Are We Born Gay? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE
• GAY BOYS ADULT PHOTO MAGAZE
• 'PLAYBOY' MAK HISTORY WH FIRST OPENLY GAY VER STAR, BRETMAN ROCK
• BORN GAY?
• ARE WE BORN GAY?
• CAN A PERSON BE 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?
• IT ALL STARTED HERE: THE GAY LEGACY OF GQ

THERE’S (STILL) NO GAY GENE

They asked more than 477, 000 participants whether they had ever had sex wh someone of the same sex, and also qutns about sexual fantasi and the gree to which they intified as gay or straight. “A lot of people want to unrstand the blogy of homosexualy, and science has lagged behd that human tert, ” says William Rice, an evolutnary geicist at the Universy of California, Santa Barbara, who also was not volved the work.

Though no longer makg new ntent prt or onle, the "famo pk perdil" mak sure you're 18 before enterg s webse -- which is jt as famoly featured photography and terviews wh renowned gay artists, such as German fashn signer Bernhard Willhelm, whose nu portras -- taken by Wolfgang Tillmans -- appeared the magaze's first issue May 2001.

GAY BOYS ADULT PHOTO MAGAZE

Sce then, BUTT has featured gay artists such as Casey Spooner, Michael Stipe, John Waters, Hez Peter Kn, Edmund Whe, Terence Koh, Walter Pfeiffer, and Slava 's athetic was memorable for the way sexualized men you'd fd on the street or subway; they had body hair, teeth that weren't perfect, even pnch. Even though other LGBT magaz at the time knew that sex sells - and ed that to their advantage - HERO Magaze steered clear of pornography and other sexual s foundg 1997, HERO Magaze ma mov that were clive and progrsive, as was more acceptg of upl and men over 40 than other gay publitns at the time.

XY says that is "known bt for s origal photography, brazenly hont mentary on polics and culture, review of film, mic and lerature, rear ntributns, advice on survivg young and gay, and a rather dark sense of humor.

" Michael Glatze - the man who clared he was no longer gay and took a sharp turn toward nservatism and Christiany while opposg gay rights - was a longtime managg edor before the publitn ially filed for bankptcy 2010. Men -- which was origally named Advote Men until 1997, sce was a sister publitn of The Advote -- drew an dience by feature popular male mols like Zeb Atlas and Mark Dalton, among 2009, the publishers of the Los Angel-based magaze, Specialy Publitns, announced was movg all s gay porn magaze to an onle platform, lled, you'll e up unlucky if you try to accs the webse now; and no new issu of Men have seen the light of day sce.

'PLAYBOY' MAK HISTORY WH FIRST OPENLY GAY VER STAR, BRETMAN ROCK

The first issue of Blueboy featured ver art that parodied the om beg a hot source for gay porn the '70s and '80s, Blueboy doubled as a liftyle magaze that featured articl on everythg om love advice to TV and movie reviews to fashn. Playguy - not to be nfed wh the famo and famo Playboy - was a porn magaze for gay men unr the age of published 1976, the magaze jt barely surpassed 30 years circulatn when was shut down 2009, ne years after the ath of s founr, Gee W.

When Genre was first published 1992, started out as quarterly magaze that mostly vered subjects pertent to gay man, particularly wh a foc on entertament and travel, sometim strayg to verage of polil topics.

BORN GAY?

Origally put together by the Dghters of Bilis, the first Amerin lbian anizatn, which disband over disagreements on whether to band up wh misogynist gay male functns or jo the femist movement, several of Ladr's edors moved to the Natnal Organizatn for Women. “We know that smell has a strong tie to sexual attractn, but s lks to sexual behavrs are not clear, ” said -thor Andrea Ganna, an stctor at HMS and Massachetts General Hospal om the Instute for Molecular Medice study is part a rponse to gay, lbian, and bisexual people’s cursy about themselv, said Fah Sathirapongsasuti, a senr scientist at 23andMe and -thor on the study, who is himself gay.

Michael Bronski, profsor of the practice media and activism wh the mtee on studi of women, genr, and sexualy, and thor of A Queer History of the Uned Stat, says the allure of a “gay gene” grew om the flourishg gay-rights movement the after the Stonewall rts 1969.

’77, then a rearcher at the Natnal Instut of Health, published rults showg a rrelatn between male homosexual behavr and a clter of gen, lled Xq28, at the tip of the X chromosome. Exactly which gene this clter may be volved has proven elive—the current study found no signifint associatn between the X chromosome and same-sex sexual behavr—but the ia that a “gay gene” might lie somewhere Xq28—or elsewhere—was ptivatg.

ARE WE BORN GAY?

Zeke Stok, chief programs officer of the LGBTQ advocy anizatn GLAAD, ncurred an emailed statement: “This new study provis even more evince that beg gay or lbian is a natural part of human life, a ncln that has been drawn by rearchers and scientists time and aga.

Others have warned that the search for a geic e would pathologize homosexualy the same way psychology did the twentieth century: efforts by psychoanalysts such as Irvg Bieber led to the cln of homosexualy the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs until 1972. As noted above, the gen that rrelated wh same-sex sexual behavr also rrelated wh willgns to take risks, a nnectn that might not hold up cultur where homosexualy is ls stigmatized and those who are ls risk tolerant would therefore feel more able to act openly. Bretman Rock is makg history wh his appearance on the ver of Playboy magaze's October 2021 digal issue, as the 23-year-old be the first openly gay male to secure the veted Hawaii-based Filipo fluencer isn't new to the spotlight after makg a name for himself on YouTube and the short-form vio app Ve, where Rock displayed both his humor and his skill wh makp.

However, he is only the third to appear on the ver of the men's liftyle and entertament magaze, behd the magaze's late founr Hugh Hefner and, July 2020, Lat pop star Bad Bunny; Rock is the first openly gay man. "As the first out gay man to ver the magaze, pecially durg Filipo Amerin History Month, Bretman Rock is ntug to fy genr norms and e his massive social platform to not only break down barriers for LGBTQ cln the dtry, but also spire so many other LGBTQ Filipos who have been unrreprented fashn, molg, and across media.

CAN A PERSON BE BORN GAY?

It was, LeVay acknowledg, the perfect Frdian recipe for homosexualy-only he was nvced Frd had e and effect backward: hostile fathers didn't make sons gay; fathers turned hostile bee the sons were "unmascule" to beg year, LeVay, now a nroscientist at the Salk Instute La Jolla, Calif., got a chance to exame his hunch up close.

It was perhaps the first direct evince of what some gays have long ntend-that whether or not they choose to be different, they are born Bart, meanwhile, got an opportuny to make his own ntributn to the se. Two years ago he was reced for an amb study of homosexualy tws, unrtaken by psychologist Michael Bailey, of Northwtern Universy, and psychiatrist Richard Pillard, of the Boston Universy School of Medice.

Published last December, only months after LeVay's work, the rults showed that if one intil tw is gay, the other is almost three tim more likely to be gay than if the tws are aternal-suggtg that somethg the intil tws' shared geic makp affected their sexual both studi, the implitns are potentially huge. For s, scientists and the public at large have bated whether homosexuals are born or ma-whether their sexual orientatn is the rult of a geic roll of the dice or a batn of formative factors their upbrgg.

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

"It would rce beg gay to somethg like beg left-hand, which is fact all that is, " says gay San Francis journalist and thor Randy stead of rolvg the bate, the studi may well have tensified . "No parent would choose to have a child born wh any factor that would make life difficult for him or her, " says Lrie Coburn, program director of the Feratn of Parents and Friends of Lbians and Gays (ParentsFLAG) this subject, feelgs are seldom rtraed.

Franc Stevens, edor chief of Denve, a lbian news magaze, adms her personal history supports blogil ; although she me om a wholome "Brady Bunch" fay, she knew she was gay "om day one.

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

When John De Cec, profsor of psychology at San Francis State Universy and edor of the Journal of Homosexualy, began one of his class recently by suggtg stunts discs the of homosexualy, someone lled out, "Who r? Acrdg to John Boswell's 1980 book, "Christiany, Social Tolerance and Homosexualy, " thgs didn't turn tly nasty until the 13th century, when the church, on the heels of a diatribe om Sat Thomas Aquas, began to view gays as not only unnatural but our own century of sex et lux, begng wh Sigmund Frd, psychiatrists ascribed male homosexualy to unnsc nflicts and fixatns that have their roots early childhood. ) But that view was officially dropped 1973, when more strgent diagnostic standards-and the lobbyg of gay activists-persuad the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn to expunge homosexualy om the list of emotnal disorrs.

IT ALL STARTED HERE: THE GAY LEGACY OF GQ

But younger psychiatrists now are tght that rather than tryg to "cure" homosexuals, they should help them feel more fortable about rolved to look for sex differenc the bra after the slow, wrenchg ath om AIDS of his pann of 21 years (box). What emerged wh almost startlg clary was that, wh some exceptns, the clter of nrons known as INAH 3 (the third terstial nucls of the anterr hypothalam, which LeVay lls "the bs end as far as sex go") was more than twice as large the heterosexual mal as the homosexuals, whose INAH 3 was around the same size as the women.

Later, fact, he examed the bra of a homosexual who died of lung ncer, and aga found INAH 3 much trickier qutn is whether thgs might work the other way around: uld sexual orientatn affect bra stcture? "If you look at all societi, " says Frerick Wham, who has rearched homosexualy cultur as diverse as the Uned Stat, Central Ameri and the Philipp, "homosexualy occurs at the same rat wh the same kds of behavr.