Are We Born Gay? And If We Were, How Would We Know? - Soclogil Imag

Contents:

• HOW BARBRA STREISAND AND ROBERT REDFORD’S ‘THE WAY WE WERE’ WAS INSPIRED BY A REAL-LIFE GAY ROMANCE (BOOK EXCERPT)
• AM I GAY?
• THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
• WE WERE GAY UNTIL WE MET EACH OTHER: OUR UNUAL HETEROSEXUAL LOVE STORY
• GAYLE KG ON ROMANCE RUMORS WH OPRAH: ‘IF WE WERE GAY, WE WOULD TELL YOU’
• THE WAY WE WERE'S SECRET GAY BACKSTORY
• IF WE WERE GAY
• ​WISH YOU WERE GAYBILLIE EILISHTRACK 6 ON WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (JAPANE IMPORT) PRODUCED BYFINNEASAS EILISH EXPLAED AN INSTAGRAM LIVTREAM, “WISH YOU WERE GAY” IS ABOUT HOW FELT FOR HER TO BE REJECTED BY A BOY SHE LIKED. AT THE TIME, BILLIE THOUGHT HE DIDN’T… READ MORE MAR. 4, 20191 VIEWER1.8M VIEWS243 CONTRIBUTORSTRANSLATNSSVENSKAESPAñOLРусскийROMâNăPORTUGUêSPOLSKIITALIANODTSCHFRANçAISENGLISHNERLANDSDANSKENGLISHΕλληνικά​WISH YOU WERE GAY LYRICS[VERSE 1]"BABY, I DON'T FEEL SO GOOD," SIX WORDS YOU NEVER UNRSTOOD"I'LL NEVER LET YOU GO," FIVE WORDS YOU'LL NEVER SAY (AWW)I LGH ALONG LIKE NOTHG'S WRONG, FOUR DAYS HAS NEVER FELT SO LONGIF THREE'S A CROWD AND TWO WAS , ONE SLIPPED AWAY (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)[CHOS]I JT WANNA MAKE YOU FEEL OKAYBUT ALL YOU DO IS LOOK THE OTHER WAYI N'T TELL YOU HOW MUCH I WISH I DIDN'T WANNA STAYI JT KDA WISH YOU WERE GAY[VERSE 2]IS THERE A REASON WE'RE NOT THROUGH?IS THERE A 12 STEP JT FOR YOU?OUR NVERSATN'S ALL BLUE11 "HEYS" (HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY)TEN FGERS TEAR' OUT MY HAIRNE TIM YOU NEVER MA THEREI ATE ALONE AT 7, YOU WERE SIX MUT AWAY(YAY)[CHOS]HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE YOU FEEL OKAYWHEN ALL YOU DO IS WALK THE OTHER WAY?I N'T TELL YOU HOW MUCH I WISH I DIDN'T WANNA STAYI JT KDA WISH YOU WERE GAYYOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE[BRIDGE]TO SPARE MY PRITO GIVE YOUR LACK OF TERT AN EXPLANATNDON'T SAY I'M NOT YOUR TYPEJT SAY THAT I'M NOT YOUR PREFERRED SEXUAL ORIENTATNI'M SO SELFISHBUT YOU MAKE ME FEEL HELPLS, YEAHAND I N'T STAND ANOTHER DAYSTAND ANOTHER DAY[CHOS]I JT WANNA MAKE YOU FEEL OKAYBUT ALL YOU DO IS LOOK THE OTHER WAY, HMMI N'T TELL YOU HOW MUCH I WISH I DIDN'T WANNA STAYI JT KDA WISH YOU WERE GAYI JT KDA WISH YOU WERE GAYI JT KDA WISH YOU WERE GAY274EMBEDCANCELHOW TO FORMAT LYRICS:TYPE OUT ALL LYRICS, EVEN REPEATG SONG PARTS LIKE THE CHOSLYRICS SHOULD BE BROKEN DOWN TO DIVIDUAL LUSE SECTN HEARS ABOVE DIFFERENT SONG PARTS LIKE [VERSE], [CHOS], ETC.USE ALICS (<I>LYRIC</I>) AND BOLD (<B>LYRIC</B>) TO DISTGUISH BETWEEN DIFFERENT VOLISTS THE SAME SONG PARTIF YOU DON’T UNRSTAND A LYRIC, E [?]TO LEARN MORE, CHECK OUT OUR TRANSCRIPTN GUI OR VIS OUR TRANSCRIBERS FOMABOUT
• GAY RIGHTS
• HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
• DRAG QUEENS CHANTG ‘WE’RE G FOR YOUR KIDS’ HURT GAY RIGHTS

HOW BARBRA STREISAND AND ROBERT REDFORD’S ‘THE WAY WE WERE’ WAS INSPIRED BY A REAL-LIFE GAY ROMANCE (BOOK EXCERPT)

For a long time, the mastream public didn't want to hear our Ca's The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle tells the story of a secretly gay postman searchg for a lost love om his youth (Cred: Headle Review)"I would venture to say that the public were disgted and outraged, " says thor Crystal Jeans.

It's about a lonely, socially awkward and secretly gay postman livg a fictnal town the north of England who hs retirement, realisg he wants to turn his life around and fally be happy – but to do this, he needs to fd the love of his life, a man he hasn’t seen for nearly 50 years. That same year, the so-lled "Alan Turg law" offered pardons to 49, 000 Brish gay men who’d been nvicted of homosexual acts – followg a mpaign arguably bolstered by the greater awarens brought about by The Imatn Game, the h film that picted the nvictn and chemil stratn of the Enigma-breakg puter scientist.

AM I GAY?

Over the last five years, a tr of Irish wrers have livered stunng gay-themed novels set predomantly perds of history that didn't wele them – John Boyne (The Heart’s Invisible Furi), Graham Norton (Home Stretch), and Sebastian Barry (the Costa Award-wng Days Whout End). As the first few hntg not of the tle song sound and the unmistakable voice of Barbra Streisand ton “mem’ri, ” most of n’t help but settle for yet another viewg of The Way We Were, even though we know how the turbulent romance of Katie Morosky and Hubbell Garder turns few of know about the beloved 1973 film’s behd-the-scen drama or s gay origs.

THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED

In other rearch, he terviewed s two still-livg, inic stars, Streisand and Robert rult is a tale of clash between Lrents, Pollack, and producer Ray Stark, the differg styl of Streisand and Redford, and how a gay Jewish man, Lrents, channeled his love of betiful Gentile men to the years, Lrents said the character of Katie, a polilly radil Jew who falls love wh and marri apolil Gentile Hubbell, was based on a woman he knew llege.

WE WERE GAY UNTIL WE MET EACH OTHER: OUR UNUAL HETEROSEXUAL LOVE STORY

“There always has to be a gay angle, or I’m not terted, ” says Hofler, a gay don’t thk Hubbell is a directly fictnalized versn of any of the men Lrents loved, but he do thk the character was fluenced by the wrer’s relatnships wh some of them, cludg his longtime partner, Tom Hatcher, and actor Farley Granger. You so obvly nnot be gay, was her implitn, bee this is good sex.It was 2006, a full five years before Lady Gaga would set the Born This Way argument atop s unassailable cultural perch, but even then the popular unrstandg of orientatn was that was somethg you were born wh, somethg you uldn’t change.

GAYLE KG ON ROMANCE RUMORS WH OPRAH: ‘IF WE WERE GAY, WE WOULD TELL YOU’

But what feels most accurate to say is that I’m gay – but I wasn’t born this way.Many people may fd their sir changg directn - and n't jt be explaed as experimentatn (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)In 1977, jt over 10% of Amerins thought gayns was somethg you were born wh, acrdg to Gallup.

Throughout the same perd, the number of Amerins who believe homosexualy is “due to someone’s upbrgg/environment” fell om jt unr 60% to 37%.The ias reached cril mass pop culture, first wh Lady Gaga’s 2011 Born This Way and one year later wh Macklemore’s Same Love, the chos of which has a gay person sgg “I n’t change even if I tried, even if I wanted to.” Vios started circulatg on the ter featurg gay people askg straight people “when they chose to be straight.” Around the same time, the Human Rights Campaign clared unequivolly that “Beg gay is not a choice,” and to claim that is “giv unwarranted crence to roundly disproven practic such as nversn or reparative therapy.”People who challenge the Born This Way narrative are often st as homophobic, and their thkg is nsired backwardAs Jane Ward not Not Gay: Sex Between Straight Whe Men, what’s tertg about many of the claims is how transparent their speakers are wh their polil motivatns. “Such statements,” she wr, “fe blogil acunts wh an obligatory and nearly ercive force, suggtg that anyone who scrib homosexual sire as a choice or social nstctn is playg to the hands of the enemy.” People who challenge the Born This Way narrative are often st as homophobic, and their thkg is nsired backward – even if they are themselv gay.Take, for example, Cynthia Nixon of Sex and The Cy fame.

Callg me “idtic” and “patently absurd”, Aravosis wrote, “The gay haters at the relig right uldn’t have wrten any better.”Gay rights do not have to hge on a geic explanatn for sexualy (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)For Aravosis, and many gay activists like him, the public will only accept and affirm gay people if they thk they were born gay. In fact, the homophobic and non-homophobic rponnts he studied shared siar levels of belief a Born This Way iology.As Samantha Allen not at The Daily Beast, the growg public support for gays and lbians has grown out of proportn wh the rise the number of people who believe homosexualy is fixed at birth; would be unlikely that this small change opn uld expla the spike support for gay marriage, for stance. “It don’t seem to matter as much whether or not people believe that gay people are born that way as do that they simply know someone who is currently gay,” Allen nclus.In spe of the studi, those who ph agast Born This Way narrativ have been heavily cricised by gay activists.

THE WAY WE WERE'S SECRET GAY BACKSTORY

And when I published my say on choosg to be gay, an irate Amerin lbian activist wrote me that had “jt been nfirmed” to her that my wrg was “directly rponsible for four gay aths Rsia.”While I n unrstand why some ntemporary activists (and the journalists who seem beholn to their agendas) might chalk up recent gas LGB acceptance to Born This Way’s cultural filtratn, activism mt be found upon facts and tths, or the whole program will eventually turn out to be a sham.

IF WE WERE GAY

Drowng out every voice that dar to qutn domant cultural narrativ is not the same thg as validatg the arguments those voic are makg.As Ward says, “Jt bee an argument is polilly expedient don’t make te.”It is only recent history that we have started to label sexual orientatns wh rigid tegori (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)So what do the science say about Born This Way?There is a unanimo opn that gay “nversn therapy” should be rejectedLet’s first be clear that whatever the origs of our sexual orientatn, there is a unanimo opn that gay “nversn therapy” should be rejected. The efforts are potentially harmful, acrdg to the APA, “bee they prent the view that the sexual orientatn of lbian, gay and bisexual youth is a mental illns of disorr, and they often ame the abily to change one’s sexual orientatn as a personal and moral failure.” Ltle wonr the therapi have been shown to provoke anxiety, prsn and even suici.In other words, the qutn of the efficy of nversn therapi is a non-issue.

The APA, for example, while notg that most people experience ltle to no choice over their orientatns, says this of homosexualy’s origs:“Although much rearch has examed the possible geic, hormonal, velopmental, social and cultural fluenc on sexual orientatn, no fdgs have emerged that perm scientists to nclu that sexual orientatn is termed by any particular factor or factors.”Siarly, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn wr a 2013 statement that while the of heterosexualy and homosexualy are currently unknown, they are likely “multifactorial cludg blogil and behavral roots which may vary between different dividuals and may even vary over time.”Te, var eye-grabbg headl over the years have claimed that some scientists have found somethg like The Gay Gene. In 1991, for example, nroscientist Simon LaVey published fdgs that he claimed suggt that “sexual orientatn has a blogil substrate.” Acrdg to LeVay’s rearch, a specific part of the bra, the third terstial nucls of the anterr hypothalam (INAH-3), is smaller homosexual men than is heterosexual men.Try as they might, scientists have stggled to inty any particular gen that nsistently predict the directns of our love and sire (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)Read moreYou n spot the problem wh this study a e away: were the gay bras LeVay studied born that way, or did they bee that way?

​WISH YOU WERE GAYBILLIE EILISHTRACK 6 ON WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (JAPANE IMPORT) PRODUCED BYFINNEASAS EILISH EXPLAED AN INSTAGRAM LIVTREAM, “WISH YOU WERE GAY” IS ABOUT HOW FELT FOR HER TO BE REJECTED BY A BOY SHE LIKED. AT THE TIME, BILLIE THOUGHT HE DIDN’T… READ MORE MAR. 4, 20191 VIEWER1.8M VIEWS243 CONTRIBUTORSTRANSLATNSSVENSKAESPAñOLРусскийROMâNăPORTUGUêSPOLSKIITALIANODTSCHFRANçAISENGLISHNERLANDSDANSKENGLISHΕλληνικά​WISH YOU WERE GAY LYRICS[VERSE 1]"BABY, I DON'T FEEL SO GOOD," SIX WORDS YOU NEVER UNRSTOOD"I'LL NEVER LET YOU GO," FIVE WORDS YOU'LL NEVER SAY (AWW)I LGH ALONG LIKE NOTHG'S WRONG, FOUR DAYS HAS NEVER FELT SO LONGIF THREE'S A CROWD AND TWO WAS , ONE SLIPPED AWAY (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)[CHOS]I JT WANNA MAKE YOU FEEL OKAYBUT ALL YOU DO IS LOOK THE OTHER WAYI N'T TELL YOU HOW MUCH I WISH I DIDN'T WANNA STAYI JT KDA WISH YOU WERE GAY[VERSE 2]IS THERE A REASON WE'RE NOT THROUGH?IS THERE A 12 STEP JT FOR YOU?OUR NVERSATN'S ALL BLUE11 "HEYS" (HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY)TEN FGERS TEAR' OUT MY HAIRNE TIM YOU NEVER MA THEREI ATE ALONE AT 7, YOU WERE SIX MUT AWAY(YAY)[CHOS]HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE YOU FEEL OKAYWHEN ALL YOU DO IS WALK THE OTHER WAY?I N'T TELL YOU HOW MUCH I WISH I DIDN'T WANNA STAYI JT KDA WISH YOU WERE GAYYOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE[BRIDGE]TO SPARE MY PRITO GIVE YOUR LACK OF TERT AN EXPLANATNDON'T SAY I'M NOT YOUR TYPEJT SAY THAT I'M NOT YOUR PREFERRED SEXUAL ORIENTATNI'M SO SELFISHBUT YOU MAKE ME FEEL HELPLS, YEAHAND I N'T STAND ANOTHER DAYSTAND ANOTHER DAY[CHOS]I JT WANNA MAKE YOU FEEL OKAYBUT ALL YOU DO IS LOOK THE OTHER WAY, HMMI N'T TELL YOU HOW MUCH I WISH I DIDN'T WANNA STAYI JT KDA WISH YOU WERE GAYI JT KDA WISH YOU WERE GAYI JT KDA WISH YOU WERE GAY274EMBEDCANCELHOW TO FORMAT LYRICS:TYPE OUT ALL LYRICS, EVEN REPEATG SONG PARTS LIKE THE CHOSLYRICS SHOULD BE BROKEN DOWN TO DIVIDUAL LUSE SECTN HEARS ABOVE DIFFERENT SONG PARTS LIKE [VERSE], [CHOS], ETC.USE ALICS (<I>LYRIC</I>) AND BOLD (<B>LYRIC</B>) TO DISTGUISH BETWEEN DIFFERENT VOLISTS THE SAME SONG PARTIF YOU DON’T UNRSTAND A LYRIC, E [?]TO LEARN MORE, CHECK OUT OUR TRANSCRIPTN GUI OR VIS OUR TRANSCRIBERS FOMABOUT

LeVay himself poted this out to Disver Magaze 1994: “Sce I looked at adult bras, we don't know if the differenc I found were there at birth or if they appeared later.” Further, the bras LeVay studied belonged to AIDS victims, so he uldn’t even be sure if what he was seeg had somethg to do wh the disease.Another landmark paper on the origs of homosexualy was published 1993 by a geicist named Dean Hamer, who was terted to learn whether homosexualy uld be hered. “It’s not.”And as Allen pots out, there have also been studi that found no “X-lked gene unrlyg male homosexualy.” Perhaps predictably, the studi haven’t received as much media verage.Bis the dividual criqu leveled agast each new study announcg some gay gene disvery, there are major methodologil cricisms to make about the entire enterprise general, as Grzanka pots out: “If we look at the raveno pursu, particularly among Amerin scientists, to fd a gay gene, what we see is that the ncln has already been arrived at.

GAY RIGHTS

How then uld they be rooted our genome?” Our sir may exprs themselv many different ways that do not all nform to existg notns of ‘gay’, ‘straight’ or ‘bisexual’.This is one of the bt takeaways of Ward’s Not Gay, a peratg analysis of sex between straight whe men. Ccially, she argu, “whether or not this baggage is appealg is a separate matter altogether om the appeal of homosexual or heterosexual sex.”Even if you accept that sexual sire may exist on a kd of spectm, the predomant ia is still that the sir are nate and immutable – but this ns unter to what we know about human taste, says Ward.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

“Our sir are oriented and re-oriented based on our experienc throughout our liv.”Gay or not, our sir are oriented and re-oriented throughout our liv (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)In fact, the straight-intified men Ward studied for her book sometim found themselv suatns that sparked the sire for homosexual sex: aterni, ployments, public rtrooms, etc.

DRAG QUEENS CHANTG ‘WE’RE G FOR YOUR KIDS’ HURT GAY RIGHTS

All of our sir are ntually beg shaped throughout our liv, the very specific ntexts which we disver and rehearse them.I’m claimg that at some pot durg llege, my sexual and romantic sir beme reoriented toward menThkg back to my llege romanc wh women and men, I n beg to unrstand how my own experienc might have helped me to ‘cultivate’ my sire for homosexualy. But that’s not the whole story, and to engage disurse that pretends is — regardls of the nobily of the tentns — uld have “profound and very negative nsequenc” for the LGBT muny, says Grzanka.“Limg our unrstandg of any plex human experience is always gog to be worse than allowg to be plited,” he says.Early gay rights activists pared sexualy to relign - a ccial part of our life that we should be ee to practise however we like (Cred: Ignac Lehamann)So what are we to do wh the Born This Way rhetoric?

It don’t take too much creativy to image a scenar which homophobic parents, upon beg rmed their fet has ‘the gay gene’, choose what to them may seem the lser of two evils: abortn.Fally, I would argue that the Born This Way narrative n actively damage our perceptns of ourselv. We’d never accept that story.”Acrdg to surveys, ls than half of Generatn Z intify as "100% heterosexual", suggtg more and more people have embraced their sexual fluidy (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)Perhaps is time to look to the begng of the gay rights movement. “Then there was a shift, and the lears of the movement chose to jump on board wh a ls nuanced argument that people already unrstood: jt like race, people are born wh their homosexualy.”Fortunately, we have now ma enormo stris unrstandg and affirmg our queer sexuali.

And importantly, each isn’t always nstcted opposn to the other.I’m thankful for a new generatn that is pable of imagg sexualy a way that transcends the gay/straight bary, that uldn’t re ls about what happened to their bodi and mds to make them who they are today. Sean O'Hagan), Wish you were gay by Julia Cooper, Wish you were gay (Cover) by Nadda Mercenary, Wish You Were Gay by Lisa Ekdahl, Wish You Were Gay (Versión en Español - Spotify Sgl) by Mon Laferte, Wish you were gay (but actually GAY) by Keara Grav (Ft. Mara L), ​wish you were gay by Alaa Castillo, Wish You Were Gay by Sammie Beare, ​wish you were gay by billie eilish except ’s a ver about girls by ​chloe morndo, Wish you were gay (Cover) by Heya Tamar & WISH YOU WERE GAY (Cover By Addy Hollaran) by IDK Shaie (Ft.