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

Contents:

• WHY ARE THERE GAY MEN?
• HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?
• SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY
• HOW MANY AMERIN MEN ARE GAY?
• A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
• KEV SPACEY: I N’T TELL WHETHER MEN ARE GAY JT BY LOOKG AT THEM
• THE SERIAL KILLER WHO PREYED UPON GAY NEW YORKERS
• IS MY HBAND GAY? SIGNS OF A GAY HBAND
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY?

WHY ARE THERE GAY MEN?

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.

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.

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?

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.

Increasg numbers of populatn-based surveys the Uned Stat and across the world clu qutns that allow for an timate of the size of the lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) populatn. In measurg sexual orientatn, lbian, gay, and bisexual dividuals may be intified strictly based on their self-inty or may be possible to nsir same-sex sexual behavr or sexual attractn. While the surveys show a fairly wi variatn the overall percentage of adults who intify as LGB, the proportn who intify as lbian/gay vers bisexual is somewhat more nsistent (see Figure 2).

The Natnal Survey of Sexual Health and Behavr and the Atralian Longudal Study of Health and Relatnships both found a majory of rponnts (55% and 59%, rpectively) intifyg as surveys show even greater nsistency differenc between men and women associated wh lbian/gay vers bisexual inty.

SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY

A group of scientists suggted Tuday that homosexuals get that tra om their oppose-sex parents: A lbian will almost always get the tra om her father, while a gay man will get the tra om his heredary lk of homosexualy has long been tablished, but scientists knew was not a strictly geic lk, bee there are many pairs of intil tws who have differg sexuali.

Scientists om the Natnal Instute for Mathematil and Blogil Synthis say homosexualy seems to have an epigeic, not a geic thought to have some sort of heredary lk, a group of scientists suggted Tuday that homosexualy is lked to epi-marks — extra layers of rmatn that ntrol how certa gen are exprsed. In homosexuals, the epi-marks aren't erased — they're passed om father-to-dghter or mother-to-son, explas William Rice, an evolutnary blogist at the Universy of California Santa Barbara and lead thor of the study.

HOW MANY AMERIN MEN ARE GAY?

"There is pellg evince that epi-marks ntribute to both the siary and dissiary of fay members, and n therefore feasibly ntribute to the observed faial herance of homosexualy and s low nrdance between [intil] tws, " Rice and his team created a mathematil mol that explas why homosexualy is passed through epi-marks, not geics. But bee the epi-marks provi an evolutnary advantage for the parents of homosexuals: They protect fathers of homosexuals om unrexposure to ttosterone and mothers of homosexuals om overexposure to ttosterone while they are gtatn. "The epi-marks protect fathers and mothers om excs or unrexposure to ttosterone — when they rry over to oppose-sex offsprg, n e the masculizatn of femal or the femizatn of mal, " Rice says, which n lead to a child beg gay.

Rice not that the markers are "highly variable" and that only strong epi-marks will rult a homosexual scientists have long spected some sort of geic lk, Rice says studi attemptg to expla why people are gay have been few and far between.

" Homosexual behavr has been observed black swans, pengus, sheep, and other animals, he 's mol still needs to be tted on real-life parent-offsprg pairs, but he says this epigeic lk mak more sense than any other explanatn, and that his team has mapped out a way for other scientists to tt their work.

A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN

But somewhere the exabyt of data that human begs create every day are answers to even the most challengg surveys, social works, pornographic search and datg s, I recently studied evince on the number of gay men. While none of the data sourc are ial, they be to tell a nsistent least 5 percent of Amerin men, I timate, are predomantly attracted to men, and lns of gay men still live, to some gree, the closet. The evince also suggts that a large number of gay men are married to are three sourc that n give timat of the openly gay populatn broken down by state: the cens, which asks about same-sex hoeholds; Gallup, which has fairly large-sample surveys for every state; and Facebook, which asks members what genr they are terted .

While the data sourc all measure different gre of openns, one rult is strikgly siar: All three suggt that the openly gay populatn is dramatilly higher more tolerant stat, fed g an timate by Nate Silver of support for same-sex marriage. On Facebook, for example, about 1 percent of men Mississippi who list a genr preference say that they are terted men; California, more than 3 percent there really so many fewer gay men livg ls tolerant stat? 1 percentage pots higher the least tolerant stat if everyone stayed percent of male high school stunts who intify themselv as gay on Facebook is also much lower ls tolerant areas.

We n approach the qutn of whether tolerant areas actually have fewer gay men another way, too, by timatg the percent of search for pornography that are lookg for pictns of gay men. This aga suggts that there are jt about as many gay men ls tolerant stat as there are anywhere ls tolerant stat have siar percentag of gay men but far fewer openly gay men, there is a clear relatnship between tolerance and openns.

KEV SPACEY: I N’T TELL WHETHER MEN ARE GAY JT BY LOOKG AT THEM

My prelimary rearch dit that for every 20 percentage pots of support for gay marriage about one-and-a-half tim as many men om that state will intify openly as gay on Facebook. But data om, one of the untry’s largt datg s, which has high rat of membership for both straight and gay men, reveals a siarly large number of missg gay men ls tolerant stat. Among the stat wh the hight percentag are Kentucky, Louisiana and is, other words, a huge amount of secret sufferg the Uned Stat that n be directly attributed to tolerance of homosexualy.

SOMETIMES even I get tired of lookg at aggregate data, so I asked a psychiatrist Mississippi who specializ helpg closeted gay men if any of his patients might want to talk to me. They ually work advertisg, PR, marketg, or the entertament dtry and make a ton of sh which they e to have perfect apartments, fantastic wardrob, and summer hom near all the other gay-listers. He drs eher the most current prissy fashns or like a homo versn of Terry Richardson, big glass, flannels, and jeans that looks so thrown together that took him hours to put together.

THE SERIAL KILLER WHO PREYED UPON GAY NEW YORKERS

Thanks to the shownners drivg thentic stori, filmmakers buckg s-old heteronormative paradigms, actors embolned to live more hontly and platforms bankrollg so much of , beg gay, queer, transgenr or any other other has never been more wily embraced the entertament s gural Pri issue, The Hollywood Reporter homed on the talent and makers helpg boost visibily and creatg opportuni for members of the extend LGBTQ muny. After more than a of Watch What Happens Live Wh Andy Cohen, where he beme the first openly gay host Amerin late night, Bravo's exec turned talent tackl all kds of media (SiriXM show Rad Andy, multiple books), while upliftg and advotg for the LGBTQ muny.

Puttg his stamp on The Ln Kg — he played Timon to great acclaim the billn-dollar-earng Disney reboot — the out-and-proud funnyman will next play Matt Ddge  Amerin Crime Story: Impeachment while his upg Judd Apatow-produced feature at Universal is set to be the first gay rom- om a major stud. Creator of the NBC s One Big Happy and her own YouTube talk show This Jt Out, Feldman recently ma her Netflix edy outright queer, as Dead to Me's sophomore season revealed a lead character to be bisexual.

IS MY HBAND GAY? SIGNS OF A GAY HBAND

I'LL FEEL GOOD ABOUT HOLLYWOOD'S LGBTQ REPRESENTATION WHEN "When 'gay actor, ' 'gay director, ' 'gay wrer, ' 'gay story, ' et cetera, are no longer labels even worth mentng.

In 2019, the bisexual actor uld be seen as French New Wave in Jean Seberg Venice premiere tle Seberg, as a secret agent Sony's Charlie's Angels reboot and on a particularly gay episo of SNL. The queer Salvadoran edian translated the handful of breakout Saturday Night Live scen he wrote to multiple als at HBO — where he buted the edy special My Favore Shap  2019 and is readyg season two of Los Espookys, the half-Spanish, half-English, entirely absurd edy which he stars as the gay heir to a cholate fortune. After 45 seasons, 's hard to believe there are any firsts left for Saturday Night Live — but Yang arrived at 30 Rock 2019 as the st's first Che Amerin stmember and only s third openly gay male.

Osr-wng actor Kev Spacey has said he is attracted to mascule men but is not able to tell whether someone is gay jt by lookg at cross-examatn durg his trial on sex abe charg, the Hollywood star nied he was a “sexual bully” and told the jury he did not have a “power wand” to make people want to sleep wh about his sexual preferenc, Mr Spacey said he had prevly had romantic enunters wh men who would not scribe themselv as homosexual.

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

How Olr Brothers Influence HomosexualyHomosexualy might be partly driven by a mother’s immune rponse to her male fet—which creas wh each son she MacGregor / RtersHere’s what we know: Homosexualy is normal. Female Japane maqu will even pete tersexually wh mal for exclive accs to female sexual ’s what we don’t know: What, specifilly, someone to bee gay, straight, or somethg between.

Part of the explanatn is geic, but bee most intil tws of gay people are straight, heredy don’t expla “why” qutn is important bee “there is a strong rrelatn between beliefs about the origs of sexual orientatn and tolerance of non-heterosexualy, ” acrdg to the report thors, who are om seven universi spanng the globe.

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY?

(When Atlantic ntributor Chandler Burr proposed his 1996 book, A Separate Creatn, that people are born gay, Southern Baptists lled to boytt Disney films and parks prott agast the publisher, Disney subsidiary Hypern. ) It shouldn’t matter whether people “choose” to be gay, but polilly, do—at least for of the most nsistent environmental explanatns for homosexualy is lled the “aternal birth orr effect. But gaps will rema, such as why some firstborn sons are gay, why some intil tws of gay sons are straight, and why women are gay, to name jt a review-paper thors do le out one explanatn for homosexualy, however: That tolerance for gay people enurag more people to bee gay.

“Homosexual orientatn do not crease equency wh social tolerance, although s exprsn ( behavr and open intifitn) may do so, ” they reasong—that a tolerant society somehow enurag homosexualy to flourish—has been ed to support anti-gay legislatn Uganda, Rsia, and elsewhere.

) And Kate McKnon, playg a so-lled Weird Barbie who experienced an extreme haircut and makeover at the hands of an experimental child, never actually answers the qutn anybody would have upon seeg her gay-ass haircut and knowg the actor’s sexualy.