Do you think that every gay person was molested at some point in childhood?

Question

I'm suggesting possibly repressed memories in many cases. Is there a causal event, such as being the victim of inappropriate sexual touching or exposure? The whole born-gay idea seems like a pc idea to normalize a pathology.

Thank you all for your answers. Remember that you are allowed to have your own opinion even if it doesn't jibe with popular or politically correct ones. I think we're losing are sense of rationality. 2 + 2 = 5, right?

I don't think everyone who is molested becomes gay. I think there might be resiliency and vulnerability factors -- such as strong/weak family support, etc -- that will determine how the victim adapts to the abuse.

"we should look at people for who they are, not how they got that way. " Raja, you are saying what a lot of peoply here are implying perhaps: There is no reason to study the cause. Well, I disagree. Study the source, and we will better understand the system.

ok, let's end all scientific inquiry into important questions that may hurt some people's feelings. Nobody is becoming gay because they were molested. Those who reacted angrily our obviously not the type you would find working in research.

Answer 1

Wow that is a very good question. I think the same thing. I would say every single one, but most of them. My mom is gay, I have some gay friends, and I went to school with some, and at least all but maybe one has told me a story about being touched when they were kids. I don't know if that has any thing to do with them being gay but it sure seems like it.

Answer 2

I don't think so, the same way that not every person who has been molested is homosexual; there are many straight people who have experienced sexual abuse.

As far as the nature-nuture debate goes, I do lean on the nurture side, but I don't think it's necessarily all about sexual abuse. I also read a study that noted a lot of gay men grew up in households where their fathers/father figures abused their mothers. There's also just a lot of influence I think involved, on both sides of sexuality since I believe all children are born sexually neutral, their sexual preference has a lot to do with their environment. Girls group together and one expresses that a boy is cute and then the others seem to follow suit; vice versa for boys and liking girls. It's in the media, it's in the schools, it's in homes.

The same thing happens, I've seen, with peer groups of older people. When I was in college we called them LUGs (Lesbians Until Graduation). They had a girlfriend during college because it was the "thing" to do, but they fully intended to break from that image upon graduation and go out and find a husband or boyfriend to attain the other image they had the "thing" to do.

Answer 3

No, I don't think that every gay person was molested at some point in childhood. You may as well ask if every homosexual person grew up in a family where the parents were divorced, and thereore had bad role models for heterosexual relationships. Sometimes, something is just the right thing for a person whether it's understood and accepted by society at large or not. I don't see being homosexual as a pathology. I see it as a logical "response" (for lack of a better term) for someone who is simply cannot be happy or fulfilled in any relationship with someone of the opposite sex. There's nothing wrong with being attracted and acting on that attraction to someone of the same sex. Isn't the point of a relationship to find another consenting adult that you are happy with, that you make happy in return? I say people need to stop looking for the reasons that there are homosexuals in the world, and just accept that there are. Just as there are people in the world of different races, religious beliefs, sizes, shapes, hair color, etc. I say as long as a person is not a threat to the lives of those around them, w
we should look at people for who they are, not how they got that way.

Answer 4

I am a Gay, 64 y/o man and I can attest that I have been homosexual all my life. There is not enough room to cover this subject as I would like but here goes.
No, I never was abused in anyway that I am concious of, and if I was, I cannot for the life of me think of any friends or family that would have done it.
The problem rests in the definition of what is homosexuality. If you free your mind up a little you can accept that there is not just straight and gay but many variations in between. Why could there not be hundreds of types of sexual identities and feeling. Why just Man and Women. Think about it. Babies are sometimes born with a third appendage, or missing an eye. Mutations are constantly going on...I believe that sexual mutations are part of natures and possibly, Gods plan.

Answer 5

I think you people are completely off base. There are biologic differences that can be tracked with a PET scan (metabolically active areas of the brain for certain stimuli) that demonstrate significant differences in the brain of a straight man and of a gay man. This is a biologic predisposition that may or may not be exacerbated by sexual molestation. But molestation is not the base cause by any means.

Certainly being gay has very little to do with being molested...its sort of like saying those who enjoy figure skating must have had molestation in their backgrounds. It doesn't work that way.

Read another book besides King James Bible.

I dislike PC quite a lot. There are a ton of subjects that I think this society is completely off-base on. Nonetheless, when you can do objective studies and come up with repeatable results...it stops being someone's opinion. I am afraid despite it not jiving with your value system, being gay does have biologic basis.

Answer 6

Hell no. I saw that Dr. Phil episode and it made me angry. Just because someone chooses to be gay doesn't mean that they were molested because belive me there would be many more gay people in the world if that was the cause. It in most cases is a conscious or subconscious decision and not repressed memories from childhood. It is a choice. When that came up I began to lose even more faith in the human race because that shows the intellegence of many people world-wide. That is hypocritical. I believe in that, the stupidity levels of all people are gradually rising.

Answer 7

Not necessarily, about 75% of women and 50% of all males have had some sort of unwanted sexual attention, such as fondling or being forced to engage in some sort of sex act, same as the general population.

If molestation/abuse was a factor in orientation, being gay would be so common as to be the norm.

Answer 8

Absolutely not. If every gay person was molested as a child you would assume every person molested as a child is gay and that's not the case. Please attempt to be a little more open minded about homosexuality... just becuase you don't agree with it doesn't mean you need to come up with a reason for why people are that way. They are born that way, it is not a choice, it is not something they become, plain and simple.

Answer 9

I'm gay, I do think you are not born that way, you are made that way. But you are wrong, every gay person did not become gay because of molesting. Some gay people did get molested and became gay. But others are gay because they spent all their childhood with the mother, sisters, aunts, female friends of the mom. A lot of gay people are just fed up with women, and that was nothing to do with molesting.

Answer 10

Being gay is just a normal part of nature. It is evident in most animals species and is not just a human condition. In some cases, molestation may contrubute, but it would not be the only cause.