Are We Born Gay? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• ARE WE BORN GAY?
• 'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK, WE'RE BORN THIS WAY. LET’S AL WH .
• IS A PERSON ‘BORN GAY’, OR IS BEG GAY A LEARNED BEHAVR?
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• IS ANYONE BORN GAY?
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?
• CAN A PERSON BE BORN GAY?
• ARE GAYS ‘BORN THAT WAY’? MOST AMERINS NOW SAY Y, BUT SCIENCE SAYS NO

ARE WE BORN GAY?

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

” 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. 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.

'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK, WE'RE BORN THIS WAY. LET’S AL WH .

But on the other, he totally wrtl wh the image produced by the ia that one might be "born gay, " of a ltle male neonate appearg wh illy pk diapers and graspg a Barbie doll. Plörl pared self-clared homosexual or heterosexual inti adults to their memori of genr nformy childhood. First, by ncentratg on the left si of the graphs, the rear n see that there is a segment of adult gay men who remember beg highly genr non-nformg as kids.

But there were a signifint number of genr-nformg men who, nohels, veloped a gay or bisexual inty adulthood. Maybe we n agree that the image evoked by "born gay"—that ltle girl neonate appearg wearg overalls and graspg a toy tck—do not help thk through qutns of sexual sire and inty.

In a recent Guardian article, Simon Copland argued that is very unlikely people are born gay (or prumably any other sexual orientatn). Fdg evince for a blogil basis should not sre or unrme gay, lbian and bisexual (LGB) rights (the studi I refer to do not clu transgenred dividuals, so I’ll nfe my ments to lbian, gay and bisexual people). Evince om pennt rearch groups who studied tws shows that geic factors expla about 25-30% of the differenc between people sexual orientatn (heterosexual, gay, lbian, and bisexual).

IS A PERSON ‘BORN GAY’, OR IS BEG GAY A LEARNED BEHAVR?

Tw studi are a first look to the geics of a tra and tell that there are such thgs as “gen for sexual orientatn” (I hate the phrase “gay gene”). Three gene fdg studi showed that gay brothers share geic markers on the X chromosome; the most recent study also found shared markers on chromosome 8.

For example, plex psychologil tras have many al gen (not simply “a gay gene”).

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

Perhaps this is due to the stereotype that female sexualy is “too plex” or that lbians are rarer than gay are far om the whole story. Gen uld themselv nudge one towards a particular sexual orientatn or gen may simply teract wh other environmental factors (such as sex hormon the womb environment) to fluence later sexual bras of gay and heterosexual people also appear to be anised differently. For example patterns of bra anisatn appear siar between gay men and heterosexual women and between lbian women and heterosexual men.

Gay men appear, on average, more “female typil” bra pattern rpons and lbian women are somewhat more “male typil”. Differenc bra anisatn mean differenc psychology and study after study show differenc gnn between heterosexual and gay people. The fluence of blogy ns throughout our sexual and genred liv and those differenc, that diversy, is surely to be wrers tend to wave off the scientific evince by urgg to look to the history of sexualy or claim that homosexualy is a social nstctn (cue Michel Fouult and the like).

We fall love wh men or women bee we have gay, straight, or bisexual orientatns and not bee of choice. Surely our choic are the rult of thgs we didn’t choose (our gen, personali, upbrgg, and culture) worry that scientific rearch will lead to “cur” for homosexualy (which is an odd worry to have if you don’t believe the “born this way” argument).

IS ANYONE BORN GAY?

We are who we are, and our sexuali are part of human worry about the claims of social nstctn, choice and such like is that plays to the hands of homophobic iology, to the hands of the “aversn therapists”, and to the hands of a growg culture which seeks to mimise gay differenc.

He studi the blogy of sexual orientatn and the implitns for mental health and is the -thor of Born Gay? What we do know is that there isn’t one sgle gene that explas homosexualy.

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

The most nvcg data about the geic basis of homosexualy om lookg at tws. Some of the bt evince that homosexualy has a strong geic part om tw studi. Tw studi of homosexualy have shown that intil tws are about twice as likely to both be gay pared to aternal tws.

This means that beg gay is partly geic, and not simply somethg that a person learns or choos. If the DNA sequence were the only thg termg whether someone is gay or not, we would expect intil tws to match 100% of the time. When lookg at large fai, scientists saw that men wh lots of olr brothers were more likely to be gay.

Of urse, this isn’t the only environmental explanatn for how people are born gay – there are plenty of men wh olr brothers who are not gay. Even though the evince is pretty strong for homosexualy beg partly geic, some people don’t accept .

WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?

The argument monly go: If gay men and women are ls likely to have babi, they won’t pass on their gen. One possible explanatn is that the same gen that make a man gay n also make a woman more fertile. The looked at the female relativ of gay men, both on the mother’s and father’s si.

This uld mean that there are some gen that are passed down om the mother’s si that make women more fertile and make men more likely to be gay. No matter why those gen are still around, we do know that beg gay is partly geic and partly termed before a baby is even born. Estimat as to the number of gay people the populatn range om 1--20 to 1--10, so why are some people gay?

In other words, 5-10% of people experience same-sex sexual attractn or behavr; of urse, this don't speak to what mak people gay. No one knows for certa why any dividual is gay, but the current thought is that beg gay is not a choice. Morn science is workg to show that geics is one of the of beg gay, although some science nflicts this area.

CAN A PERSON BE BORN GAY?

"In recent years, evince has accumulated that a homosexual orientatn is hered. Study of fay history reveals that homosexual men have more homosexuals their fay tree than do heterosexuals.

The precise gen volved the of beg gay have not yet been intified but they appear to e om the mother.

Addnally, some studi have found that the bras om homosexuals differ om the bras of heterosexuals.

ARE GAYS ‘BORN THAT WAY’? MOST AMERINS NOW SAY Y, BUT SCIENCE SAYS NO

Psychologil reasons also appear to be part of why a person is gay. A female-domated upbrgg a gay man's past, wh an absence of a male role mol. While psychologil factors may crease the likelihood that someone is gay, no sgle factor is known to e homosexualy.

It very much appears that same-sex sexual attractn is not a choice but actg on is; so if you fe gay as the mere prence of same-sex attractn, then om everythg we unrstand, beg gay is not a choice.

If, on the other hand, you nsir someone to be gay only if they act on their same-sex attractn then beg gay n be nsired a choice pendg on an dividual's behavr.