In spite of having no unbiased scientific evidence to prove the existence of the so-called "gay gene", New Jersey governor Chris Christie has signed a law banning sex conversion therapy for children, saying he's convinced people are born that way and that homosexuality is okay.

The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that Christie signed the law because he felt concerns over the health risks of trying to change a child's sexual orientation - which allegedly cause depression, substance abuse, social withdrawal, decreased self-esteem and suicidal thoughts - outweigh concerns over the government setting limits on parental choice.

"Government should tread carefully into this area," he said in the signing note, "and I do so here reluctantly."

The anti-conversion therapy bill, known as A-3371, declares that being “lesbian, gay or bisexual is not a disease, disorder, illness, deficiency or shortcoming,” and it bans licensed therapists from providing gay-to-straight conversion therapy to children under age 18.

Christie has a mixed record on issues concerning homosexuality. In early 2012, he vetoed a law allowing same-sex marriage in the state, saying that the decision should be made by the people, not the legislature.

He admits to being at odds with what he believes to be Church teaching on the subject of homosexuality.

“If someone is born that way, it’s very difficult to say then that that's a sin," Christie told CNN's Piers Morgan during an interview last year.

However, the Church does not teach that same-sex attraction is a sin, only acting upon that tendency.

Christie also insists that homosexuals are "born that way" even though there is no scientific evidence to support that position.

The latest quest for the elusive gene came as recently as December, 2012, when researchers at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) looked at how epi-marks that influence testosterone sensitivity in the womb might contribute to homosexuality.

According to an article appearing in Popular Science, "Late in pregnancy, natural variations in testosterone levels can alter a fetus' sexual development. Sex-specific epi-marks protect female fetuses from masculinization in the presence of too much testosterone; boys are protected from feminization if too little testosterone is present."

Whether or not this could contribute to someone being born homosexual was not determined by the study.

"The study provides a very interesting, but as yet untested, genetic mechanism for the evolutionary maintenance of human homosexuality," said Nathan Bailey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of St Andrews in Scotland who was not involved in the research. "We are going to have to wait until more evidence is in, but I do think it would be exciting to know whether epi-marks contribute to the expression of sexual orientation in humans."

Study co-author Sergey Gavrilets, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and mathematics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and associate director for scientific activities at NIMBioS, says there could still be a "gay gene" or genes, but that there are problems with the idea: "Nobody has been able to present solid experimental evidence for this in spite of significant effort."

Apparently, Governor Christie was not made aware of these facts and went ahead and signed the bill into law.

New Jersey will now be the second state to ban gay conversion therapy. California passed a similar law last year but it has been stalled by litigation concerning possible violations of the First Amendment rights of therapists and parents. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put the law on hold in December, held hearings on the case in April, but still hasn't issued a decision.

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