Are We Born Gay? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• ARE WE BORN GAY?
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• 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
• ARE YOU BORN GAY OR IS A CHOICE? SCIENTISTS MIGHT HAVE FOUND THE ANSWER
• HOMOSEXUALY: ARE GAYS BORN OR MA?
• IS ANYONE BORN GAY?

ARE WE BORN GAY?

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.

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. 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 other words, 5-10% of people experience same-sex sexual attractn or behavr; of urse, this don't speak to what mak people gay.

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

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.

Whether science n ultimately prove the blogy of beg gay or not, 's important to support all adults their choic no matter how they intify. 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. 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.

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.

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

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. What he found is still reverberatg among scientists and may have a profound impact on how the rt of thk about homosexualy.

Snng the bras of 41 davers, cludg 19 homosexual mal, LeVay termed that a ty area believed to ntrol sexual activy was ls than half the size the gay men than the heterosexuals.

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.

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

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. "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 .

"A geic ponent sexual orientatn says, ' This is not a flt, and 's not your flt', " says the timatn that an actual gene for gayns might be found some forebodg.

Yet at least three rearch projects, one of them at the Natnal Instut of Health, are believed to be searchg for a "gay gene" or group of gen. In the nightmare scenar, once a gay fet is tected utero, is aborted, or a geic swch is "flipped" to ensure s heterosexualy.

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

"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.

HOMOSEXUALY: ARE GAYS BORN OR MA?

"It's part of the society's trsic sexism, " says Penny Perks, public-tn ordator for Lambda Legal Defense and Edutn Fund, which works to promote lbian and gay men's rights. 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. " That's somethg rearchers still have to fd men have their own reasons to be irate: as they see , lookg for a "e" of homosexualy impli is viant and heterosexualy is the norm.

IS ANYONE BORN GAY?

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.

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).