Are We Born Gay? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• ‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• ARE WE BORN GAY?
• WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?
• THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS
• 'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK, WE'RE BORN THIS WAY. LET’S AL WH .
• PEOPLE AREN’T BORN GAY OR STRAIGHT
• I’M 43 – BUT I’M MA TO FEEL LIKE A DOSR BY YOUNGER GAY MEN
• SECTN 2: KNOWG GAYS AND LBIANS, RELIG CONFLICTS, BELIEFS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY
• JENNA LYONS ON BEG OUTED (AND HER FAKE TEETH)SHE OPENED UP ABOUT THE GEIC DISORR THAT LED HER TO G FAKE TEETH, HAIR, AND EYEBROWS. “MY HAIR IS ALSO FAKE, I N TAKE OFF, ’S LIKE A HAT."BY KASE WICKMANJULY 20, 2023FROM NATHAN CONGLETON/NBC VIA GETTY IMAG.SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVEJENNA LYONS, FORMER HEAD SIGNER AND PRINT OF J. CREW, MAY BE A STYLE IN, BUT, EVEN OVER A LATER, BEG OUTED BEFORE SHE WAS READY TO SHARE HER SEXUALY STILL SMARTS.IN AN TERVIEW WEDNDAY ON THE VIEW, LYONS RELLED BEG PUBLICLY OUTED, THE MIDST OF HER 2011 DIVORCE OM VCENT MAZE. WHEN AN OUTLET LLED AND ASKED FOR NFIRMATN OF WHETHER SHE WAS GAY, SHE SAID, “I WAS SO OVERWHELMED WH EVERYTHG THAT WAS HAPPENG MY LIFE THAT I JT SAID Y.”SHE LLED BEG ASKED BY THE NEW YORK POST TO NFIRM OR NY WHETHER SHE WAS A LBIAN “AN OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE.”“I DIDN’T EXPECT ANYONE TO RE ABOUT WHAT I WAS DOG MY PERSONAL LIFE, AND ALL OF A SUDN EVERYONE RED,” SHE SAID, RELLG THAT THE STORY WAS MA PUBLIC BEE “SOMEONE LLED THE POST AND SAID LOOKED LIKE I WAS HAVG AN TIMATE DNER WH SOMEONE AT A RTRANT.”“I DON’T KNOW WHY,” SHE SAID, “BUT I JT SAID ‘NFIRM.’”THE NEXT DAY, SHE H THE NEWSSTANDS OF NEW YORK AND SOPED UP ALL THE PI OF THE POST SHE ULD FD. “FOR THE RERD, I WENT AND BOUGHT ALMOST EVERY SGLE ONE MANHATTAN,” SHE SAID.THOUGH THE CIRCUMSTANC SURROUNDG HER OUTG STILL STG, LYONS SAID THAT SHE’S PROUD TO BE A POSIVE REPRENTATN OF QUEER PEOPLE THE WORLD AND RELLED HOW YOUNGER EMPLOYE AT J. CREW WOULD TELL HER, “MY MOM IS SO RELIEVED TO SEE SOMEONE SUCCSFUL WHO’S OPENLY GAY.” NOW, TOO, SHE'S THE FIRST OPENLY GAY ST MEMBER ON THE REAL HOEWIV OF NEW YORK.DURG THE APPEARANCE, SHE ALSO OPENED UP ABOUT A GEIC DISORR SHE WAS BORN WH, NTENTIA PIGMENTI, THAT VISIBLY IMPACTS A PERSON’S SK, HAIR, TEETH, AND MORE.“ALL MY TEETH ARE FAKE,” SHE SAID, LGHG AT A PLIMENT AND RPONDG THAT “I PAID A LOT OF MONEY FOR THEM.”“MY HAIR IS ALSO FAKE, I N TAKE OFF, ’S LIKE A HAT,” SHE SAID. “MY EYELASH ARE FAKE, I HAVE NO EYEBROWS, I ALSO HAVE SRS ALL OVER MY SK.”HER NDN HAS SPIRED HER: WHEN SHE ULDN’T FD FAKE EYELASH THAT SHE FELT SUED HER, SHE MA HER OWN AND CREATED HER PANY, LOVESEEN. COPG WH HER HEALTH IS ALSO PART OF THE ORIG STORY FOR HER ONGOG, EPIC LIFE FASHN.“IT’S ONE OF THE REASONS I WENT TO FASHN,” SHE SAID, “BEE I WANTED TO LOOK BETTER. I WAS NSTANTLY TRYG TO FD WAYS TO F .”MORE GREAT STORI FROM VANY FAIRRILEY KEOUGH ON GROWG UP PRLEY, INHERG GRACELAND, AND MORETE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALWHY THE GEIA INDICTMENT AGAST TMP AND HIS ALLI IS THE MOST SWEEPG YETIVANKA TMP IS NOT LETTG HER DAD’S MOUNTG LEGAL WO RU HER SUMMERA NEW SLIM AARONS BOOK CAPTUR A LOST WORLDTHE 25 BT SHOWS ON NETFLIX TO WATCH RIGHT NOWFROM THE ARCHIVE: TOO HEPBURN FOR HOLLYWOOD (2006)MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLERKASE WICKMAN

‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’

You so obvly nnot be gay, was her implitn, bee this is good was 2006, a full five years before Lady Gaga would set the Born This Way argument atop s unassailable cultural perch, but even then the popular unrstandg of orientatn was that was somethg you were born wh, somethg you uldn’t change.

But what feels most accurate to say is that I’m gay – but I wasn’t born this people may fd their sir changg directn - and n't jt be explaed as experimentatn (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)In 1977, jt over 10% of Amerins thought gayns was somethg you were born wh, acrdg to Gallup. Throughout the same perd, the number of Amerins who believe homosexualy is “due to someone’s upbrgg/environment” fell om jt unr 60% to ias reached cril mass pop culture, first wh Lady Gaga’s 2011 Born This Way and one year later wh Macklemore’s Same Love, the chos of which has a gay person sgg “I n’t change even if I tried, even if I wanted to.

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

” Around the same time, the Human Rights Campaign clared unequivolly that “Beg gay is not a choice, ” and to claim that is “giv unwarranted crence to roundly disproven practic such as nversn or reparative therapy. ”People who challenge the Born This Way narrative are often st as homophobic, and their thkg is nsired backwardAs Jane Ward not Not Gay: Sex Between Straight Whe Men, what’s tertg about many of the claims is how transparent their speakers are wh their polil motivatns. “Such statements, ” she wr, “fe blogil acunts wh an obligatory and nearly ercive force, suggtg that anyone who scrib homosexual sire as a choice or social nstctn is playg to the hands of the enemy.

” People who challenge the Born This Way narrative are often st as homophobic, and their thkg is nsired backward – even if they are themselv, for example, Cynthia Nixon of Sex and The Cy fame. ”Gay rights do not have to hge on a geic explanatn for sexualy (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)For Aravosis, and many gay activists like him, the public will only accept and affirm gay people if they thk they were born gay.

Patrick Grzanka, Assistant Profsor of Psychology at Universy of Tennsee, for stance, has shown that some people who believe that homosexualy is nate still hold negative views of gays. In fact, the homophobic and non-homophobic rponnts he studied shared siar levels of belief a Born This Way Samantha Allen not at The Daily Beast, the growg public support for gays and lbians has grown out of proportn wh the rise the number of people who believe homosexualy is fixed at birth; would be unlikely that this small change opn uld expla the spike support for gay marriage, for stance. “It don’t seem to matter as much whether or not people believe that gay people are born that way as do that they simply know someone who is currently gay, ” Allen spe of the studi, those who ph agast Born This Way narrativ have been heavily cricised by gay activists.

ARE WE BORN GAY?

Siarly, Ward has received her own hatemail for phg agast the lg LGB narrativ, wh some gays tellg her she’s “worse than Ann Coulter, ” the ntroversial US thor of books like If Democrats Had Any Bras, They’d Be Republins. And when I published my say on choosg to be gay, an irate Amerin lbian activist wrote me that had “jt been nfirmed” to her that my wrg was “directly rponsible for four gay aths Rsia.

There is a unanimo opn that gay “nversn therapy” should be rejectedLet’s first be clear that whatever the origs of our sexual orientatn, there is a unanimo opn that gay “nversn therapy” should be rejected. The efforts are potentially harmful, acrdg to the APA, “bee they prent the view that the sexual orientatn of lbian, gay and bisexual youth is a mental illns of disorr, and they often ame the abily to change one’s sexual orientatn as a personal and moral failure.

WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?

The APA, for example, while notg that most people experience ltle to no choice over their orientatns, says this of homosexualy’s origs:“Although much rearch has examed the possible geic, hormonal, velopmental, social and cultural fluenc on sexual orientatn, no fdgs have emerged that perm scientists to nclu that sexual orientatn is termed by any particular factor or factors. ”Siarly, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn wr a 2013 statement that while the of heterosexualy and homosexualy are currently unknown, they are likely “multifactorial cludg blogil and behavral roots which may vary between different dividuals and may even vary over time.

” Acrdg to LeVay’s rearch, a specific part of the bra, the third terstial nucls of the anterr hypothalam (INAH-3), is smaller homosexual men than is heterosexual as they might, scientists have stggled to inty any particular gen that nsistently predict the directns of our love and sire (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)Read moreYou n spot the problem wh this study a e away: were the gay bras LeVay studied born that way, or did they bee that way? Another landmark paper on the origs of homosexualy was published 1993 by a geicist named Dean Hamer, who was terted to learn whether homosexualy uld be hered. Begng om his observatn that there are more gay relativ on a mother’s si than a father’s, Hamer turned his attentn to the X chromosome (which is passed on by the mother).

THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS

Bis the dividual criqu leveled agast each new study announcg some gay gene disvery, there are major methodologil cricisms to make about the entire enterprise general, as Grzanka pots out: “If we look at the raveno pursu, particularly among Amerin scientists, to fd a gay gene, what we see is that the ncln has already been arrived at.

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

”The other problem wh Born This Way science is summed up nicely by Simon Copland: “Scientists are askg whether homosexualy is natural when we n’t even agree exactly what homosexualy is. ” Our sir may exprs themselv many different ways that do not all nform to existg notns of ‘gay’, ‘straight’ or ‘bisexual’ is one of the bt takeaways of Ward’s Not Gay, a peratg analysis of sex between straight whe men. ”Gay or not, our sir are oriented and re-oriented throughout our liv (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)In fact, the straight-intified men Ward studied for her book sometim found themselv suatns that sparked the sire for homosexual sex: aterni, ployments, public rtrooms, etc.

Ward thks this qutn is the next ontier of queer I first said I chose to be gay, a queer Amerin journalist challenged me to name the time and date of my choice. I’m claimg that at some pot durg llege, my sexual and romantic sir beme reoriented toward menThkg back to my llege romanc wh women and men, I n beg to unrstand how my own experienc might have helped me to ‘cultivate’ my sire for homosexualy.

I want to be very clear: I’m not claimg I simply began to ‘grow to’ my homosexualy, or that as I beme more fortable wh beg gay, I allowed myself the eedom to exprs what had always been latent wh me. “Limg our unrstandg of any plex human experience is always gog to be worse than allowg to be plited, ” he gay rights activists pared sexualy to relign - a ccial part of our life that we should be ee to practise however we like (Cred: Ignac Lehamann)So what are we to do wh the Born This Way rhetoric?

PEOPLE AREN’T BORN GAY OR STRAIGHT

“That’s a very narrow unrstandg of what jtice looks like, ” says about the ncern that homophob will want to ‘enurage’ gay people to be straight if there’s no blogil basis for sexualy?

It don’t take too much creativy to image a scenar which homophobic parents, upon beg rmed their fet has ‘the gay gene’, choose what to them may seem the lser of two evils: abortn. ”Acrdg to surveys, ls than half of Generatn Z intify as "100% heterosexual", suggtg more and more people have embraced their sexual fluidy (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)Perhaps is time to look to the begng of the gay rights movement.

I’M 43 – BUT I’M MA TO FEEL LIKE A DOSR BY YOUNGER GAY MEN

“Then there was a shift, and the lears of the movement chose to jump on board wh a ls nuanced argument that people already unrstood: jt like race, people are born wh their homosexualy.

More than a third chose a number between one and rponse to the poll, one of my Facebook iends quipped about how natural selectn mt be workg overtime, what wh makg all of gay! I’m thankful for a new generatn that is pable of imagg sexualy a way that transcends the gay/straight bary, that uldn’t re ls about what happened to their bodi and mds to make them who they are today.

SECTN 2: KNOWG GAYS AND LBIANS, RELIG CONFLICTS, BELIEFS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY

Humans have tried to unrstand human sexualy for centuri — and geics rearchers joed the ay the early 1990s after a seri of studi on tws suggted homosexualy ran fai. “As a teenager tryg to unrstand myself and unrstand my sexualy, I looked at the ter for “the gay gene” and obvly me across Xq28, ” said Fah Sathirapongsasuti, a study -thor and senr scientist at 23andMe, which he joked once led him to believe he hered his gayns om his mother. The rearchers had members of the same-sex muny review the study’s sign and language, and they adm that their termology and fns for gay, lbian and heterosexual do not reflect the full nature of the sexualy ntuum.

“[Our study] unrsr an important role for the environment shapg human sexual behavr and perhaps most importantly there is no sgle gay gene but rather the ntributn of many small geic effects sttered across the genome, ” Neale said. 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. 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.

” 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.

JENNA LYONS ON BEG OUTED (AND HER FAKE TEETH)SHE OPENED UP ABOUT THE GEIC DISORR THAT LED HER TO G FAKE TEETH, HAIR, AND EYEBROWS. “MY HAIR IS ALSO FAKE, I N TAKE OFF, ’S LIKE A HAT."BY KASE WICKMANJULY 20, 2023FROM NATHAN CONGLETON/NBC VIA GETTY IMAG.SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVEJENNA LYONS, FORMER HEAD SIGNER AND PRINT OF J. CREW, MAY BE A STYLE IN, BUT, EVEN OVER A LATER, BEG OUTED BEFORE SHE WAS READY TO SHARE HER SEXUALY STILL SMARTS.IN AN TERVIEW WEDNDAY ON THE VIEW, LYONS RELLED BEG PUBLICLY OUTED, THE MIDST OF HER 2011 DIVORCE OM VCENT MAZE. WHEN AN OUTLET LLED AND ASKED FOR NFIRMATN OF WHETHER SHE WAS GAY, SHE SAID, “I WAS SO OVERWHELMED WH EVERYTHG THAT WAS HAPPENG MY LIFE THAT I JT SAID Y.”SHE LLED BEG ASKED BY THE NEW YORK POST TO NFIRM OR NY WHETHER SHE WAS A LBIAN “AN OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE.”“I DIDN’T EXPECT ANYONE TO RE ABOUT WHAT I WAS DOG MY PERSONAL LIFE, AND ALL OF A SUDN EVERYONE RED,” SHE SAID, RELLG THAT THE STORY WAS MA PUBLIC BEE “SOMEONE LLED THE POST AND SAID LOOKED LIKE I WAS HAVG AN TIMATE DNER WH SOMEONE AT A RTRANT.”“I DON’T KNOW WHY,” SHE SAID, “BUT I JT SAID ‘NFIRM.’”THE NEXT DAY, SHE H THE NEWSSTANDS OF NEW YORK AND SOPED UP ALL THE PI OF THE POST SHE ULD FD. “FOR THE RERD, I WENT AND BOUGHT ALMOST EVERY SGLE ONE MANHATTAN,” SHE SAID.THOUGH THE CIRCUMSTANC SURROUNDG HER OUTG STILL STG, LYONS SAID THAT SHE’S PROUD TO BE A POSIVE REPRENTATN OF QUEER PEOPLE THE WORLD AND RELLED HOW YOUNGER EMPLOYE AT J. CREW WOULD TELL HER, “MY MOM IS SO RELIEVED TO SEE SOMEONE SUCCSFUL WHO’S OPENLY GAY.” NOW, TOO, SHE'S THE FIRST OPENLY GAY ST MEMBER ON THE REAL HOEWIV OF NEW YORK.DURG THE APPEARANCE, SHE ALSO OPENED UP ABOUT A GEIC DISORR SHE WAS BORN WH, NTENTIA PIGMENTI, THAT VISIBLY IMPACTS A PERSON’S SK, HAIR, TEETH, AND MORE.“ALL MY TEETH ARE FAKE,” SHE SAID, LGHG AT A PLIMENT AND RPONDG THAT “I PAID A LOT OF MONEY FOR THEM.”“MY HAIR IS ALSO FAKE, I N TAKE OFF, ’S LIKE A HAT,” SHE SAID. “MY EYELASH ARE FAKE, I HAVE NO EYEBROWS, I ALSO HAVE SRS ALL OVER MY SK.”HER NDN HAS SPIRED HER: WHEN SHE ULDN’T FD FAKE EYELASH THAT SHE FELT SUED HER, SHE MA HER OWN AND CREATED HER PANY, LOVESEEN. COPG WH HER HEALTH IS ALSO PART OF THE ORIG STORY FOR HER ONGOG, EPIC LIFE FASHN.“IT’S ONE OF THE REASONS I WENT TO FASHN,” SHE SAID, “BEE I WANTED TO LOOK BETTER. I WAS NSTANTLY TRYG TO FD WAYS TO F .”MORE GREAT STORI FROM VANY FAIRRILEY KEOUGH ON GROWG UP PRLEY, INHERG GRACELAND, AND MORETE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALWHY THE GEIA INDICTMENT AGAST TMP AND HIS ALLI IS THE MOST SWEEPG YETIVANKA TMP IS NOT LETTG HER DAD’S MOUNTG LEGAL WO RU HER SUMMERA NEW SLIM AARONS BOOK CAPTUR A LOST WORLDTHE 25 BT SHOWS ON NETFLIX TO WATCH RIGHT NOWFROM THE ARCHIVE: TOO HEPBURN FOR HOLLYWOOD (2006)MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLERKASE WICKMAN

The news this week that the largt study of s kd failed to nfirm the existence of a "gay gene" is not so much a disappotment for those lookg to unrstand the LGBTQ muny, as is an acknowledgement that science do not need to tell what should be plaly obv: gays, lbians, bisexuals and pansexuals are who they are. But here's the quote that will light opponents of LGBTQ rights, some of whom sist they n "nvert" gay people to choose to be straight by prayg the gay away:.

"There is no ‘gay gene’ that term whether someone has same-sex partners, ” said Ganna, who is also a geicist at the Broad Instute of MIT and Harvard as well as the Universy of Helski.