Are Younger Brothers More Likely to Be Gay? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• FAI WH MULTIPLE GAY CHILDREN
• BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF GAYS AND LBIANS
• MEN WH OLR BROTHERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY, STUDY SUGGTS
• WE MAY KNOW WHY YOUNGER BROTHERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY
• MOM'S GEICS COULD PRODUCE GAY SONS
• ARE YOUNGER BROTHERS MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY?
• HAVG OLR BROTHERS INCREAS A MAN'S ODDS OF BEG GAY
• DO YOU KNOW ANY GAY SIBLGS?
• THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT GEICS ARE LKED TO SAME-SEX BEHAVR, NEW STUDY SAYS

FAI WH MULTIPLE GAY CHILDREN

The male homosexual siblg who was terviewed displayed a strong intifitn wh his mother via a feme self-intifitn, the adoptn of the hoewife role a homosexual marriage, and the adoptn of the passive role anal terurse. The two multiple homosexual siblg fai provi support for theori that emphasize the importance of early fay relatnships the velopment of a homosexual adaptatn.

"Born: 11-03-1952Age: 70Birthplace: Salt Lake Cy, Utah, USAOpenly gay edian Rosie O'Donnell's brother Daniel is also openly gay. He is a Democratic member of the New York State 03-21-1962Age: 61Birthplace: Commack, New York, USATwo of Chloë Grace Moretz's brothers are gay. Their last album, Heartbreak, buted at number three on the Billboard 09-19-1980Age: 42Birthplace: Calgary, CanadaJoshua Miller and his brother Jab are both openg gay.

In my own study of 65 gay youth and their fai, young Ain-Amerin men talked about how their brothers and other male relativ felt they were addg to society's already negative image of black manhood. Si by Si: On Havg a Gay or Lbian Siblg by Andrew Gottlieb is a sensive, sightful anthology nsistg of says wrten by siblgs of lbians and gays who discs how they, too, bee objects of abe and tolerance, sharg the stigma of their gay siblgs. However, like some fortunate parents, people who learn their siblgs are lbian or gay n fd ways to grow and ga new perspectiv.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF GAYS AND LBIANS

Several of the ntributors to this volume discsed how they formed pecially close bonds wh their gay brothers and sisters and, like some of the parents my study, veloped new, more tolerant worldviews that enriched their liv.

In addn, I have also seen parents wh good tentns isolate their gay children's younger siblgs, keepg the gay child's sexual orientatn a secret and therefore excludg brothers and sisters om fay discsns of this topic. At other tim, this is done advertently when, after the gay child out, parents and gay kids emotnally whdraw om the fay, leavg siblgs to al wh their reactns alone.

MEN WH OLR BROTHERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY, STUDY SUGGTS

" Many therapists who have worked wh young children, whose prejudic are not yet fully formed, know how surprisgly flexible they n be when to unrstandg topics such as homosexualy if they are explaed ways that are le wh their gnive abili. However, there is some evince that pared to fai wh no gay siblgs, if one son a fay is gay, his brothers are statistilly more likely to be.

In my study, there were two fai that clud two siblgs who were gay, and both s, seemed that by the time the parents found out about the send child, they had an easier time adjtg than they did when they found out about their first child. However, is possible that some parents might experience exponentially more self-blame, guilt, loss, and worry if they have two or more gay or lbian children.

WE MAY KNOW WHY YOUNGER BROTHERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY

Men wh olr brothers are more likely to be gay, acrdg to a study published Wednday the journal Proceedgs of the Royal Society B. This new report builds upon prev rearch regardg male birth orr and homosexualy, though there is still no cisive ncln as to why there’s a lk between the cross-analyzg data om 10 scientific studi wh more than 5, 000 subjects, rearchers found that men wh olr brothers were 38 percent more likely to intify as gay.

”The study, which pared the probabily of the youngt brother a two-son fay beg gay as pared to the olst son, did not clu female subjects, as prev rearch has tablished that women do not fluence the sexual orientatn of their younger siblgs, acrdg to this study did not terme a ncrete reason for the rrelatn between a man havg an olr brother and intifyg as gay, Blanchard said that “pots toward the need for more rearch on the 'maternal immune hypothis'” — a theory Blanchard troduced 1996 that suggts that a mother is exposed to “male-specific substanc” durg pregnancy wh or the birth of a son. Acrdg to proponents of the theory, the mother’s immune rponse is changed durg the pregnancy of a boy, creasg the likelihood that a subsequent male child would be gay. Y, a growg body of knowledge is ditg that homosexualy n n fai, although this often has been hidn many s and not discsed openly.

MOM'S GEICS COULD PRODUCE GAY SONS

Acrdg to thors Barbara and Allan Pease, there is a greater chance of a male beg gay if he has brothers, uncl, s, or parents (more on the mother’s si) who are also gay. A iend of me recently disvered—to his great surprise—that his mother was lbian and that two maternal s are gay (one male and one female) along wh a paternal uncle.

Psychologist Anthony Bogaert of Brock Universy Ontar Canada reported that the risk of beg gay creas wh the number of olr brothers. A 1995 news release om Stanford Universy dited that the probabily that the brother of a gay man is gay is about four tim higher than normal.

ARE YOUNGER BROTHERS MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY?

However, male homosexualy and lbianism tend to n different fai: sisters wh gay brothers are not more likely than normal to be lbian.

A 1993 study that traced the pedigree of pairs of gay brothers found that homosexualy tends to n on the maternal si of the fay tree: the brothers had a higher than average number of maternal nephews and uncl who are gay. Scientists, led by Dean Hamer, an Aids rearcher at the US Natnal Cancer Instute, studied the fay histori of 114 gay mal and found that 13. The more olr brothers a boy has, the more likely he is to be gay when he grows up – an effect lled the “aternal birth orr effect”.

They found that the mothers of gay sons wh olr brothers had the hight levels of antibodi agast this prote, followed by the mothers of gay sons wh no olr brothers. “Given that the prote is known to be important synapse formatn, you n see how maternal antibodi might affect the wirg of the fetal bra, and that might expla why each subsequent son is more likely to grow up gay. “The signifince of this prelimary observatn, if n be replited, is that intifi specific molecul the bra that may be important for heterosexual as well as homosexual velopment, ” says Dean Hamer, a pneer of rearchg the blogil termants of sexual orientatn.

HAVG OLR BROTHERS INCREAS A MAN'S ODDS OF BEG GAY

A qualative quiry to the liv of 57 Ain-, European-, Mexin-, and Vietname-Amerin young adult gay men unrsr the unique challeng faced by young gay people of lor (Merighi & Grim, 2000).

A 24-year-old Mexin-Amerin gay male ptur the plexy of intifyg as a gay man suated extend fay works and broar cultural expectatns:I jt felt like I was gog to be a bad son by [g out]… sayg that I’m gay, I might have a negative effect the fay terms of how others might view the fay, not jt me….

DO YOU KNOW ANY GAY SIBLGS?

A qualative vtigatn examg 35 predomantly Whe gay upl’ motivatns for pursug parenthood found that one-third of men scribed a posive experience growg up a close fay (Goldberg, Downg, & Moyer, 2012).

Ined, some fdgs pot to blogil relatedns as a way to strengthen the fay of orig ti (Nebelg Petersen, 2018) while simultaneoly g nongeilly related fay members to have difficulty regnizg the child as a member of the fay (see chapter “Gay Men and Surrogacy”). A study of 40 Filipo and Lato gay young men found that siblgs provid support when g out to immigrant parents, offerg to stand up for their siblg and challenge heteronormative expectatns:My mom was cryg when I first told her I had a boyiend. Ompo (2014) signals the herent strs associated wh actg the mediator role yet unrsr s signifince bridgg the fay, as bt articulated when one heterosexual siblg “felt was worth when she saw her parents fally bee open not only to their gay children, but also their children’s partners” (p.

A se study of a Romani fay livg Belgium showed that after their father beme vlent toward their gay brother, two siblgs tervened and years later their brother ocsnally “asks [them] to say hello to his father for him” (Haxhe, Cerezo, Bergfeld, & Walloch, 2018, p. G., beg a gay man vers a lbian, or beg “butch” vers “femme”) as well as stigmas faced by bisexual and transgenr dividuals their own fai and the larger LGBTQ muny.

THERE’S NO ONE ‘GAY GENE,’ BUT GEICS ARE LKED TO SAME-SEX BEHAVR, NEW STUDY SAYS

Siblg Ti Midlife and Later LifeTakg to acunt the historil ntext of mid- and later-life LGBTQ sibships, them of homophobia, transphobia, and ostracizatn are likely to be prent. This hort me-of-age the ntext of the cultural revolutn for gay liberatn that was marked by the Stonewall Rts of June 1969, a time when homosexualy was still illegal and emed a mental illns.