Are We Born Gay? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• AM I GAY ENOUGH? WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT QUEER INTY
• AM I GAY?
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• NFL ACH BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR U.S. MEN’S PRO SPORTS TO E OUT AS GAY
• CAN SOMEONE BE HOMOSEXUAL AND NOT GAY?
• I LIKE GUYS BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE GAY. HOW DO I STOP BEG GAY?
• ARE WE BORN GAY?
• WHY WOULD PEOPLE 'CHOOSE' TO BE GAY?
• SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY

AM I GAY ENOUGH? WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT QUEER INTY

It’s not pletely known why someone might be lbian, gay, straight, or bisexual.

You also n’t “turn” a person gay. For example, exposg a boy to toys tradnally ma for girls, such as dolls, won’t e him to be gay. Many people say that they knew they were lbian, gay, or bisexual even before puberty.

AM I GAY?

” Many people, cludg sex rearchers and scientists, believe that sexual orientatn is like a sle wh entirely gay on one end and entirely straight on the other.

LGBTQ stands for Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, and Queer/Qutng. Sexual inty is how you label yourself (for example, g labels such as queer, gay, lbian, straight, or bisexual). Some people may engage same genr sexual behavr but not intify themselv as bisexual, lbian, or gay.

5% intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual. )Sce I started acceptg that I was queer and havg queer enunters, I have been told numero tim that, as a super femme cis woman, I'm "not gay enough.

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

—Devan, 26It sounds like you already know this, but let me say loud and clear: There is no such thg as not beg “gay enough. ” Many people the LGBTQ muny feel the same way you do, whether they’re fellow femm who don’t “appear” gay, bisexual people hetero relatnships, gay men who don’t f stereotypil standards, and so many others.

In fact, gay people who don’t exprs their gayns wh an explicly “queer athetic” often experience what some psychologists ll “queer imposter syndrome. A uple of lumns ago, Kira, a “femme-prentg queer, ” told me about her “extremely awkward ‘look, I'm gay! What do you do if you don’t want to bee a Profsnal Femme Gay Woman?

Reachg beyond your lol muny and fillg your social feeds wh queer folks who look all kds of ways n serve as a daily affirmatn that you are gay enough, exactly the way you are. Gay - While this adjective has historilly scribed men who are attracted to other men, the term now is ed to refer to anyone who experienc romantic, emotnal, or physil attractn to people of the same genr. Sce genr inty and sexual orientatn are separate, transgenr people n intify as straight, gay, lbian, bisexual, etc.

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach a US men’s profsnal sports league to e out as gay.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

Per Outsports, as of September 2022, there have only ever been 16 players NFL history to publicly e out as gay or bisexual.

Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player league history to announce that he is gay 2021. Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league. -- Jaguars assistant strength and ndng ach Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach major Amerin men's profsnal sports to publicly e out as gay, tellg he ma the cisn bee he didn't want to hi who he is any longer and to possibly spire others siar 's a cisn and move that drew praise and support om owner Shad Khan, who was a vol and emphatic supporter of a cy ordance that expand protectns on the grounds of sexual orientatn, genr inty and genr exprsn.

NFL ACH BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR U.S. MEN’S PRO SPORTS TO E OUT AS GAY

Outsi lebacker Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player to e out as gay and to play a game Associated Prs ntributed to this report. 14 Ways To Defeat Your Fears of Beg Gay. There are many gay men who say "I'm not part of the scene" -- men who hate gay bars and, prumably, crowds of queer people general.

CAN SOMEONE BE HOMOSEXUAL AND NOT GAY?

Internalized homophobia -- self-shamg, self-hatred -- leads many gay men, and many queer people general, to recreate their closets long after they're "out" by shunng others, particularly those they nsir "flamboyant. " Y, there are some good reasons to rce your participatn gay bars (time, money, health). But you mt spend time wh others, whether that means havg a group of gay movie iends or queer gamers or playg on a gay sports team.

Go to gay bars, even if they make you unfortable.

I LIKE GUYS BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE GAY. HOW DO I STOP BEG GAY?

Fd gay iends. This parable piece by lbian wrer Sarah Prager go through the lp of great gays who changed the world -- om ventor Alan Turg to Tchaikovsky, the poser, to the Renaissance pater and ventor Leonardo da Vci. AIDS vastated muni of gay men and transgenr women, particularly gay men and trans women of lor.

Read the numbers: In four years, more than 5, 596 people the Uned Stat had died of AIDS, many of them gay men and transgenr women.

But if I hadn't experienced all that adversy, I wouldn't be so furly proud to be gay. Fd a gay elr who's been where you are and r for your well-beg, someone who unrstands you and never pass judgment, someone who lets you make the mistak you need to make.

ARE WE BORN GAY?

Tmp has repeatedly attacked transgenr servicemembers, and gay men are still beg hunted and murred Chechnya. Are you gay or bisexual? There would be no ternalized self-hatred if no one had ever told you that beg gay is wrong, or that gay sex is disgtg, or that gay men n't feel real love, or that beg transgenr is fake, or that beg nonbary is a mental illns or a ll for attentn.

If you thk a word like "gay" or "queer" works for you right now (aga, don't have to work for you forever -- labels do not e wh lifetime ntracts) and you're not ready to tell everyone, simply say out loud to yourself. -based profsnal league to e out as gay.

Michael Sam beme the first openly gay player to be drafted when the then-St.

WHY WOULD PEOPLE 'CHOOSE' TO BE GAY?

So when we therapists are nonted wh male clients, often married on, who e to wh ep nflicts about their sexual attractn to other men, we often fd that they are willg to e the word “homosexual, ” but chew the “gay” label.

Bee “gay” impli an embracg of the gay liftyle — gay bars, gay pri paras, perhaps multiple sex partners, or even anonymo sex.

Unfortunately, much of our natn’s polics have long exacerbated the problem as well, shamg and vilifyg homosexualy, leadg legns of men stgglg wh sexual inty to ternalize their homophobia. For example, gay men the Mormon fah are moral nflict. Durg the’90s, I beme a “gay-affirmative therapist.

SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY

I warned them of the pfalls of keepg their sexual orientatn secret: a life of creased prsn, pursug a secret life the gay unrground wh the danger of beg ught, how attemptg to supprs urg n often e them to bee even more obssed wh them.

Beg a gay man, I was tryg to brg them to where I was at. Durg this time, a man don’t see himself as gay, only homosexual.

The term gay is too affirmative, and they are not ready to accept . I have treated many men who are of Mormon, Orthodox Jewish, Catholic, and other religns who thk of homosexualy as a pathology.