Orphan Black fan explains the importance of the show's LGBTQ representation

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I’ve been struck as I’ve been watching by the show’s presentation of genetically identical (or near-identical, given the “synthetic sequence” business) individuals with varied sexual orientations and identities.

I’m sure this has been written about somewhere by people who understand the science and politics of human sexuality way better than me, but I haven’t come across it. Any good writing on that aspect?

Wave the magic wand and chalk it up to the imperfections of the cloning, the complexity of human biology and the varied environments they were raised in.

Last I looked the genetics and biology were complex enough or not understood enough that it is not as much magic wand waving as one would think to have that be the answer. However that was a while back.

edit: I also seem to recall most of the studies were on male twins rather than female twins - maybe that has also changed over the years.

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Beautiful post. There will probably be no study that ties Orphan Black to a shift in LGBTQ acceptance/understanding, but that doesn’t matter does it?

Not just sexuality/personality: Cloned animals often aren’t even physically identical.

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My understanding is that current thought is that sexual preference and gender identity are epigenetic/developmental - i.e. they are a product of fetal development in their mother’s womb.

P.S. Word of God (i.e. the show runners) is that Cosima is bisexual rather than lesbian (like Delphine).

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It was mentioned in the series that her relationship with Cosima has been Delphine’s first same-sex relationship.

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