Originally posted by Zampanó
I read this in a lay-article, but I was given to understand that the mechanism causing successive sons to be more prone to homosexuality was that the mother's body becomes more accustomed to the testosterone. The idea was that an nth son would be exposed to more estrogen than the n-1th son.
A Danish study may have debunked that "myth". In fact, having older brothers may increase the likelihood of marrying heterosexually.
"The Danish researchers found no evidence that having older brothers increased the likelihood of men marrying homosexually. On the contrary, they found that older siblings increased the probability of heterosexual marriage. The choice of homosexual versus heterosexual marriage serves as an obvious, although not perfect, assessment of sexual preferences."
Originally posted by Esau Cairn
I honestly don't understand why people fear or shun others based on their sexuality?But no, I don't believe people are born gay.
True Story.
I was having a discussion with this guy in his mid-50's who made it clear that he was openly gay & in a same sex relationship. He grew up straight, never once had any homosexual inclinations or curiosity at all. He married & had several children & led a happy fulfilled life as a husband & father. Unfortunately his wife of 30 years wasn't happy with her life & once all their children were grown up & left the house, wanted a divorce. The guy was devastated. (This is where in the conversation, I was pissing myself with laughter...)
Anyway a month after the divorce, the guy went out with his best friend (who was also divorced) to drown their sorrows...suffice to say, he woke up the next morning in bed with his best friend & thus freely accepted his turn in life to being in a gay relationship. He said on comparison he could understand & relate to a male's feelings & point of view, whereas women could be difficult & hard to co-exist at the best of times.
So yeah a person can change sexuality by choice & not influenced by genes or society.
That story is all-too common.
The opposite can be true, as well: you can be homosexual for years and then, seemingly all of a sudden, be straight. A reverse "coming out of the closet" if you will.
I had a friend, growing up, that was an effeminate boy. He certainly got it on as a teen with the ladies. But, shortly before his 17th birthday, he called me up (this was back in the day when land-lines were still used quite often... irrelevant to the point, I know, but something that brought on nostalgia) and told me that he had something important to tell me. I told him, "let me guess, you're gay?" He laughed and asked how I knew. I told him that growing up, he just seemed gay. It wasn't just his effeminism, it was other things. He didn't do anything homosexual as a boy, he just seemed gay in retrospect. I was waiting for him to "come out of the closet", of course. He feared the backlash at school so I told him to come over and talk about it. We talked for a few hours and I reassured him that all would be well and I would stop any abuse he may receive from our male peers. Other than a couple of stupid comments, everyone was very receptive and nice to him about it. Great guy...I should see how he's doing, these days. hmm
However, a lot of factors were stacked up, environmentally, that made becoming gay a stronger possibility for him: his parents divorced when he was young, he spent some of his childhood bouncing back and forth between both parents, his father eventually became absent from his life, his mother was very overbearing and smothering, etc. Typical/stereotypical things that people associate with homosexuality.
But is that backed by science? Most of it is.
And of the social influences of homosexuality:
"The researchers found for each additional year one’s parents stay married, the probability of heterosexual marriage in the children increased by 1.6% among sons and 1.0% among daughters. In contrast, the rate of homosexual unions decreased by 1.8% among sons and 1.4% among daughters for every year of intact parental marriage. Summing these effects over years of childhood and adolescence contributes to a noteworthy impact."
If your parents have a stable long-term marriage, you're more likely to marry heterosexually.
"The authors also confirmed previous research suggesting that children who experience parental divorce are less likely to marry heterosexually than children reared in intact families."
"The authors also confirmed previous research suggesting that children who experience parental divorce are less likely to marry heterosexually than children reared in intact families."
“...for men, unknown paternal identity, parental divorce, short duration of cohabitation with both parents, and long duration of father-absent cohabitation with mother were all associated with increased rates of homosexual marriage.”
"The study adds support to the theory that environmental and biological factors work together to influence sexual attractions and behaviors. Dr. Frisch concluded, '…whatever ingredients determine a person’s sexual preferences and marital choices, our population-based study shows that environmental factors are important.'"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/environmental-factors-may-influence-sexual-orientation
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17039403