We may know why younger brothers are more likely to be gay | New Scientist

Contents:

• MEN WH OLR BROTHERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY, STUDY SUGGTS
• WE MAY KNOW WHY YOUNGER BROTHERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY
• IS YOUR CHILD GAY?
• ARE YOUNGER BROTHERS MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY?
• SWV'S COKO SAYS SHE HAD NO PROBLEM ACCEPTG THAT HER YOUNGT SON IS GAY
• TO BE YOUNG & GAY

MEN WH OLR BROTHERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY, STUDY SUGGTS

Men wh olr brothers are more likely to be gay, acrdg to a study published Wednday the journal Proceedgs of the Royal Society B. This new report builds upon prev rearch regardg male birth orr and homosexualy, though there is still no cisive ncln as to why there’s a lk between the cross-analyzg data om 10 scientific studi wh more than 5, 000 subjects, rearchers found that men wh olr brothers were 38 percent more likely to intify as gay. ”The study, which pared the probabily of the youngt brother a two-son fay beg gay as pared to the olst son, did not clu female subjects, as prev rearch has tablished that women do not fluence the sexual orientatn of their younger siblgs, acrdg to this study did not terme a ncrete reason for the rrelatn between a man havg an olr brother and intifyg as gay, Blanchard said that “pots toward the need for more rearch on the 'maternal immune hypothis'” — a theory Blanchard troduced 1996 that suggts that a mother is exposed to “male-specific substanc” durg pregnancy wh or the birth of a son.

WE MAY KNOW WHY YOUNGER BROTHERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY

Acrdg to proponents of the theory, the mother’s immune rponse is changed durg the pregnancy of a boy, creasg the likelihood that a subsequent male child would be gay.

Jenni Rivera's youngt son Johnny Lopez out, tellg the world a vio that he is gay. I am a gay relatnship right now and I am love wh this person. "And for so long I wanted to be pletely straight or pletely gay bee I hontly didn't know where I am, " he said, addg: "I'm bisexual.

IS YOUR CHILD GAY?

Chiquis did not do a good job wh him and that's why he's gay, '" she add. "I support him and I have always supported the gay muny. Chiquis fds the prejudice that persists toward homosexuals Lato culture dishearteng and believ that tolerance is spikg suici rat among young LGBT people: "We have to gui them and tell them we will always love them, " she said.

The more olr brothers a boy has, the more likely he is to be gay when he grows up – an effect lled the “aternal birth orr effect”. They found that the mothers of gay sons wh olr brothers had the hight levels of antibodi agast this prote, followed by the mothers of gay sons wh no olr brothers. “Given that the prote is known to be important synapse formatn, you n see how maternal antibodi might affect the wirg of the fetal bra, and that might expla why each subsequent son is more likely to grow up gay.

“The signifince of this prelimary observatn, if n be replited, is that intifi specific molecul the bra that may be important for heterosexual as well as homosexual velopment, ” says Dean Hamer, a pneer of rearchg the blogil termants of sexual orientatn. Read more: What do the new gay gen tell about sexual orientatn? Both lbians and gay men often have a history of cross-sex-typed behavrs: ltle boys beg fatuated wh their mother's makp k; ltle girls enamored of field hockey or profsnal wrtlg.

ARE YOUNGER BROTHERS MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY?

Prehomosexual boys tend to be more attracted to solary sports such as swimmg, cyclg and tennis than they are to rougher ntact sports such as football and soccer. Children who show pronounced sex-atypil behavrs may have more of a geic loadg to their homosexualy. The behavral patterns are feared, loathed and often spoken of directly as harbgers of adult homosexualy.

It is only relatively recently, however, that velopmental scientists have nducted ntrolled studi to intify the earlit and most reliable signs of adult homosexualy. In lookg refully at the childhoods of gay adults, rearchers are fdg an trigug set of behavral ditors that homosexuals seem to have mon. Curly enough, the age-old homophobic fears of many parents reflect some genue predictive currency.

Zucker, both psychologists, published a semal paper on childhood markers of homosexualy 1995. So on the basis of some earlier, shakier rearch, along wh a good dose of mon sense, Bailey and Zucker hypothized that homosexuals would show an verted pattern of sex-typed childhood behavrs—ltle boys preferrg girls as playmat and beg fatuated wh their mother's makp k; ltle girls strangely enamored of field hockey or profsnal wrtlg—that sort of thg.

SWV'S COKO SAYS SHE HAD NO PROBLEM ACCEPTG THAT HER YOUNGT SON IS GAY

Given that a small proportn of the populatn is homosexual, prospective studi require a large number of children. Although only 12 percent of the women grew up to be genr dysphoric (the unfortable sense that your blogil sex do not match your genr), the odds of the women reportg a bisexual or homosexual orientatn were up to 23 tim higher than would occur a general sample of young women.

And the same holds for gay men. Bailey and Zucker, who nducted a retrospective study which adults answered qutns about their past, revealed that 89 percent of randomly sampled gay men relled cross-sex-typed childhood behavrs exceedg the heterosexual median. The thors found that “those targets who, as adults, intified themselv as homosexual were judged to be genr nonnformg as children.

There is also evince of a “dosage effect”: the more genr-nonnformg characteristics there are childhood, the more likely is that a homosexual or bisexual orientatn will be prent adulthood.

TO BE YOUNG & GAY

Not all ltle boys who like to wear drs grow up to be gay, nor do all ltle girls who spise drs bee lbians. I took to middle school wrtlg as a rather scrawny 80-pound eighth grar, and so dog, ironilly beme all too nsc of my homosexual orientatn.