Why Straight Women and Gay Men Make the Bt of Friends | Psychology Today

Contents:

• WHY STRAIGHT WOMEN AND GAY MEN MAKE THE BT OF FRIENDS
• I’M A STRAIGHT WOMAN WHO MARRIED A GAY MAN
• WHEN GAY MEN (MIS)MARRY STRAIGHT WOMEN: BONNIE KAYE'S STORY
• WHY ARE STRAIGHT WOMEN AND GAY MEN SUCH GOOD IENDS? IT’S ALL ABOUT THE RELATNSHIP ADVICE: STUDY
• ARE STRAIGHT WOMEN AND GAY MEN “NATURAL ALLI”? AN EVOLUTNARY ACUNT
• MEN AND WOMEN AS FRIENDS – WHEN ONE IS GAY OR LBIAN
• WHY STRAIGHT WOMEN ARE ATTRACTED TO GAY MEN
• SHE’S STRAIGHT. HE’S GAY. THEY N FORM A ‘NJUGAL RELATNSHIP’ ANYWAY, A CANADIAN JUDGE SAYS.
• STUDY: WHY STRAIGHT WOMEN ARE OFTEN CLOSE WH GAY MEN

WHY STRAIGHT WOMEN AND GAY MEN MAKE THE BT OF FRIENDS

Studi show that gay men shower straight women wh a sort of attentn that straight men simply don't offer them. For stance, straight women feel that gay men accept and admire them for their ner bety, not their outer appearance. Subsequently, women wh more gay iends feel sexier and more self-nfint about their bodi by parison to women who don't have gay iends.

Perhaps unsurprisgly, women say their iendships wh gay people are more hont and secure than those wh straight dividuals, male or female.

In other words, is the bond between straight women-gay man iends unique bee they n provi each other hont, unbiased romantic advice? The thors suggt the possibily that gay men may pete for mat the same way that straight women do wh each other, though they note remas to be studied.

I’M A STRAIGHT WOMAN WHO MARRIED A GAY MAN

Conversely, Rsell and his lleagu argue that the iendships between straight women and gay men are ee of such plitns. In orr to vtigate whether straight women and gay men see each other as the most tstworthy advisers on matters of the heart, the thors vised a clever puter task.

” Straight women and gay men were prented wh different targets, reflectg their rpective matg orientatns. Female participants viewed fict Facebook profil belongg to eher straight women, straight men, or gay men.

WHEN GAY MEN (MIS)MARRY STRAIGHT WOMEN: BONNIE KAYE'S STORY

Gay male participants were asked to look at fake profil belongg to lbians, gay men, or straight women. Lbians were add as a target bee although they have ltle mon wh gay men, they are also unlikely to give biased love life advice.

Naturally, the straight female target profile picture was different than that of gay and straight mal (the same was ed for both); sexual preference was tailored acrdgly.

Straight women perceived the romantic advice of gay men to be signifintly more tstworthy than that of straight men and women, who were equally ls helpful. In kd, gay men found straight women more tstworthy when me to love life advice than gay men or lbians. This study lends scientific sight to the special mararie that straight women and gay men have long found each other.

WHY ARE STRAIGHT WOMEN AND GAY MEN SUCH GOOD IENDS? IT’S ALL ABOUT THE RELATNSHIP ADVICE: STUDY

If you're the mood for a lighthearted take on the specialns of the straight woman-gay man iendship, the song “Gay Bt Friend” ptur hilar fashn. I thk your hband que clearly nsirs himself gay, which is far more relevant to your marriage than my asssment of his sense of self.

The qutn of how he se his gayns relatn to his two marriag to women, specifilly his current marriage to you, is both more salient and open-end, so I’d suggt you start by askg him to share more of his thoughts on the subject wh you.

ARE STRAIGHT WOMEN AND GAY MEN “NATURAL ALLI”? AN EVOLUTNARY ACUNT

That will get you a lot further than tryg to figure out if your hband is “really” bisexual (and, implicly, whether that means you n safely hope he won’t leave you for someone else) or “really” gay (and, implicly, whether you have to fear that he’s gog to break up wh you for another man).

I recently spoke wh Bonnie Kaye, thor of Straight Wiv, Shattered Liv: Stori of Women wh Gay Hbands, among other books, and host of Bonnie Kaye’s Straight Wiv Talk Show on BlogTalkRad. Bonnie has spent much of her adult life first livg wh and attemptg to love a gay hband and then helpg other women the same mis-marriage suatn. Bee I know untls gay men who were once married to straight women, wh varyg gre of short and longer-term happs and misery, I wanted to discs this topic, and I wanted to do so om the straight wiv’ perspective.

Our discsn was wi-rangg, begng wh her own marriage to a gay man and progrsg to how she was able to move on post-marriage, eventually beg a rock for other women siar suatns. So if somebody told me they’d tried somethg but they didn’t like , there would be no reason for me to thk that the person was gay. He was a karate teacher, martial arts, a strong guy, looked like Sylvter Stallone, and gay was not one of the issu I thought about wh him.

MEN AND WOMEN AS FRIENDS – WHEN ONE IS GAY OR LBIAN

Then somebody who was part of my social work rmed me, a uple of weeks before we were supposed to get married, that he had spicns that Robert was gay. Then, wh the AIDS epimic, a lot of men who were gay felt as if they uld be straight, was a good time to be straight.

And at the end of the day, wasn’t the fact that he was gay that was so vastatg to me, was the way that he treated me. I fd tertg that a lot of men this suatn ratnalize their behavr, sayg ’s not cheatg and don’t mean they’re gay.

WHY STRAIGHT WOMEN ARE ATTRACTED TO GAY MEN

He had also been tellg me thgs like, “If you ever tell anybody the silly stori about me beg gay, then that’s , we’re done. His sensibily as a gay artist has shaped and elevated the magaze’s athetic, but he has to keep his creativy check lt Mx be seen as a magaze for gay men. But fish strong, as the nflict over Richie’s bathhoe project grows and Mx has to nsir whether ’s too risky for the magaze to speak to gay men, or even gay moments like this, the historil fictn feels not entirely historil.

SHE’S STRAIGHT. HE’S GAY. THEY N FORM A ‘NJUGAL RELATNSHIP’ ANYWAY, A CANADIAN JUDGE SAYS.

From fictnal duo Will and Grace to real-life bti Kathy Griff and Anrson Cooper, pop culture is full of close iendships between straight women and gay, a new study sheds light on why gay guys and straight gals seem so naturally drawn to one another, and the answer may not surprise real-life Carri and Stanfords: Straight women and gay men see each other as sourc of unbiased relatnship advice. Rearchers at Texas Christian Universy hypothized that tst between straight women and gay men might be rooted a lack of petn over mat, as well as a purported lack of sexual tert one tt this, they prented groups of 88 heterosexual women and 58 homosexual men wh the fictnal Facebook profile of a person named Jordan. The women saw Jordan as eher a straight man, a gay man or a straight woman, and the men saw eher a straight male, gay male or lbian profile.

STUDY: WHY STRAIGHT WOMEN ARE OFTEN CLOSE WH GAY MEN

The rults showed that the women were most likely to tst Jordan's advice when he was a gay man, rather than a heterosexual man or woman.

Straight women might fd easy to form bonds wh gay men bee, unlike straight men, there's no chance the guy uld be anglg for her affectns — and unlike other straight women, gay men aren't romantic petn, rearchers speculate. "Women who are sufferg om relatnship tensn uld potentially get advice om their gay male iend that isn't tated wh ulterr or petive motiv. Not every gay man has a female bt iend, nor do every straight woman have a gay man as her most tsted nfidant.