Sexual Orientatn Myths & Facts | Lbian Gay Bisexual Transgenr Center | Case Wtern Rerve Universy

Contents:

• 5 MYTHS ABOUT GAY PEOPLE DEBUNKED
• TOP 5 MYTHS ABOUT GAY MEN
• 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED
• 10 MYTHS ABOUT GAY VIRGY
• 20 GAY GREEK GODS
• ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

5 MYTHS ABOUT GAY PEOPLE DEBUNKED

Gay myths(Image cred: © Dawn Hudson |)Gay people have been acced of beg unf parents, more likely to be pedophil, unable to sta lastg relatnships, and worse. "Not every sexual act has a reproductive functn, " said Ja Mann, a blogist at Geetown relatnships don't lastSame-sex marriage; gay men givg their weddg vows. "There is nsirable evince that both lbians and gay men want to be strong, mted relatnships [and] are succsful creatg the partnerships, spe difficulti created by social prejudice, stigma, and the lack of legal regnn for same-sex relatnships most parts of the U.

S., " said UCLA psychologist Anne Pepl, -thor of a book chapter on the subject published the 2007 Annual Review of example, John Gottman, a Universy of Washgton emer profsor of psychology, and his lleagu llected data om homosexual upl across 12 years, and found that about 20 percent had broken up over that time. That rate projected over a 40-year perd is slightly lower than the divorce rate for first marriag among heterosexual upl over the same time span, acrdg to the study published 2003 the Journal of Homosexualy.

"The overall implitn of this rearch is that we have to shake off all of the stereotyp of homosexual relatnships and have more rpect for them as mted relatnships, " Gottman fact, the same study found that gay upl tend to be better at rolvg nflicts and enuragg posive pedophil are gay(Image cred: © Normasmond |)An pecially pernic myth is that most adults who sexually abe children are gay. A number of rearchers have looked at this qutn to terme if homosexuals are more likely to be pedophil than heterosexuals, and the data dite that's not the example, a 1989 study led by Kurt Frnd of the Clarke Instute of Psychiatry Canada, scientists showed pictur of children to adult gay and straight mal, and measured sexual aroal.

TOP 5 MYTHS ABOUT GAY MEN

(Image cred: © Alanpoulson |)Many of those who oppose gay marriage and gay adoptn charge that same-sex parents aren't good for kids, and that a child needs both a father and a mother to grow up to be a healthy adult.

Rearch, however, shows that children of gay parents tend to fare jt example, one recent study looked at nearly 90 teens, half livg wh female same-sex upl and the others wh heterosexual upl, showg that both groups fared siarly school. "Both studi were scribed a lerature review paper published Febary 2010 the Journal of Marriage and gay is a choiceThe mystery DNA spippets are about 300 tim ls likely than other regns of the genome to be lost durg the urse of mammalian evolutn.

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

(Image cred: Dreamstime)While some claim that beg gay is a choice, or that homosexualy n be cured, evince is mountg that same-sex attractn is at least partly geic and blogilly tt whether gen play a role, rearchers have pared intil tws ( which all gen are shared) to aternal tws ( which about 50 percent of gen are shared). A 2001 review of such tw studi reported that almost all found intil tws were signifintly more likely to share a sexual orientatn – that is, to be eher both gay, or both straight – than aternal tws, who are ls geilly close. "The rults support the theory that differenc the central nervo system exist between homosexual and heterosexual dividuals and that the differenc are possibly related to early factors bra velopment, " said Sandra Welson of McMaster Universy Ontar, an thor on the 1998 ner ear fdg published the journal Proceedgs of the Natnal Amy of Scienc.

A Gui for Women Concerned About Their Men, but simply put, some men have no sire to be nnected wh gay culture, and scerely nsir themselv to not be gay or bisexual. This misnceptn has led thoands of gay men to seek gay nversn therapy, aka "reverse gay unselg", or even go so far as engagg heterosexual relatnships orr to ny their homosexual feelgs (read: Is My Hband Gay?

10 MYTHS ABOUT GAY VIRGY

The attempts at leadg a heterosexual liftyle n often lead to further supprsn of one's te homosexual feelgs, which n, turn, lead to more pa ed due to adultery, divorce, or ctody battl.

There is still rearch beg done as to the exact of homosexualy and why people are gay, but assigng as strictly a product of the environment is not the answer. Ever sce born-aga sger and orange juice pchwoman Ana Bryant helped kick off the ntemporary anti-gay movement some 40 years ago, hard-le elements of the relig right have been searchg for ways to monize gay people — or, at a mimum, to fd arguments that will prevent their normalizatn society.

For the former Florida bety queen and her Save Our Children group, was the alleged plans of gay men and lbians to "rec" schools that provid the fodr for their csa. But addn to hawkg that myth, the legns of anti-gay activists who followed have add a panoply of others, rangg om the extremely doubtful claim that sexual orientatn is a choice, to unalloyed li like the claims that gay men molt children far more than heterosexuals or that hate crime laws will lead to the legalizatn of btialy and necrophilia. The fairy tal are important to the anti-gay right bee they form the basis of s claim that homosexualy is a social evil that mt be supprsed — an opn rejected by virtually all relevant medil and scientific thori.

20 GAY GREEK GODS

Depictg gay men as a threat to children may be the sgle most potent weapon for stokg public fears about homosexualy — and for wng electns and referenda, as Ana Bryant found out durg her succsful 1977 mpaign to overturn a Da County, Fla., ordance barrg discrimatn agast gay people. Dpe havg been bunked repeatedly and very publicly, Cameron's work is still wily relied upon by anti-gay anizatns, although many no longer quote him by name. Others have ced a group lled the Amerin College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) to claim, as Tony Perks of the Fay Rearch Council did November 2010, that "the rearch is overwhelmg that homosexualy pos a [moltatn] danger to children.

ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

Gregory Herek, a profsor at the Universy of California, Davis, who is one of the natn's leadg rearchers on prejudice agast sexual mori, reviewed a seri of studi and found no evince that gay men molt children at higher rat than heterosexual men. The fixated child molter — the stereotypil pedophile — nnot be nsired homosexual or heterosexual bee "he often fds adults of eher sex repulsive" and often molts children of both sex. Most hard-le anti-gay anizatns are heavily vted, om both a relig and a polil standpot, promotg the tradnal nuclear fay as the sole amework for the healthy upbrgg of children.

The Amerin Amy of Child & Adolcent Psychiatry affirmed 2013 that “[c]urrent rearch shows that children wh gay and lbian parents do not differ om children wh heterosexual parents their emotnal velopment or their relatnships wh peers and adults” and they are “not more likely than children of heterosexual parents to velop emotnal or behavral problems. The Amerin Amy of Pediatrics (AAP) a 2002 policy statement clared: "A growg body of scientific lerature monstrat that children who grow up wh one or two gay and/or lbian parents fare as well emotnal, gnive, social, and sexual functng as do children whose parents are heterosexual.

” The next year, 2005, the APA published a summary of rearch fdgs on lbian and gay parents and reerated that mon negative stereotyp about LGBT parentg are not supported by the data. Siarly, the Child Welfare League of Ameri's official posn wh regard to same-sex parents is that "lbian, gay, and bisexual parents are as well-sued to raise children as their heterosexual unterparts.