Are Younger Brothers More Likely to Be Gay? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• MIDDLE SCHOOL VS. MY GAY KID
• EXPLAG IT TO YOUR KIDS: WHAT DO 'BEG GAY' MEAN?
• WHERE’S THE GAY MIDDLE GRA?
• GAY MALE ONLY-CHILDREN: EVINCE FOR LOW BIRTH WEIGHT AND HIGH MATERNAL MISRRIAGE RAT
• FOR GAY MEN, HAVG A BLOGIL CHILD N BE PLITED
• MY CATHOLIC KID IS GAY! NOW WHAT??
• 'SMEAR THE QUEER': GAY STUNTS TELL THEIR STORI
• IS YOUR CHILD GAY?
• GAY KIDS COMG OUT YOUNGER, BUT PARENTS ASK "HOW DO YOU KNOW?"
• ARE YOUNGER BROTHERS MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY?

MIDDLE SCHOOL VS. MY GAY KID

They add elements of LGBTQ history to class assignments, and alt wh the one stance of homophobia om a classmate he's had to face quickly and effectively. I gus the prence of 18-year-olds taller than your father is a ltle ls dntg when 's tempered by the ia you won't be the only gay kid any kid is gettg closer to age where people fd more "acceptable" for him to be gay. Therefore, I mt say that I would probably fer - or at least do everythg I uld to fer - a discsn of homosexualy and gay behavr wh a child 10 years old and unr.

But I also regnize that younger and younger children are beg exposed to homosexual persons, them, and issu and are naturally nfed and cur about . Whether om school, by social and public teractns, or through televisn and movi, homosexualy is beg thst upon and is challengg a heterosexual world. While engagg homosexual behavr is a chosen activy, beg oriented to the same sex is generally nsired to be fluenced by a variety of factors.

EXPLAG IT TO YOUR KIDS: WHAT DO 'BEG GAY' MEAN?

" answer: "Beg gay means that two people of the same sex have chosen to love each other the way that God planned for a man and woman to love each other. CNN recently announced both on televisn and their Web se, "An explosive new study says some gay people n turn straight if they really want to. Throughout the twentieth century, gay teenagers had to look outsi of the young adult genre for lerary reprentatns of homosexualy fictn, but sce 1999, multiple thors have risked ntroversy, rejectns om edors, and lack of book sal by wrg about the ntemporary experienc of gay teenagers this untry.

Danforth, to name only a few, the gay young adult genre has been boomg, wh the releas the year 2015 alone of at least twenty-five major YA novels.

Only one thor — the award-wng Tim Ferle — is currently phg the boundari for gay middle gra fictn, spe tense opposn, his books Better Nate Than Ever and Five, Six, Seven, is a long history of middle gra fictn that enpass the work of many famo stori penned by thors who have prented a wele dose of diversy. We tted two predictns related to the hypothized maternal immune rponse mothers of gay male only-children: (1) elevated fetal loss among mothers who have had gay male only-children and (2) lower birth weight gay male only-children.

WHERE’S THE GAY MIDDLE GRA?

Mothers of at least one gay son (n = 54) and mothers of heterosexual son(s) (n = 72) self-reported their pregnancy histori, cludg the birth weights of newborns and number of fetal loss (e. Mothers of gay male only-children (n = 8) reported signifintly greater fetal loss pared wh mothers of mal wh four other sibship posns (gay wh no olr brothers, gay wh olr brothers, heterosexual only-children, heterosexual wh siblgs) (n = 118).

Also, firstborn gay male only-children (n = 4) had a signifintly lower birth weight than firstborn children the four other sibship posns (n = 59). Commentary on "Gay Male Only-Children: Evince for Low Birth Weight and High Maternal Misrriage Rat" om the Prenatal Thyroid Mol Perspective.

Towards a further unrstandg of prenatal thyroid theory of homosexualy: Autoimmune thyroidis, polycystic ovary syndrome, tism and low birth weight. The procs tak about two years and sts around $200, 000 per child - and prospective gay fathers don't meet eligibily creria for most health surance plans' fertily benefs, although this is begng to change. Brent Monsr, MD, recently helped lead a study to document tails of how gay men e assisted reproductive technology to build their fai, cludg qutns such as how many children they wish to have and how often their efforts succeed.

GAY MALE ONLY-CHILDREN: EVINCE FOR LOW BIRTH WEIGHT AND HIGH MATERNAL MISRRIAGE RAT

Cisgenr gay men are almost never clud this rearch, so as physicians we don't know anythg about their characteristics as reproductive health patients, even basic rmatn such as their mographics, clil cisn-makg patterns or out. It's important to keep md that our data reflect the experienc of dividuals who n afford reproductive medil re bee their employer-sponsored fertily benefs ver , and that is still an unual suatn for gay men. This data served as the foundatn for a grant applitn we've jt had approved to nduct a much larger populatn study that will give accs to rmatn on about 2, 000 embryo transfers annually gay men.

A lot of people see a fertily doctor bee they have an unrlyg medil issue, whereas gay male upl ually have two possible sperm sourc, a young egg donor and a gtatnal rrier who has already had succsful pregnanci. We regnize that this may be bee a lot of gay men requt tws or may ultimately want two children, and fertily doctors may be transferrg two embryos to try to save their patients money so they only have to go through the fertily treatment procs once.

But we need to ask: Are we puttg gtatnal rriers at unnecsary risk om tw pregnanci, and puttg gay upl at unnecsary risk of havg babi the NICU? I'm currently a fellow, and I have patients g specifilly to see me, not bee I'm the most amazg doctor but bee I'm gay, and they want a gay doctor. I'd like to share what I thk is an thentilly lovg rponse to what strik fear to the hearts of most fahful Catholic parents: your son or dghter g out as a gay man or lbian.

FOR GAY MEN, HAVG A BLOGIL CHILD N BE PLITED

From that perspective, I'd like to share what I thk is an thentilly lovg rponse to what strik fear to the hearts of most fahful Catholic parents: your son or dghter g out as a gay man or lbian.

I'm very disturbed that parents wouldn't dream of shunng one part of a straight uple that's livg s thk shunng their child's gay partner is acceptable. If my son asked me to participate events that would legimize his relatnship wh his partner, such as a gay weddg ceremony or gay pri para, the answer would be a gentle but firm, "NO.

If he is receptive to a relatnship based on mutual rpect, however, he ought to know me well enough not to be surprised when I cle to attend the gay pri para.

MY CATHOLIC KID IS GAY! NOW WHAT??

Programs that propose to "pray away the gay" do great harm to souls when the person exs wh his SSA tact, and not as the morally upright straight person he's told God wants him to be. Rearch among children raised by homosexual parents volv methodologil issu, such as fg homosexual fai, samplg s and ntrols, and choosg stctured or semi-stctured evaluatns. The fact that homosexual marriage, adoptn and sematn are not prently legal France uld expla that only one study has been nducted France 2000 among 58 children raid by homosexual parents.

Concerns about lbian parentg have foced on the absence of a father, the homosexual orientatn of the mother, and their negative nsequenc on the velopment of the children. In studi ncerng gay fathers, fdgs generally dite no differenc sexual orientatn, socializatn, or psychologil out children of gay fathers pared to children of heterosexual fathers. However, the first study on the adult attachment style dimensns of adult women who had gay or bisexual fathers suggted that they were signifintly ls fortable wh closens and timacy, ls able to tst and pend on others, and experienced more anxiety relatnships than women wh heterosexual fathers.

Variabl related to fay procs, such as relatnship qualy, are currently nsired more important predictors of children's adjtment homosexual fai than sexual orientatn. However, very ltle is known about psychologil characteristics or well-beg of adult children of lbian and gay parents, and rearch should be pursued the future.

'SMEAR THE QUEER': GAY STUNTS TELL THEIR STORI

Social relatnships of children raised by homosexual fai, their experience of difference, and the discrimatn are also likely to vary wh the culture of each untry and was not evaluated to our knowledge to date cross-cultural studi g standardized qutnnair. Jt last week an 11-year-old boy Sprgfield, Mass., mted suici, reportedly bee he was distrsed that his classmat repeatedly lled him "gay. Even om elementary school the kids have been llg him 'faggot' and 'gay' bee he didn't f the genr norm of what a normal boy should be dog, " Rivero said of her now 17-year-old son, Josh.

Calyn Ryan, a clil rearcher at San Francis State Universy has done extensive rearch about fay attus childhood and the mental, emotnal and physil health of young adults who intify as said parents like Rivero may be pickg up on real signals, and that the first awarens of sexual preferenc -- eher heterosexual or homosexual -- often velops before puberty. However, wh creasg awarens of homosexualy on TV, high schools, on the Inter and the news, Ryan said children today are more likely to put two and two together much earlier.

"Many people knew that they were gay at early ag, typilly boys -- they knew when they were 5, or 8 or 10, " she early awarens, batn wh immature children, n lead to ser problems schools whout proper Febary, an openly gay middle school stunt named Lawrence Kg, 15, of Oxnard, Calif., was allegedly shot and killed a classroom by a fellow stunt, Brandon 's fay is sug the school and a gay rights anizatn for failg to protect s son om McInerney, who was charged as an adult and has plead not guilty to first-gree murr and a hate crime, acrdg to The Associated and fay psychologists have been studyg this issue more recent years, and are jt now velopg tted remendatns that might help at-risk children while streerg clear of bat about relig or moral the Word 'Gay' Com up Third Gra "Teachers, even wh the bt of tentns, don't know what to do. They don't want to talk about relig beliefs or sex, " said Suzanne Greenfield, the senr "Safe Schools" ordator for Parents Fai and Friends of Lbians and Gays, Greenfield said she went through a tryg time wh well-meang teachers to al wh children who tnted her remembers her son first askg what 'gay' mean the third gra after a bullyg cint.

IS YOUR CHILD GAY?

"In my middle school kids are arrted [for bullyg] all the time, although I don't necsarily agree wh , " said Lisa Persger, a psychologist at the Tucson Unified School District Arizona and chairwoman of the Gay Lbian Bisexual Transgenr and Qutng Issu Commtee of the Natnal Associatn of School Psychologists.

""This is not actually that difficult of a nversatn to have, " she Use, Suici and Pa Gay and Lbian AdultsWhile Greenfield sists that discsg homosexualy the classroom is easy, Ryan said the oppose is often te when fai are faced wh the and her rearch team at the Fay Acceptance Project have terviewed more than 200 openly gay young adults and their fai, om var ethnic and socenomic backgrounds California. "In a few months, Ryan said her anizatn will be ready to prent studi showg specific behavrs among parents that ntribute to better physil and mental health, and those that may untentnally e said the remendatns om her rearch uld help fai regardls of their relig view pots or ias about homosexualy. The are parents who know, ep down si, that a son or dghter is almost certaly gay, but hasn’t worked up the nerve to open up about .

GAY KIDS COMG OUT YOUNGER, BUT PARENTS ASK "HOW DO YOU KNOW?"

A toddler who wore a feather boa around the hoe and plead for pk light-up sneakers wh rhton is probably tellg you somethg, even if he don’t yet know what ’re not the only on, said Ellen Kahn, the director of the Fay Project for the Human Rights Campaign, a leadg advocy group for gay men and lbians.

Kahn add, “I’ve heard many parents who have said, ‘I knew my son was gay, I heard my dghter was a lbian, and I jt was wag’ ” for what she lled the “Mom, Dad: I have somethg to tell you” her home, and too many others, she said, “Nobody wanted to talk about . ”) Whether the parents might embrace or reject a gay child, fai naturally tend to avoid difficult subjects — and so a stalemate ensu, wh many parents worryg that the act of ncealment uld be takg a psychic toll on their child. Consirg the growg support for gay rights, as well as the rise of openly gay public figur and sympathetic rol televisn and movi, people might be fiven for thkg that ’s no big al to e out the days.

“Comg out and g to terms wh beg gay is easier now, but ’s a matter of gree and not a plete reversal of the world, ” Profsor Meyer said. Acrdg to a new survey of more than 10, 000 gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr teenagers nducted for the Human Rights Campaign, 64 percent of those high school say they are out, and 54 percent of those middle school say they are.

ARE YOUNGER BROTHERS MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY?

The lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr children had those worri as well — but they me after fears of rejectn by parents and fay, bullyg at school and fear of g children are out, the pollsters for the Human Rights Campaign found, they tend to be exposed to higher levels of “equent” verbal harassment (name llg) at school than those who stay the closet.

Seventeen percent of rponnts who say they are openly gay enunter the harassment; while only 12 percent who are not openly gay reported the equent harassment. A child might be well advised, she suggted, to e out to close iends at school but not broadst sexual orientatn to avoid harassment and stay foced on our fay, we knew that Joseph was probably gay, and we saw problems he was havg at school that he was unr psychologil prsure.

We believed that keepg his sexual orientatn unr wraps (he’s sce told that he knew he was gay om the age of 8) was aggravatg the suatn. But they also suggted that we make clear that however our son turned out, we’d accept and love him — and to work referenc to gay life to our daily nversatn stead of treatg as a touchy subject bt left alone.