Dean Hamer

In 2017, Hamer and Wilson released Leitis in Waiting, which documents the lives of transgender women in Tonga. It was co-produced by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu.

Hamer's results were robustly replicated in 2012 in a large, comprehensive multi-center genetic linkage study of male sexual orientation conducted by several independent groups of researchers. The study population included 409 independent pairs of gay brothers, who were analyzed with over 300,000 single-nucleotide polymorphism markers, and confirmed the Xq28 linkage by two-point and multipoint (MERLIN) LOD score mapping. Significant linkage was also detected in the pericentromeric region of chromosome 8, overlapping with one of the regions detected in the Hamer labʻs previous genomewide study. The authors concluded that "our findings, taken in context with previous work, suggest that genetic variation in each of these regions contributes to development of the important psychological trait of male sexual orientation."

Born in Montclair, New Jersey, Hamer obtained his BA at Trinity College, CT, and his PhD from Harvard Medical School. He was an independent researcher at the National Institutes of Health for 35 years, where he was the Chief of Gene Structure and Regulation Section at the U.S. National Cancer Institute; upon retirement in 2011 he was designated Scientist Emeritus. Hamer has won numerous awards including the Maryland Distinguished Young Scientist Award, the Ariens Kappers Award for Neurobiology, an Emmy Award, and New York Times author of the year.

Out in the Silence, the first feature film from Qwaves, was supported by the Sundance Documentary Film Program and premiered at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Lincoln Center. It was broadcast on PBS, where it won an Emmy Award for achievement in documentary. The Out in the Silence Youth Activism Award was initiated in 2011 to highlight the contributions of young people to achieving respect, inclusion and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

In 2011, Hamer and Wilson moved to Hawaiʻi to begin a series of films about Pacific Islander lives and voices. Their feature documentary Kumu Hina, about transgender native Hawaiian teacher and cultural icon Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, was supported by ITVS, Pacific Islanders in Communications and the Ford Foundation and premiered as the closing night film in the Hawaii International Film Festival in 2014. In 2015, it was nationally broadcast on PBS, where it won the Independent Lens Audience Award. An educational children's version of the film, A Place in the Middle, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival for Kids and is featured on PBS learning media.

Hamer turned to documentary filmmaking to address complex scientific and social issues often overlooked by the mainstream media. In 2005, he and partner Joe Wilson formed Qwaves with the mission of producing "insightful and provocative films that emanate from the voices of those on the outside, that incite us to abandon our comfortable role as spectators, and that compel us to question and to act." Their films won several awards including winner of the PBS Independent Lens Shorts Festival and Seeds of Tolerance Award.

In the 1990s Hamer began studies on the genetics of human behavior, which led to the first molecular evidence for genes that influence human sexual orientation. His research group's first paper, published in Science in 1993, reported that the maternal but not paternal male relatives of gay men had increased rates of same-sex orientation, suggesting the possibility of sex-linked transmission in a portion of the population. A genetic linkage analysis of DNA samples from these families showed that gay brothers had an increased probability of sharing polymorphic markers on the subtelomeric region of the long arm of the X chromosome, Xq28, providing statistically significant evidence for linkage to the sexual orientation phenotype. This finding was replicated in two other studies in the United States whereas a study in Canada found contrary results; meta-analysis of all data available at that time suggested that Xq28 has a significant but not exclusive effect. Subsequently, a genomewide scan by Hamerʻs group revealed additional regions on autosomes that were moderately linked to male sexual orientation.

Dean Hamer (/ˈ h eɪ m ər / ; born May 29, 1951) is an American geneticist, author, and filmmaker. He is known for his research on the role of genetics in sexual orientation and human behavior, contributions to biotechnology and HIV/AIDS prevention, and popular books and documentaries on a wide range of topics.