What do the new ‘gay gen’ tell about sexual orientatn? | New Scientist

Contents:

• GAY — THE NEW STRAIGHT
• WHAT I LEARNED FROM ‘LOVE, SIMON’: GAY IS THE NEW STRAIGHT
• WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
• ATRALIAN COMEDIAN STEVE HUGH ON WHY "GAY IS THE NEW STRAIGHT"
• “GAY — THE NEW STRAIGHT” — I DON’T THK SO!
• ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER
• WHAT THE WORLD CAN LEARN FROM GAY-STRAIGHT FRIENDSHIPS
• PEOPLE N INTIFY WHETHER A MAN IS GAY OR STRAIGHT BY THEIR VOICE. BISEXUALS? NOT SO MUCH
• SOME GAYS CAN GO STRAIGHT, STUDY SAYS

GAY — THE NEW STRAIGHT

If you’re a young man, you might assume that eher you’re straight or you’re not, meang you’re likely gay and maybe bisexual. Yet the evince suggts that more young men intify or scribe themselv as mostly straight than intify as eher bisexual or gay bed. Yet when the men were forced to choose between straight, bisexual or gay, about three-quarters marked straight bee for them bisexual, even if is unrstood as “bisexual-leang straight, ” is too gay to accurately scribe their inty.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM ‘LOVE, SIMON’: GAY IS THE NEW STRAIGHT

Tradnally, our unrstandg has been that if you’re male and have even a slight attractn to the same sex, then you mt be gay. He’s not a closeted gay man who fears beg gay yet wants to keep a slight, perhaps secretive, gay si by danglg his potential for guy sex. He may retreat om a full intifitn wh heterosexualy, but rarely do he gravate toward bisexualy, and almost never do he move toward homosexualy of any sort.

The Williams Instute at UCLA Law School will release a report today by mographer Gary Gat that all but pos the qutn: Is gay the new straight?

Cens data driv home a pot that the gay vanguard has been wrtlg wh for a while: The hedonistic, transgrsive, radil ethos (and stereotype) that once characterized gay culture don’t reprent realy anymore. Has Gat fotten about the 45 stat that have laws or nstutnal amendments barrg same-sex marriage, or the anti-gay discrimatn bill that is stalled Congrs and fac opposn om the Whe Hoe? There is, he says, a vol, vilent -- and sometim vlent -- anti-gay movement, but don’t negate s of opn surveys that show a marked crease tolerance most Amerins’ attus toward gays and lbians.

WHAT DO THE NEW ‘GAY GEN’ TELL ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN?

In 1998, for example, a Gallup poll found that only 33% of Amerins thought that homosexual relatns between nsentg adults should be legal. Growg acceptance of homosexualy means a cle social stigma associated wh same-sex relatnships, and a nsequent shift the polics of g out.

Even more untertuive, om 2000 to 2006, stat that banned same-sex marriage had above-average creas the number of gay upl.

ATRALIAN COMEDIAN STEVE HUGH ON WHY "GAY IS THE NEW STRAIGHT"

And plac where voter referendums went agast same-sex marriag saw even larger of the growth the number of openly gay upl nservative areas uld be bee of migratn. And y, some on-the-barris members of the gay rights movement have gotten olr and mellower and moved out to the heartland.

But the larger trend is simply that as more gays e out, they don’t need to change or assiate to f to the mastream bee they are already very much a part of . If you’re om a state like Utah or Nebraska, chanc are you’re gog to share a lot wh your neighbors whether you’re straight or gay: “They’re ral, ” Gat says, “they’re relig, and they’re Republin.

It means that the culture once associated wh gay inty be ls distctive om the don’t believe that the trends spell an end of gay “associatnal” life. As gays meld to the broar populatn, plac like Wt Hollywood and the Castro district San Francis will evably lose some of their appeal. As more gays e out more plac, the diversy of homosexual polics and liftyl will e out wh them, and the tolerant will some of the pneers om the edgy, embattled, ecstatic “good old days, ” this may be btersweet.

“GAY — THE NEW STRAIGHT” — I DON’T THK SO!

Most people n’t relate to beg gay, so now, young people are askg qutns and learng about themselv that many generatns before didn’t know or experience. “I have a lot of LGBTQ iends and fay members who are gay, and so for me, was more so about beg honored to be a part of this tnal procs and to create alli wh people who see this movie who don’t know very much about the muny and don’t know very much about how to speak the vernacular and thgs like that, ” said Shipp, who plays Simon’s iend Abby.

ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER

So, om the observatns of our world now, we see there is more support for not only people who are gay, but for people who don’t know or are unsure about the muny. 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. We have known for s that sexual orientatn is partly herable men, thanks to studi of fai which some people are straight and some people are gay.

WHAT THE WORLD CAN LEARN FROM GAY-STRAIGHT FRIENDSHIPS

In 1993, geic variatns a regn on the X chromosome men were lked to whether they were heterosexual or homosexual, and 1995, a regn on chromosome 8 was intified.

Alan Sanrs at North Shore Universy, Illois, and his team ppoted the gen by parg DNA om 1077 gay and 1231 straight men.

PEOPLE N INTIFY WHETHER A MAN IS GAY OR STRAIGHT BY THEIR VOICE. BISEXUALS? NOT SO MUCH

Intertgly, this bra regn ntas the hypothalam, which was intified 1991 as differg size between gay and straight men. Grave’s disease is more mon gay than straight men, and some rearch suggts that gay men tend to be thner – which might possibly be a rult of thyroid overdrive. There have been studi suggtg that there is a geic element to homosexualy women, but more rearch has been done men, says Sanrs.

SOME GAYS CAN GO STRAIGHT, STUDY SAYS

The latt fdgs open the prospect to intifyg the whole pathway of gen volved both homosexual and heterosexual orientatn, says Dean Hamer at the US Natnal Instut of Health, who led the study that ppoted chromosome X back 1993.

Steve Hugh, an Atralian edian, talks about how England if you wear an earrg your left ear mak you gay whereas Atralia, 's havg another man's c*ck your arse. Drawg his nclns om an important new rearch study done by the Williams Instute at the UCLA Law School, Rodriguez mak many melodramatic, but largely unfound, claims about gay people.