

Like Ms. Navratilova, I have a personal interest in research on homosexuality. But unlike her, I’m not in favor of halting basic science.

Yes, research on homosexuality could be used for ignoble purposes. But the solution to a problem like homophobia lies in changing society, not squelching science. We don’t get to stop asking questions just because we might not like the answers. Why are some rams gay? The question has an answer, and someone will uncover it. Scientific progress is inexorable. The truth is out there, like it or not.

Don’t tell PETA, but I also study gay animals. I work in Biology Prof. Bruce Baker’s lab, which studies the gene responsible for sexual behavior in fruit flies. This gene was first called fruity, because one type of mutant male sexually solicits both females and males. (The name was later changed to the more P.C. fruitless.) The Baker lab now has a whole library of sexual mutants - everything from asexual to lesbian to bisexual fruit flies.

I believe very strongly in the value of scientific research. But I’m starting to feel a bit panicky. Roselli claims his research is about understanding, rather than changing, sexual behavior. Still, his reassurances sound hollow. Surely, the better we understand something, the easier it is to change it — why does so much research go into ‘understanding’ cancer? Say homosexuality in humans turns out to be controlled by a certain combination of hormones bathing a developing fetus. Might mothers-to-be someday take a pill to ensure heterosexual offspring?

I’m reminded of cochlear implants. These surgically-inserted devices can help a deaf child hear - something that causes the deaf community to fear for its life. Some deaf parents opt not to implant the device in their children. “Deafness doesn’t need to be cured,” they insist. “It’s a culture, not a disability.” Most hearing people cannot understand why anyone would choose deafness for their child, and criticize any parent who does.

I see potential parallels in the queer community. Its continued existence could also be threatened by scientific progress. Imagine a future in which parents of gay children are chastised for not choosing a gay-prevention device for their son or daughter. I picture these parents of the future weakly insisting that “being queer is a culture, not a disability...”

My panic subsides when I remember our fruit flies. Even for them, sexual orientation is not so simple. Young male flies are bisexual: In the first hours of their lives, they court both males and females. These would-be suitors are forcefully rejected by their older male targets. Only then do they switch to exclusively hetero courtship. And if even humble fruit flies have a cultural component to their behavior, imagine how much more complicated human behavior must be. But if there is a way to ‘cure’ human homosexuality, it is certainly many years away. Maybe by then, we’ll have realized that there’s nothing to cure.