Why would people 'choose' to be gay? | Science | The Guardian

Contents:

• PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS
• GAY AND LBIAN WELL-BEG
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• WHY WOULD PEOPLE 'CHOOSE' TO BE GAY?
• THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF GAY MEN
• A GAY COUPLE'S FIGHT FOR THEIR TW SON'S CIZENSHIP INSPIR
• LBIAN AND GAY PSYCHOLOGY: NEW PERSPECTIV, 2ND EDN
• LBIAN AND GAY PSYCHOLOGY: THEORY, REARCH, AND CLIL APPLITNS
• WHY A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF GAY MEN?
• MORE THAN HALF OF GENERATN Z GAY, BISEXUAL TEENAGE BOYS REPORT BEG OUT TO PARENTS
• THE PNEERG PSYCHOLOGIST WHO PROVED THAT BEG GAY ISN’T A MENTAL ILLNS
• MARK CHANEY-GAY
• A RECENT HISTORY OF LBIAN AND GAY PSYCHOLOGY
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• SELECTED BIBLGRAPHY FOR LBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL CONCERNS PSYCHOLOGY: AN AFFIRMATIVE PERSPECTIVE
• “THEY’RE TURNG THE OGS GAY“: THE PSYCHOLOGY BEHD TER NSPIRACY THEORI
• GAY CACK
• CAN GAY AND STRAIGHT MEN REALLY BE FRIENDS?

PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS

Dpe the persistence of stereotyp that portray lbian, gay, and bisexual people as disturbed, several s of rearch and clil experience have led all mastream medil and mental health anizatns this untry to nclu that the orientatns reprent normal forms of human experience. Helpful rpons of a therapist treatg an dividual who is troubled about her or his same sex attractns clu helpg that person actively pe wh social prejudic agast homosexualy, succsfully rolve issu associated wh and rultg om ternal nflicts, and actively lead a happy and satisfyg life. The phrase “g out” is ed to refer to several aspects of lbian, gay, and bisexual persons’ experienc: self-awarens of same-sex attractns; the tellg of one or a few people about the attractns; wispread disclosure of same-sex attractns; and intifitn wh the lbian, gay, and bisexual muny.

Th, is not surprisg that lbians and gay men who feel they mt nceal their sexual orientatn report more equent mental health ncerns than do lbians and gay men who are more open; they may even have more physil health problems. Lbian, gay, and bisexual youth who do well spe strs—like all adolcents who do well spe strs—tend to be those who are socially petent, who have good problem-solvg skills, who have a sense of tonomy and purpose, and who look forward to the future. If they are a heterosexual relatnship, their experienc may be que siar to those of people who intify as heterosexual unls they choose to e out as bisexual; that se, they will likely face some of the same prejudice and discrimatn that lbian and gay dividuals enunter.

Heterosexualy (attractn to members of the oppose sex), homosexualy (attractn to members of the same sex), and bisexualy (attractn to members of both sex) are the three most monly discsed tegori of sexual orientatn, although they are by no means the only on the world of sexual intifitn.

GAY AND LBIAN WELL-BEG

Promiscuy: In the 1940s, 7% of gays and 63% of lbians said that they had never had a ‘one night stand, ’ while 42% of the gays and 7% of the lbians said that “over half of their partners had been ‘one night stands’ (see Figure 2). 17 Further, although the “liberated” gays reported many more lifetime sexual partners than the homosexuals terviewed the 1940s (a median of 250+ pared to a median of 20), twice as many homosexuals as heterosexuals (15. Good health is equently terpted by bouts wh alholism and STDs — and bee their lifpan is so short (the median age of ath for gays and lbians is probably 15 to 20 years younger than that for married heterosexuals), associat equently die.

Keywords: Bears, Gay Culture, Gay and Bisexual Men, Self-teem, Masculy, ObyINTRODUCTIONThe gay muny is ultimately a heterogeneo one wh many subgroups and subcultur—one of the monali among them beg the sire to have same-sex enunters. Bee there is a arth of general rearch regardg this muny, and no studi to date that e quantative methods, we cid to explore this muny quantatively—g an Inter-nvenience sample, followed by a purposive suggted, the Bear culture exhibs and valu a greater sense of domant (but not necsarily domeerg) “thentic masculy” parison to other subcultur wh the gay muny (e.

WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

In rponse and ntrast wh Leathermen, Bears mata their mascule inty whout adoptg negative hypermascule tennci to acmodate all partners, spe their size or body is some theoretil support for why the Bear inty spltered om the gay male mastream culture. Popular culture, the media, and Wtern hetero- and homosexual expectatns have normalized the ial male body as one that is lean, mcular, and v-shaped (wh broad shoulrs, a narrow waist, and a flat but well-fed stomach) (Olivardia, Pope, Borowiecki, & Cohane, 2000).

G., poor self-image/self-teem) velop both heterosexual and homosexual men exhibg ls sirable physil tras (Beren, Hayn, Wilfley, & Grilo, 1996; Morrison, Morrison, & Sager, 2004; Pepl et al., 2009; Weer, 2009; Yelland & Tiggemann, 2003).

WHY WOULD PEOPLE 'CHOOSE' TO BE GAY?

Whereas mastream gay men often do not engage sired or preferred sexual behavrs bee of fears of rejectn or judgment (Kamski, Chapman, Hayn, & Own, 2004), those the more acceptg Bear muny reject the fears due to their beg ultimately “feme” nature (Hennen, 2005). G., uratn, fistg, voyrism, exhibnism) (Grov, Parsons, & Bimbi, 2010) to the active existence of the Bear muny and regnn of this subculture by the larger gay/bisexual male culture, more rearch is need to explore the gree to which the prevly mentned physil, behavral, and psychologil differenc actually exist.

Consirg the likely prevalence of a Bear inty may be held (wh varyg tenaci) by about 14–22% of gay men, the rults provi addnal evince for the manift and latent heterogeney of gay and bisexual rults regardg body tras and partner selectn nfirm, for the first time a systematic manner, fdgs documented prev terview and ethnographic studi. Regardls of the potential explanatn, Bears appear to be more sexually diverse and explorative than mastream gay and bisexual rults documented lower self-teem, which ntradicted both our hypothis and others’ terview rearch (e. Whether the ems are applible to gay men, bisexuals, or men qutng their sexualy remas rpect to methods, the parabily of sampl may be somewhat uncerta, as one was llected through ter surveyg and the other, through paper survey.

A study that answers the rearch qutns would provi further evince to support the heterogeney hypothis: Not only is the mastream gay muny culturally heterogeneo, but so are the sexual health behavrs and problems wh last suggtn for future rearch would be to tt some of the theori generated by the current data. Some of our listeners might not really be aware of how psychiatry was pelled to remove homosexualy om the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs, which is pretty much the arber of what nstut a mental illns or a mental disorr among all behavral health practners.

THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF GAY MEN

He thought, "If I go outsi of the ci, and I go outsi of the ltle ty ltle secret gay enclav, then I'm gog to fd the people who are very different om each other, and 's gog to challenge this stereotype about what the signs of homosexualy are, " which were thgs like genr versn, or artistic terts for men, or thgs like that. I thk what Hooker did is, she took that sort of scientific lens that had always been sort of lookg at gay people and assumg there was a difference between gay and straight people, and g that difference whether was real or purported, to kd of build a fic mol and build a diagnosis, and build a mental health story. But I thk, once that happened, and once HIV/AIDS beme a way for psychologists and for psychology the Uned Stat, to have a more productive relatnship wh thgs like the NIMH, fundg streams, and so on, I thk took some ias that gay and lbian people were jt people, that were kd of a ltle b margal, they were que margal the 1970s.

A GAY COUPLE'S FIGHT FOR THEIR TW SON'S CIZENSHIP INSPIR

That's why we kd of thought, "Actually, I thk stat needs to be thought about this equatn as well when we thk about what is the landspe of discrimatn that people might enunter if they are lbian and gay, " or even if they sound lbian or gay.

Mills: I want to wrap up wh a qutn that tak back to your book for a moment, bee you end by wrg that 's important for all psychologists to have some knowledge of the recent history of LGBT psychology and that the field offers somethg of what you ll generalizable efulns beyond gay men and lbians to whom ially applied. It is somewhat difficult to get a read on how wispread or succsful the prophylactic e of HIV treatment meditns is, but the movement of HIV preventn this directn as well as the hostile reactn by some, is revealg what is says about gay men and our general attus about sexualy.

Consirg that the Catholic Church, nservative Jews and many fundamentalist Christians have been the most outspoken opponents of gay rights, is perhaps not surprisg that LGB people and their fai intify relign as a major obstacle acceptg homosexualy, eher themselv or a fay member. LGBTQ-affirmative therapists will be versed the negative effects of homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and heteronormativy (the assumptn that heterosexualy is “normal” and superr) and help clients navigate the challeng they prent—as well as relatnship problems, fay tensn, or other day-to-day ncerns for which a client might seek are the advantag of seeg an LGBTQ-iendly therapist?

LBIAN AND GAY PSYCHOLOGY: NEW PERSPECTIV, 2ND EDN

Effectively, then, the mother's immune system would (sometim) treat certa male protes produced by the fet as a foreign pathogen and attempt to attack , rultg out that uld clu a homosexual orientatn, but also fetal loss if the reactn was strong enough (i. The mothers were then classified further to one of five groups: those wh gay male only-children (n = 8), those wh gay male offsprg that had no olr brothers (n = 23), those wh gay male offsprg wh olr brothers (n = 23), those wh heterosexual male only-children (n = 11), and those wh heterosexual male offsprg wh siblgs (n = 61).

As birth weight tends to crease over succsive pregnanci, the parisons were limed to first live-born sons only (n = 63); this left 4 gay male only-children, 7 gay mal wh no olr brothers, 14 heterosexual mal wh gay younger brothers, 10 heterosexual male only-children, and 28 heterosexual mal wh siblgs.

While 's important to not get rried away wh this fdg given the relatively small sample size (I wouldn't put too much stock an N of 8), there is some suggtive evince here worth pursug further that somethg is atypil fetal velopment the se of gay male offsprg.

LBIAN AND GAY PSYCHOLOGY: THEORY, REARCH, AND CLIL APPLITNS

Skorska et al (2016) pos that this might have somethg to do wh some mothers showg a greater immune rponse agast male offsprg, rultg more fetal loss, the rult beg that such mothers are both ls likely to have any children at all and more likely to have gay male children particular. If mothers of gay men do not tend to have a greater rat of female-to-male offsprg, this would st some doubt on the explanatn (and, sce the only data I've heard reports that gay men tend to have more olr brothers, seems they would have noticed the sister pot by now if existed).

On the other hand, if this is a more general immune reactn agast fetal bodi, regardls of their sex, we would not expect such a pattern ( might also predict that mothers takg immunosupprsants would be ls likely to have gay offsprg/misrry, but thgs are unlikely to be that simple owg to the fact that other effects would rult too). The rmatn this booklet has been veloped by a aln of tn, health, mental health and relig anizatns that share a ncern for the health and tn of all stunts schools, cludg lbian, gay, and bisexual stunts, and believe that all stunts should have an opportuny to learn and velop a safe and supportive environment.

WHY A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF GAY MEN?

Homosexual members of society n unfortunately expect to regularly be challenged, sctised and nmned by belligerent type who are seemgly nvced that homosexualy is a “liftyle choice” issue has e up aga (for what is possibly the 12, 456, 987, 332nd time) for several reasons. The mastream media has always been somewhat blunt or ham-fisted s portrayal of even heterosexual relatnships (for evince of this, see pretty much any married uple an advert), so was a long shot that they’d show homosexuals accurately. Normally heterosexual characters sudnly displayg homosexual leangs when a boost viewg figur are need is a mon trope the days, so you n sort of see how this might make some people thk ’s a “choice”, if they lack more realistic sayg that sexualy is set stone om birth is also not que right, the ma emphasis of those g the choice argument is that homosexuals have weighed up their optns and nscly cid “I am gog to be gay om now on”.

MORE THAN HALF OF GENERATN Z GAY, BISEXUAL TEENAGE BOYS REPORT BEG OUT TO PARENTS

Comedian Todd Glass mak a brilliant pot his book (which is great, I got for Christmas), which is that if you genuely believe sexualy is a choice, then you’re not actually straight, you jt haven’t met anyone persuasive enough those who argue that homosexualy is a choice variably assert that is a wrong choice.

Sexual intysexual orientatnhomosexual mengay menmale sexual behavurgay intysocial intifitnChronic inty threatgay historysocial reprentatns theorypsychoanalysisgenr studi'g out'non-monogamy theoryhomosexualy and relignStigmatised Sexual Behavurssexual behavur. Elia, Associate Dean & Profsor of Health Edutn, San Francis State Universy, USA, Edor--Chief, Journal of Homosexualy)“In this expansive book, Ri Jaspal has given an -pth and sightful acunt of var signifint aspects of gay men’s life: inty velopment, relatnship nstctn, sexual behavur, management of prejudice and stigma, as well as mental and sexual health challeng. Drawg creatively om inty procs theory and social reprentatns theory, Jaspal’s meticulo analysis of the social and psychologil challeng gay men face – and the impacts on their mental and sexual health – serv as an urgent and persuasive ll for ntued progrsive actn, spe the advancement of gay rights recent s.

In most ntemporary human cultur that have been studied dividuals who self-intify as exclively homosexual are rare (Ward et al., 2014; Bailey et al., 2016), but a larger mory of the populatn report some homosexual sexual behavr and experience and a gree of same sex sexual attractn (SSSA) (Bagley and Tremblay, 1998; Sav-Williams and Vrangalova, 2013; Bailey et al., 2016).

THE PNEERG PSYCHOLOGIST WHO PROVED THAT BEG GAY ISN’T A MENTAL ILLNS

The variatn forms a smooth cle om a large majory who report exclive or mostly heterosexual attractn and/or behavr, through groups who report gre of both homosexual and heterosexual attractns and/or behavr to a small mory who report exclive homosexual attractns and behavr (Sav-Williams and Vrangalova, 2013; Bailey et al., 2016).

MARK CHANEY-GAY

For evolutnary blogists the puzzle is typilly posed like this: how n a herable SSSA persist a populatn when homosexual sex of self is non-reproductive and homosexual people have fewer offsprg on average than heterosexual people (Bell et al., 1981; Kg et al., 2005; Wrangham, 2019).

There is expected to be strong selectn agast geic factors that ntribute to SSSA: how, therefore, n herable homosexual attractns persist a populatn (Kirkpatrick, 2000; Gavrilets and Rice, 2006; Bártová and Valentová, 2012; Rice et al., 2012; Jeffery, 2015)? There is some evince that femal wh male homosexual relativ have more children than femal wh no male homosexual relativ a Wtern European populatn (Camper-Ciani et al., 2008; Lemmola and Camper-Ciani, 2009), but this fdg is at bt only weakly supported other populatns or cultur (Vasey et al., 2007; Bailey et al., 2016; Semenyna et al., 2017), and so overall there is ltle evince for sexually antagonistic selectn as an explanatn for SSSA human mal. In human societi there is very ltle evince homosexual people crease the reproductive output of relativ (Bobrow and Bailey, 2001; Rahman and Hull, 2005; Vasey and VanrLaan, 2012; Abild et al., 2014; Pm, 2017) offerg weak empiril support to k selectn theori for SSSA.

While domtitn of livtock has not always creased rat of homosexual behavr, there are several well studied exampl where domtitn has yield high levels of same-sex sexual behavr among adults (Dagg, 1984; Perks and Roselli, 2007). Same-sex sexual attractn, homosexual behavr and same sex affiliatns are distct dimensns of sexualy (Bol and Whelehan, 2009; Jordan-Young, 2010; Greenberg et al., 2016; Valentova and Varella, 2016), but they are related. A polygenic and addive geic mol of SSSA is patible wh the nature and distributn of SSSA human populatns, which featur ntuo variatn the gree of SSSA om a majory reportg exclively heterosexual attractns to a small mory reportg exclively homosexual attractns (Bailey et al., 2016).

A RECENT HISTORY OF LBIAN AND GAY PSYCHOLOGY

Along this cle of variatn dividuals exprsg gre of both homosexual and heterosexual attractns are stable sexuali and not transnal forms (Bailey et al., 2000; Diamond, 2008; Rosenthal et al., 2012; Sav-Williams and Vrangalova, 2013). Bisexualy is more mon than homosexualy, but the nature of variatn SSSA is often not well appreciated sce experimentalists are prone to force a bary dichotomy across what is realy ntuo and multivariate variatn sexualy (Jordan-Young, 2010). Mols of human evolutn are naturally hard, if not impossible, to prove or disprove, but here we note that Wrangham’s explanatn for an associatn between homosexualy and prosocialy do not, and nnot, expla homosexualy women.

THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS

Rice and Gavrilets (Rice et al., 2012) argued that a misexprsed epigeic modifier of ttosterone sensivy or sensivy that affected velopment of the bra only and not the body and genals might possibly expla why homosexual people show SSSA but do not have tersex bodi. However, is proposed, the endocre hypothis effectively tegoriz homosexuals as partially tersex: homosexual men as partially femized and homosexual women as partially masculized (Mtanski et al., 2002; Balthazart, 2011). The views of homosexualy have long sce been rejected by clil and social psychology bee clil psychology they have been found to be accurate, unsupported, and unnstctive (Hmann, 1995; Jordan-Young, 2010; Bailey et al., 2016).

A Recent History of Lbian and Gay Psychology will serve as an advanced historil troductn to this field’s recent history and current ncerns, and will rm both those who have been a part of this history and stunts who are new to the field.

Empirilly rich and tellectually rigoro, Lbian and Gay Psychology prents novative empiril studi that explore the children of lbians, ternalized homophobia, lbian and gay velopment, and aspects of relatnship qualy of habatg upl. This view created a cel set of circumstanc for gay people, as a lack of ser rearch to homosexualy allowed social stutns to discrimate on the basis of sexual orientatn, and medil stutns uld subject gay people to psychologilly and physilly damagg therapi. At base, all the ntributors to this book would argue that the homosexual is not a type of person that has been wh — var guis—throughout time and space; he and she are not simply “begs” that we are slowly disverg and unrstandg better.

SELECTED BIBLGRAPHY FOR LBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL CONCERNS PSYCHOLOGY: AN AFFIRMATIVE PERSPECTIVE

They were puttg forward the view that homosexuals uld not help beg homosexual; was jt how nature ma them, or at least somethg that happened very early childhood and that, all societi have their homosexuals, so there should be no laws agast homosexual behavur.

Profsor Herek was a member of the NAS Instute of Medice's Commtee on Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr (LGBT) Health Issu and Rearch Gaps and Opportuni, and thored that panel's 2011 nsens report, The Health of Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr People: Buildg a Foundatn for Better Unrstandg. Profsor Herek serv on the edorial board of Basic and Applied Social Psychology, The Journal of Social Issu, Sexualy Rearch and Social Policy, The Journal of Sex Rearch, Psychology of Sexual Orientatn and Genr Diversy, The Journal of LGBT Health and The Journal of Homosexualy.

“As a teenager tryg to unrstand myself and unrstand my sexualy, I looked at the ter for “the gay gene” and obvly me across Xq28, ” said Fah Sathirapongsasuti, a study -thor and senr scientist at 23andMe, which he joked once led him to believe he hered his gayns om his mother. “[Our study] unrsr an important role for the environment shapg human sexual behavr and perhaps most importantly there is no sgle gay gene but rather the ntributn of many small geic effects sttered across the genome, ” Neale said. Along wh empiril, clil, and theoretil discsns, the cln of personal narrative offers poignant sight to addnal plexi, prsur, and loss that lbians and gay men mt pe wh a world that often handl diversy wh the closed fist of bigotry.

“THEY’RE TURNG THE OGS GAY“: THE PSYCHOLOGY BEHD TER NSPIRACY THEORI

Stigma and Sexual Orientatn: Unrstandg Prejudice Agast Lbians, Gay Men, and Bisexuals brgs together theory and empiril data om a variety of discipl – cludg psychology, soclogy, and polil science – to illumate the phenomenon varly referred to as homophobia, heterosexism, or simply prejudice based on sexual orientatn.

GAY CACK

Her rearch shows that gay Black men often experience racial discrimatn om gay men who are not Black, for example, while bisexual Black men experience race and sexual orientatn discrimatn both gay and heterosexual muni (Sex Rol, Vol.

CAN GAY AND STRAIGHT MEN REALLY BE FRIENDS?