Homosexuality??

Question

I was wondering do you think that you are born gay or do you develop homersexual feelings later on in life?

Answer 1

Maybe a little of both. I was born straight but didn't like girls until I was about 11. Now 32 years later, guess what? I like women. I guess the same could be said for homosexuals.

Answer 2

I believe that people are born gay, and due to outside influences, media, etc., often don't discover it until later in life or at least in their teens.

I have known I was gay since I was six, and it didn't really bother me until I got older. I didn't know the word lesbian at that point, and I just knew that I liked other girls and women, not men and boys. I couldn't help it, it was the just the way I was built. C'est la vie!

Beyond that point, I learned to realize that being gay and by talking to gay people was not a bad thing, it was just the way you were made. No big deal. Who really cares who you fall in love with anyway?

http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/narth/homorig.html

The link above provides, what I believe to be the best research of homosexuality I can find. It basically discusses being gay as a series of internal and external influences. The following is an article from 2003 in the Boston Globe. This is the most fluid description of homosexuality that I can find, and I hope you read it, especially if you don't read the one above. In males, homosexuality is triggered by having not enough testosterone sent to the brain while in vitro. In females, sexuality is not rigidly set, thus it is more the affects of the environment, genes, etc. that trigger its development.

Wow, that was a mouthful! Sorry for the long post, I hope it helps you better understand how we all came to be. We are not sick, we just can't love the opposite gender, and I glad to see that you are taking the time to better understand homosexuality before you criticize it.

Answer 3

I always knew I was gay. I didn't know the name until about 11, but I knew at 8 that I was drawn to other boys and men and not to girls at all. At 11, based on the reactions my body was having to male friends when we fooled around, and the fact that I was emotionally/romantically drawn to them - I figured out what it was called. I had my first b/f at a late 13/early 14 and started telling my close friends and family at that time.

I've never had the least interest in females.

Based on those two things, together with the excellent scientific work being done now, I think its inborn. Now note, some people from hating families suppress it until later in life -- but it is always there.

Kind thoughts,

Reyn
[e-mail]

PS -- by the way, some people, such as Coffeehead above, will, either deliberately, or through ignorance, quote discredited research (often done by Paul Cameron and colleagues - or taken out of context by groups like Focus on the Family -- which is presently under pressure from a number [I think its 6] of prominent psychological researchers whose works they've twisted or lied about to come clean and admit they misused other people's professional work) to claim that homosexuality is a choice. While accusing the gay community of having an agenda, those people truly do have an agenda, a political one. I have linked to an additional site after the scientific ones, so that you can follow up on that controversy in ways that people like Coffeehead won't mention to you, due to their agenda.

Answer 4

I think from the day you're born you're fed messages and images that go 'in' whether you want them to or not. I guess I have a Freudian POV because I believe your very first sexual experiences at whatever age you are, affect the rest of your life, no matter how much you fight it.

I have a friend who was a guinea pig for a school experiment. At 5yrs old she was shown a sex ed vid with her classmates. In the weeks ensuing most of the boys and girls copied the act (without any actual intercourse) but semi naked (behind school bushes), because they had no understanding that they weren't old enough, but it excited them enough to try it. So anyone saying children have no sexual feelings or are 'innocent' are not always correct, they're in there, lying dorment, then something can stimulate them.

She confided in me that she wanted the girls to come and do to her what the boys were doing and couldn't understand why they didn't. She's now 'out' as being bisexual and says it was these early experiences that brought it about. She experimented with her girlfriends and had just as much fun as with her boyfriends. She claims to have the same attraction to both genders and longs for a partner of each gender in her life, but knows it's impossible. She chose to live her life with a man who knows nothing of her feelings.

We lost touch a while ago and I knew her for only a short while whilst working, but she was not confused by her attractions to both genders, she was very together & knew what she wanted, only found an easy route by following the 'norm' and deciding to opt for one. What else could she do?

It's hard to say whether we're born with it, but the person we idolize first in our lives is our mother. We associate all our feelings with her and we sense what she is feeling. The sights and smells associated with our parents tell us everything we need to know. If we grow and don't let them go as most of us do, then they might develop into other things, especially if our relationships with our parents are altered in any way (by separation or death for e.g). e.g.Our longing for love and approval from our mother may develop into a sexual feelings for a fellow female, transferred, but no less real, and seeking solice, love, comfort & approval from her.

In mixed gender relationships, we basically subsitute our parents for partners on some basic level. Many men choose wives that look or act or have the same sensibilities as their mothers and women choose men that are in some way just like their father, but perhaps a new, improved, modern version. If this wasn't the case, women would never do housework and men would never be the modern version of a 'breadwinner'.

I'm speaking broadly of course.

:-)

Answer 5

I don't really know about this. I remember finding girls attractive at the same time that I found boys attractive when I was quite young. I was having crushes on both sexes way before I was interested in sex itself. I don't remember ever having the idea of homosexuality mentioned when I was growing up, certainly the up bringing I had I can't imagine it ever being mentioned, and yet I knew i liked girls too. Funnily enough though, I always had enough savvy to know that I shouldn't mention this feelings to people. Luckily I'm older now and out of the school environment in one where I can be myself.

Answer 6

When ur born u don't have sexual feelings 4 anybody, so it must b acquired by what u c on tv and what older ppl u no do. If being gay was genetic, it would b gone by now cuz gays can't pass on their "gay genes" if they existed, 2 future generations. I've seen twins where 1 was gay and not the other. Twins r exact copies of 1 another with the same dna, so if homosexuality is genetic, all twins should have the same sexual orientation, but that isn't what happens.

Answer 7

I dont i think that's a very contriversal question, i have a stronger belief that you are born gay because i mean there is so much heart ache and persection and problems with being gay and coming out and everything else a gay person would go through why would they choose that life unless they where in fact born that way?

Answer 8

i have found women attractive for as long as i can remember, so i suspect i was born the way i am.

my guess is that most people are born potentially bisexual, making bisexuality the norm. then, life events can keep us bisexual or turn us str8 or gay, such as bad sexual experiences or sexual assault/abuse.

i suspect heterosexuality is only the perceived norm, and because of the three semitic, androcentric, patriarchal religions, we are discouraged from exploring all aspects of our sexuality and gender.

the thing is, at the end of the day, does it really matter whether you are gay str8 or bi? it is only one aspect of a person, and doesnt tell you anything about the content of their character no more than the colour of their skin, hair or eyes.

we all laugh, cry, bleed and smile.

Answer 9

I think it's a mix, although there are strong indications that a genetic correlation could easily be a prevelant cause. In many (but not all) cases of identical twins seperated at birth if one of the twins is gay the other one will be too about 60% of the time. This is a MUCH higher occurence then if it was totally nurture based.

Answer 10

I don't think there is a single genetic and/or biological basis to homosexuality. The existence of bisexuality, fluidic sexuality and pseudohomosexuality (where one has gay traits without being homosexual) would confirm this. It may be a mix of biology and psychology but I'm not sure.