Why Are There Gay Men? | Male Homosexualy | Live Science

Contents:

• KEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BARBIE’S GAY BT FRIEND—NOT HER BOYIEND
• HOW TO GET A MAN (FOR GAY MEN)
• STEP-BY-STEP INSTCTNS FOR SHOOTG YOUR SHOT WH GAY GUYS
• HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU’RE GAY, STRAIGHT, OR SOMETHG BETWEEN?
• WHY ARE THERE GAY MEN?
• WHAT'S UP WH "GENR CRIL" GAY GUYS?
• AS A GAY MAN, I’LL NEVER BE NORMAL
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
• HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
• ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL
• GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?

KEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BARBIE’S GAY BT FRIEND—NOT HER BOYIEND

The film won’t say , but a post-creds punchle about Ken’s handwrg, plete wh hearts and stars surroundg his name, tells what we need to heavily implied nature of Ken’s gayns Toy Story 3 harkens back to Hollywood’s tradnal gay bt iend-type characters.

In the Hays Co era, explic referenc to homosexualy weren’t allowed, so characters like Van Buren (Frankl Pangborn) 1937’s Easy Livg, Kip (David Wayne) 1949’s Adam’s Rib, or Addison (Gee Sanrs) 1950’s All About Eve stead were imbued wh effemate characteristics, offerg a glimpse outsi of heteronormativy whout explicly beg of the characters were the same—some were tty, others sweet. Des later, 2010, the gay bt iend was all the rage; Teen Vogue even went so far as to proclaim the GBF as the summer’s mt-have accsory.

In movi like Mean Girls (2004), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Easy A (2010), No Strgs Attached (2011), and Isn’t It Romantic (2019), gay iends exist entirely the orb of their female iends. Mattel, of urse, vehemently nied any claims that Ken was gay, let alone that he had somethg as prepostero as a ck rg around his neck. As a rult, gay men bought the doll drov, and spe Mattel ultimately rellg the doll and wipg away any trace of Earrg Magic Ken, was near-impossible to see Ken as anythg but the glor homosexual he was born to be om then on.

HOW TO GET A MAN (FOR GAY MEN)

Though Mattel don’t seem to be willg to say Ken is actually gay, the Ken dolls of recent years seem to really lean to Ken’s queerns. While there is no way to “drs gay, ” there are several dolls that seem to suggt otherwise, such as:Fashnista Ken #193, who looks very exced to tell you about his new obssn, Troye Sivan;Travel Ken Doll, who has a satchel perfect for bathho and a purple overnight bag that lerally proclaims he’s “extra;”Ken Looks Doll, servg “I’m gonna give you a makeover”-type realns while sportg black pleather pants;This Ken, who wears the least heterosexual double nim I have a feelg the new Barbie movie will put the work to nvce that Ken is a hetero du who lov nothg life more than Barbie herself, the wrg’s already on the wall: Ken is, and always will be, Barbie’s gay bt obssg! Article SummaryXAs a gay man, n be a stggle to fd someone special, but you n up your chanc by puttg yourself out there and approachg guys you're terted .

Try Grdr, Adult Friend Fr, or Tr to meet gay or bi people lookg to hook up, or OK Cupid or Hge if you’re terted makg a eper nnectn.

In a society where most of are expected to be straight, n be difficult to take a step back and ask whether you’re gay, straight, or somethg ’re the only person who n figure out what your orientatn tly is. You don’t have to fulfill certa “creria” to qualify as gay, straight, bisexual, or anythg is an aspect of your inty, not a job applitn — and you n intify wh whatever term fs you!

STEP-BY-STEP INSTCTNS FOR SHOOTG YOUR SHOT WH GAY GUYS

” Plenty of people thought they were one thg for the first half of their life, only to fd that wasn’t ’s also possible to thk you’re gay when you’re actually bi, or thk you’re bi when you’re actually gay, for example. While female sexualy appears to be more fluid, rearch suggts that male gayns is an born, unalterable, strongly geilly fluenced tra.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU’RE GAY, STRAIGHT, OR SOMETHG BETWEEN?

But nsirg that the tra disurag the type of sex that leads to procreatn — that is, sex wh women — and would therefore seem to thwart s own chanc of beg geilly passed on to the next generatn, why are there gay men at all? For several years, studi led by Andrea Camper Ciani at the Universy of Padova Italy and others have found that mothers and maternal nts of gay men tend to have signifintly more offsprg than the maternal relativ of straight men. The rults show strong support for the "balancg selectn hypothis, " which is fast beg the accepted theory of the geic basis of male theory holds that the same geic factors that duce gayns mal also promote fecundy (high reproductive succs) those mal' female maternal relativ.

WHY ARE THERE GAY MEN?

Through this tra-off, the maternal relativ' "gay man gen, " though they aren't exprsed as such, tend to get passed to future generatns spe of their tenncy to make their male herors no one knows which gen, exactly, the might be, at least one of them appears to be loted on the X chromosome, acrdg to geic molg by Camper Ciani and his lleagu. Mal her only one X chromosome — the one om their mother — and if clus the gene that promot gayns mal and fecundy femal, he is likely to be gay while his mom and her female relativ are likely to have lots of kids.

Prevly, the Italian rearchers suggted that the "gay man gene" might simply crease androphilia, or attractn to men, thereby makg the mal who posss the gene homosexual and the femal who posss more promiscuo. But after vtigatg the characteristics of 161 female maternal relativ of homosexual and heterosexual men, the rearchers have adjted their hypothis. The androphilic pattern that we found is about femal who crease their reproductive value to attract the bt mal, " Camper Ciani told Life's Ltle out, the moms and nts of gay men have an advantage over the moms and nts of straight men for several reasons: They are more fertile, displayg fewer gynelogil disorrs or plitns durg pregnancy; they are more extroverted, as well as funnier, happier and more relaxed; and they have fewer fay problems and social anxieti.

"It is que possible that there are several fluenc on formg a homosexual orientatn, " said Gelf Rieger, a sexual orientatn rearcher at Cornell Universy. But as for why geic factors would exist that make men gay, appears that the gen make women, as well as gay men, allurg to other men. The LGB Alliance, a chary found by both gay men and lbians which has been scribed as a hate group by a number of proment figur and anizatns, remas the most notor example of this velopment, but this year also saw the lnch of a trans-exclive media outlet, Lbian and Gay News (there is no news about bisexuals, I gus.

WHAT'S UP WH "GENR CRIL" GAY GUYS?

)The LGB Alliance claims s missn statement to “advance the terts of lbians, gay men and bisexuals, ” but s view of what nstut the terts is a narrow one: each of their six active mpaigns is ncerned wh trans people. The UK’s high rate of homelsns amongst LGBT youth, the risk of portatn faced by gay asylum seekers, or the fact that homophobic hate crime has soared sce 2015 — all of the issu fall outsi of the LGB Alliance’s rem, favor of more prsg ncerns like “ensurg that people are asked about their blogil sex while fillg the cens” and “makg harr for trans people to change their birth certifite.

AS A GAY MAN, I’LL NEVER BE NORMAL

” Gay people Bra n breath a sigh of relief that an anizatn is here at last to advance their terts, all of which, for some reason, volve antagonisg trans people.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

Havg succsfully persuad pole society that “TERF” is a slur, the Brish anti-trans movement now aniz unr the banner of “genr cril” — a phemistic moniker ma nsirably funnier by the fact that nobody is more cril of genr than someone who 's a certa kd of gay man who embodi the genr-cril vibe. ” He’s not pecially terted gay culture, and stead prefers the standard fare of middle-brow English liberals: Gee Orwell and The Great Brish Bake-Off; Solzhensyn and Strictly Come Dancg; edy panel shows lled “I’m Aaid I Haven’t the Foggit!

However, stark ntrast, I fd the transphobia of so-lled ‘genr-cril gay men’ utterly self dulgent, nsirg that cisgenr men tend to hold the most stctural and terpersonal power wh LGBTQ+ spac. “There are many different subtyp of gay guy, and I thk the genr-cril gay man spans them all, ” says Sean O’Neill, a wrer based London. “For some of them ’s all jt a post-hoc jtifitn for regular populatn-level transphobia, ” he says, “or a symptom of beg too-onle or too much other people's bs (classic gay tras).

A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN

” There seems to be the ncern that if gay men lump ourselv together wh trans people — a group subject to greater discrimatn — we risk beg damned by associatn. It’s a very succsful sort of divi-and-nquer where straight society tells a certa — often more middle-class, wealthier — strata of gay men that 's on them now to make sure that the weirdo are kept at bay so that the really sry queerns, the msy, le-blurrg stuff, don't force that straight society to roll back all the gas civil rights there were ma the late 20th and early 21st century. ” This brand of anti-intarian transphobia has yet to make ser -roads wh the Brish left, gay or otherwise, though that’s likely jt bee beg anti-trans is a wholly tablishment posn the UK.

”Beyond vague anxieti about their place the world, “genr cril” gay men have a number of specific grievanc, all of which are stupid. But this has never been a term wh which gay men have intified, other than, recent years, to signal their support for a hate movement.

”Frankly, I thk the ia that trans men beg on Grdr pos some existential threat to cisgenr gay men is ls a se of misguid anxiety and more a se of wishful thkg, ” says Shon. ” While I n’t speak for the transmascule muny, ’s ed hard to image they’re clamourg for the amoro attentns of the middle-aged Dr Who fans who talk about eatg “emergency biscus” and, any se, live anti-trans gay men also hate the the word “queer, ” which they sometim refer to, Tumblr Teen style, as “the Q slur.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

” In prose that would make an unrgrad creative wrg workshop blh, one Lbian and Gay News ntributor argu, “As words go, [queer] is a sharp bla, the wounds leav are msy laceratns that don’t heal neatly rather than clean surgil cuts.

ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

It hardly needs sayg that “genr cril” gay men don’t pay any ference to the hurt feelgs of the people who disagree wh them, nor are they reluctant to leverage accatns of homophobia agast their crics. ” And yet…Beyond the issu, “genr cril” gay men make a larger and more apolyptic claim: the existence of “genr iology” means that gay men will eventually be ma extct.

This is a well-worn talkg pot: transphobic men, gay or straight, love to rell that when they were young, they were always a ltle b different. The fear that gay men will be “transed” away rts on the premise that there is a signifint hort of homophobic but trans-enthiastic parents who would rather have a trans child than a gay one.

GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?

K is already makg -roads the Stat — most chillgly of all, one of s chief proponents is a whe rapper — and ’s easy to image nvergg wh an Andrew Sullivan-style gay nservatism to nightmarish effect. The men are speful and staggergly unchic; they’re wastg their liv the worst possible way— luckily, as a gay man, I am allowed to say Greig wr about culture and society. Bravo's origal Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was a groundbreakg realy seri for Amerin first eratn of Queer Eye premiered July 2003 and featured five gay men who were experts their given fields.

The origal st nsisted of Carson Krsley (the "fashn savant"), Jai Rodriguez (the "culture vulture"), Kyan Douglas (the "the groomg gu"), Ted Allen (the "food and we nnoissr"), and Thom Filicia (the "sign doctor") many ways, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was one of the first popular realy seri to troduce several different typ of gay men to mastream dienc. For a untry that still wrtled wh acceptg LGBTQ+ people, the OG Queer Eye for the Straight Guy show proved that hetero guys had no reason to feel threatened if they hung out wh gay men — and they may even be able to learn a thg or two om 2018, Netflix rebooted the show wh a slightly tweaked tle, Queer Eye.