What do you think Causes Homsexuailty?

Question

The question says it all...I am not gay but I always wondered what causes it, is it inherent durnig birth? Does your enviroment make it this way? Is it by genetics or caused by a strong negative impact of the other sex? Your thoughts?

Answer 1

I believe that a person does not "turn" gay...they are simply are that way. I had a friend tell me that he decided to be gay because girls didnt like him...and thats a really stupid reason. It probably wont last long. I personally think that everyone is a little gay. Girls look at other girls chests, or think "that girl is pretty" its just to what degree they are attracted and whether or not they admit it.

Answer 2

I think it's the environment, mainly. How can your genes make you gay? In families where there are children of the same sex, such as my mate's family who is a girl of four and which two are gay, there is perhaps a strong influence on sexual preferences.

Also, the amount of nurture from your parents could probably have some influence. For example, if your Dad treated you a lot better than your mother did, then perhaps you might prefer males over females; I'm not saying you'd be attracted to your Dad but you'd received the better experience from a male rather than a female so you'd have that preference.

Overall, I don't think genetics has anything to do with it. It's probably the environment.

Answer 3

i guess it is the same as what causes hetrosexuality.

everyone goes through a time in their life when they are little confused by the whole sexuality thing (normally during puberty).

But i think there is normally one preference that is more powerful. During this period, most people discover what that more powerful persuasion is - that is healthy sexual development.

in the odd occation, for a whole load of reasons, people do not develop this 'normal' confidence. They end up attracted to people outside of a 'normal' age range (young children for example).

No doubt there are people who would have developed as Gay (for example - it works the other way too) who 'convince' themselves that they are straight. These people are the type of people who might say that it is a choice.

But then people who are straight and develop into a hetrosexual person would probably say that it is natural to be straight (much like a gay person may say of their homosexuality).

thats what i think anyway.

Answer 4

I think its Chemo-genetic. All the research points in those directions. I've given an important link below, and I would also recommend the book "Biological Exuberance" by Dr. Bruce Bagemihl -- from St. Martin's Press.

Regards,

Reynolds Jones
Schenectady, NY
http://www.rebuff.org

PS To the fellow with the statement on ex-gays. No, actually there aren't. I have twice challenged that myth locally. One local who claims to be ex-gay is a minister. I challenged him in writing to an internet debate. He refused. The second is a young man who became convinced (I think by the first - but it could be by someone else) to try to be straight. He is married. He tried to convince me that I should feel guilty and want to be straight. I don't feel guilty and I don't want to be straight. I looked him in the eyes and said something like "and what do you think about while you are having sex with your wife?" He looked away, and I pursued the topic, making eye contact whenever it was possible. Finally in an anguished voice he said "men, what do you think I think about -- it doesn't change, but I don't act on it."

You know something? The closet has been around for a very long time, thousands of years in different cultures. Accepting social pressure to PRETEND you are straight and to marry someone you can't feel desire for, and to have sex with them while you think about the people you do feel desire for isn't being ex-gay; its being closeted. I think the people funding the ex-gay movement know, and are happy with the idea of gays going back in the closet -- but a change? No it isn't. So WHOOOO you proved that enough social pressure concentrating on guilt can force someone back into the closet -- aren't you proud? its so much fun I'm sure to hurt someone else in the one life they know they have. I'm sure you just get all excited from it. Oh, no, you must not -- that would be gay wouldn't it? Sorry, I won't suggest it again.

Answer 5

As someone who has gone through ALL of the "stages" of changing his mind back and forth about being gay, bi, or straight (and in the process sometimes making a fool of himself), let me assure you that a person's sexuality is never chosen (and no one can be counseled into acceptance by others on those other people's terms, as the GreenEyedPatriot would argue).

Whether my homosexuality results from my genes or a combination of genes and maternal hormone "washing" during my gestation, probably no one has any way of ascertaining. But I can most confidently assure all of you that no human being has any control over it (nor should anyone have control over it).

I have sung this song several times before, and I will sing it again: The ONLY choice any human has when it comes to sexuality is whether to be honest with oneself about it and to accept it and to love oneself no matter what sticks, stones, and names anyone else hurls. What one admits honestly and fully to other people is a matter of choice, but where one is situated along the sexuality spectrum is a matter of fact. The sooner, and the more clearly, each individual discovers his or her unique sexuality, the easier it is to seek fulfillment in whatever ways one may.

The answer really is that simple. If any of us could truly penetrate the self-concept of all or most other people individually, we would be totally amazed by the variety and specificity of sexuality as a whole, and we would stop posing heterosexuality as the norm or base for discussions about sexuality in general.

Until we do that, though, let's keep the dialogue going. That, too, is a lot of fun and very interesting in itself!

Answer 6

I doubt anyone truly knows. Even the great scientists have not figured it out. Why are some people in relationsihips with the opposite sex for many, many years and then suddenly gay? Why do some people say they knew when they were very small that they were gay or different? Who knows? I assume when it is figured out, someone will come up with a pill to "fix" it.

Answer 7

Genetics

Answer 8

I am rather sure it's not the enviroment. People with the same inviroment can come up difrent..... There even people raised from birth to be homophobic intentionaly, and some of those still turn out to be gay.

But rather it's gentetics, or chemcial inbalances I don't know...


I feel rather sorry for the gay homophobics though. >.< Poor guys/girls.

Answer 9

right-handed gay men will have older brothers. In fact, the more older brothers a man has, the more likely he'll be gay. the latest theory is that the first male foetus is a shock to the female body, hormonally. The more male children the woman has, the stronger her body's reaction. My one buddy has 4 older brothers, and he's right handed.
I only have one older brother, but I'm left handed, so the theory goes out the window.

Answer 10

dumbass.
It's caused mostly by lack of a good male model. Someone you look up to(father, big brother),
or
feminine men grow up feminine because of having a father, but has like two older sisters to look up to. It has to be two sisters who are older. If you're the eldest brother of two sisters, you develop a sense of dominance and end up a man. And only one older sister does not affect anyone. If you're a boy and have one elder and one younger sister though, there is a chance.

As long as there's no makeup or dress-wearing, gays are pretty reliable friends, really.
:)

Answer 11

probably the same thing that causes heterosexuality. even if we do figure out what "causes" homosexuality, so what? what are the political implications of that? we would use whatever it is as a "warning" sign, and use it to further ostracize people.

look at it this way: what happened at your birth did not make you everything you are. your environment, though extremely influencial, did not make you everything you are. your genetics did not make you everything you are. your intereactions with opposite sex did not make you everything you are. chances are, the impact of all of those things make you who you are today. so why trivialize sexuality by connecting it with one aspect of life? it's just one part of who lesbian, gay, and bi people are.