Are We Born Gay? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• 'GAY GEN': SCIENCE IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK, WE'RE BORN THIS WAY. LET’S AL WH .
• ARE WE BORN GAY?
• IS ANYONE BORN GAY?
• IS A PERSON ‘BORN GAY’, OR IS BEG GAY A LEARNED BEHAVR?
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• CLIL STUDY CONFIRMS PEOPLE ARE NOT BLOGILLY “BORN GAY”
• WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• ARE YOU BORN GAY OR IS A CHOICE? SCIENTISTS MIGHT HAVE FOUND THE ANSWER
• 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 .

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). 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”).

ARE WE BORN GAY?

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”). 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.

IS ANYONE BORN GAY?

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.

Th gay differenc are not jt about who you fancy. 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).

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

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).

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? Will our child grow up to be gay or straight? ) and adult homosexualy.

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

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.

CLIL STUDY CONFIRMS PEOPLE ARE NOT BLOGILLY “BORN GAY”

“I didn’t choose beg gay, ” I reasoned.

WHAT DO THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT BEG BORN GAY?

I am gay.

Gay nrologist Simon LeVay explas that sexual orientatn is “the tra that predispos to experience sexual attractn” (Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why, 1). Beg Gay? This stems om the misunrstandg that “beg gay” clus appreciatg same-sex bety.

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

However, if we broan sexualy to clu non-sexual and non-romantic appreciatn for bety, then everybody would be gay. But aren’t people born gay? In spe of a lack of evince, the belief persists that people are born gay and that mak okay.

ARE YOU BORN GAY OR IS A CHOICE? SCIENTISTS MIGHT HAVE FOUND THE ANSWER

This isn’t a msage jt for the gay muny, or only for those who experience same-sex attractns. Beg gay is not a choice for people. What we do know is that there isn’t one sgle gene that explas homosexualy.

The most nvcg data about the geic basis of homosexualy om lookg at tws. Beg gay has a lot to do wh geics. 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.

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

This means that beg gay is partly geic, and not simply somethg that a person learns or choos.