Why Are There Gay Women? | Live Science

Contents:

• WHY ARE THERE GAY MEN?
• HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?
• WHY ARE THERE GAY WOMEN?
• GAY AND BISEXUAL INTY VELOPMENT AMONG FEMALE-TO-MALE TRANSSEXUALS NORTH AMERI: EMERGENCE OF A TRANSGENR SEXUALY
• 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

WHY ARE THERE GAY MEN?

Sexual orientatn refers to the endurg physil, romantic and/or emotnal attractn to members of the same and/or other genrs, cludg lbian, gay, bisexual and straight orientatns. A person who transns om female to male and is attracted solely to men would typilly intify as a gay man. This means that beg transgenr (feelg like your assigned sex is very different om the genr you intify wh) isn’t the same thg as beg gay, lbian, or bisexual.

Many asexual people feel romantilly attracted to people — so they may intify as asexual, and also as gay, lbian, bisexual, or straight. Osborne told Time magaze Febary that he is gay and has known for years, but he kept a secret bee of untry mic's mostly nservative fan base. While female sexualy appears to be more fluid, rearch suggts that male gayns is an born, unalterable, strongly geilly fluenced tra.

But nsirg that the tra disurag the type of sex that leads to procreatn — that is, sex wh women — and would therefore seem to thwart s own chanc of beg geilly passed on to the next generatn, why are there gay men at all? For several years, studi led by Andrea Camper Ciani at the Universy of Padova Italy and others have found that mothers and maternal nts of gay men tend to have signifintly more offsprg than the maternal relativ of straight men. The rults show strong support for the "balancg selectn hypothis, " which is fast beg the accepted theory of the geic basis of male theory holds that the same geic factors that duce gayns mal also promote fecundy (high reproductive succs) those mal' female maternal relativ.

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?

Through this tra-off, the maternal relativ' "gay man gen, " though they aren't exprsed as such, tend to get passed to future generatns spe of their tenncy to make their male herors no one knows which gen, exactly, the might be, at least one of them appears to be loted on the X chromosome, acrdg to geic molg by Camper Ciani and his lleagu. Mal her only one X chromosome — the one om their mother — and if clus the gene that promot gayns mal and fecundy femal, he is likely to be gay while his mom and her female relativ are likely to have lots of kids.

Prevly, the Italian rearchers suggted that the "gay man gene" might simply crease androphilia, or attractn to men, thereby makg the mal who posss the gene homosexual and the femal who posss more promiscuo. But after vtigatg the characteristics of 161 female maternal relativ of homosexual and heterosexual men, the rearchers have adjted their hypothis. Rather than makg women more attracted to men, the "gay man gene" appears to make the women more attractive to men.

WHY ARE THERE GAY WOMEN?

The androphilic pattern that we found is about femal who crease their reproductive value to attract the bt mal, " Camper Ciani told Life's Ltle out, the moms and nts of gay men have an advantage over the moms and nts of straight men for several reasons: They are more fertile, displayg fewer gynelogil disorrs or plitns durg pregnancy; they are more extroverted, as well as funnier, happier and more relaxed; and they have fewer fay problems and social anxieti. "It is que possible that there are several fluenc on formg a homosexual orientatn, " said Gelf Rieger, a sexual orientatn rearcher at Cornell Universy.

But as for why geic factors would exist that make men gay, appears that the gen make women, as well as gay men, allurg to other men. For example, when a “closeted” gay or bisexual man has sex wh another man, he views that sex as reflectg his secret gay/bisexual inty.

GAY AND BISEXUAL INTY VELOPMENT AMONG FEMALE-TO-MALE TRANSSEXUALS NORTH AMERI: EMERGENCE OF A TRANSGENR SEXUALY

A mory of the men I terviewed were homophobic and held prejudice agast LGBTQ2+ people and this prejudice mak the thought of an LGBTQ2+ inty unappealg to them.

Increasg numbers of populatn-based surveys the Uned Stat and across the world clu qutns that allow for an timate of the size of the lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) populatn.

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

Conversely, gay men prise substantially more than half of gay and bisexual men seven of the ne surveys.

Unrstandg the size of the lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) populatn is a cril first step to rmg a host of public policy and rearch topics. In measurg sexual orientatn, lbian, gay, and bisexual dividuals may be intified strictly based on their self-inty or may be possible to nsir same-sex sexual behavr or sexual attractn. Fdgs shown Figure 1 nsir timat of the percentage of adults who self-intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual across ne surveys nducted wh the past seven years.

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

While the surveys show a fairly wi variatn the overall percentage of adults who intify as LGB, the proportn who intify as lbian/gay vers bisexual is somewhat more nsistent (see Figure 2). The UK Integrated Hoehold Survey found the proportn to be two-thirds lbian/gay vers one-third bisexual.

The Natnal Survey of Fay Growth found rults that were sentially the oppose of the UK survey wh only 38% intifyg as lbian or gay pared to 62% intifyg as bisexual. The Natnal Survey of Sexual Health and Behavr and the Atralian Longudal Study of Health and Relatnships both found a majory of rponnts (55% and 59%, rpectively) intifyg as surveys show even greater nsistency differenc between men and women associated wh lbian/gay vers bisexual inty. Wh the surveys, a larger actn of adults report same-sex attractns and behavrs than self-intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual (see Figure 4).

So, terms of evolutn, they would seem to have a better chance of passg on their gen, while at the same time would seem that the gen that make women gay would quickly vanish om the gene pool. While scientists have a theory for how male homosexualy propagat om one generatn to the next, no one has yet produced a viable explanatn for how the gen that promote lbianism might do the same. A study by Dutch psychologists published the March issue of the Journal of Sexual Medice reported that 10 to 12 percent of male and female children who feel disfort wh their genr go on to intify as gay or lbian as adults.