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Fraternal Birth Order Effect (Gay Males)

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by greatwhale, Jul 4, 2013.

?

How many older brothers (same mother) do you have?

  1. none

    62 vote(s)
    67.4%
  2. one

    23 vote(s)
    25.0%
  3. two

    6 vote(s)
    6.5%
  4. three

    1 vote(s)
    1.1%
  5. four

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. greatwhale

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    Greetings folks,

    Time to get all sciency! There has been an empirical observation that the more older brothers you have, the more you have a chance of being gay. Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia (I read the paper elsewhere):

    "A correlation between fraternal birth order and male sexual orientation has been suggested by research. Ray Blanchard identified the association and referred to it as the fraternal birth order effect. In several studies, the observation is that the more older brothers a man has, the greater the probability is that he will have a homosexual orientation.[1] It has sometimes been called the older brother effect. It has been estimated that 15% of the homosexual demographic is associated with fraternal birth order."

    To all gay males: Please enter in the poll the number of older brothers that you have (from the same mother!)
     
  2. Techno Kid

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    Would love to be able to contribute to this poll, but as I am adopted I don't know how many older brothers I have (if any).
    However I will stick around to see the results, very interesting! : D
     
  3. BornInTexas

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    None, but I am a fraternal twin. I am the old one, though.
     
  4. gravechild

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    Heh, one of my in-denial rationalizations was, "No! I'm the first born son! This can't happen!"

    I have one older step-brother, if that counts.
     
  5. This theory is really interesting to me. And it kinda makes sense :}
     
    #5 phospholipase, Jul 4, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 4, 2013
  6. Ticklish Fish

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    NONE!
    I HAVE NO BROTHERS.
    Though between my older sister and i, there was a middle child but it auto-death or whatever you call it inside my mother's body.
    so maybe it might have been a male.
     
  7. eacxx

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    This is very interesting considering I have no older brothers and my friends older brother who is also gay is the oldest in his family too.
     
  8. Hexagon

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    I didn't answer, being intersex, multi and transgender, it would just throw off the results. I've heard this before, but I was wondering if there have been any explanations put forward as to why this might be the case? If, as I suspect, the answer to that is hormonal, I'd like to point out that increased cross-gender hormones increase the likelyhood of the the baby being trans rather than gay.
     
  9. Hefiel

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    I'm the oldest and only male. I have a younger sister, and that's it.

    The theory regarding this is that the more male children a mother gives birth to, the more adept her body is at fighting off estranged elements inside of her. A boy being XY chromosome and building up on testosterone starting 6 weeks in, her body would produce more antibodies to fight this off, thus underexposing the fetus to testosterone and as a result feminizing the male fetus. How credible this is, I can't say with certainty. It's been scientifically shown that homosexuals typically have a brain structure that is closer to that of the opposite sex, but I don't believe this to be 100% the case either (much like the finger length theory)
     
  10. Steele

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    I don't have any older brothers, though I do have an older sister, but, well, I guess that doesn't count...

    But I've heard about the birth order effect in gay males. The theory is that the Y chromosome is seen as a foreign substance in the female body because females don't have a Y chromosome. Because of this, the mother's body creates antibodies against the Y chromosome that can "feminize" the male fetus. Then the next time the mother carries a male, the antibodies recognize the Y chromosome and become stronger, thus resulting in the next male child being more likely to end up gay than the previous one.

    But something else that's interesting about this birth order effect is that it only applies to right-handed males. If you're a left-handed male with older brothers, you're no more likely to be gay than the first-born male in your family.
     
  11. greatwhale

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    Exactly, that's the theory, that there is some effect of immune system "rejection", with antibodies that accumulate and remain in the mother with each male birth. Not entirely ironclad, and the effect is rather weak, but statistically significant nevertheless.
     
  12. Hefiel

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    I've never heard of that part, interesting.

    I'm not left-handed however, I'm ambidextrous.
     
  13. King

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    Two older brothers! Woo.
     
  14. Amerigo

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  16. Hiems

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    I have three older brothers and one who was a stillborn. And I'm right handed. Perhaps the FBO effect contributed to my sexuality? Who knows... :/
     
  17. greatwhale

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    One could argue a fundamental flaw in this particular poll is that most responders are younger adults who have been raised in families during a time when the median number of children is below two (In fact this has raised some to comment about the disappearance of the middle child...)

    So in that sense, the numbers may skew more to one older brother or none simply because parents choose not to have more than two kids (who can blame them, kids are expensive and real wages have not kept pace with gains in productivity since the late 70's)
     
  18. BornInTexas

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    It's odd thinking about this:

    I am the eldest. My twin brother is straight.

    My mom had two other babies, who are also twins two years after she had my brother and I. I presume they are straight, considering how much they talk about girls to each other and my brother.

    It kind of went backwards for me... :confused:
     
    #18 BornInTexas, Jul 4, 2013
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2013
  19. Theagonist

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    I think this theory is pretty accurate, though obviously it's not the cause of heterosexuality for all males. I have one older brother, he is very masculine, lifts weights all the time, super muscaluer, is a college wrestler, is kind of a womanizer; pretty much the ideal male. But I'm the opposite, completely, I'm much more feminine than most guys, I'm pretty skinny, suck at sports, I love make-up and fashion, I'm much more sympathetic, all my friends are girls, and very insecure - like every other teenage girl is (usually), and I even use to cross dress when I was a little kid and I also stole my younger sister's toys hahaha. So I really think this theory is accuarte, which is kind of a let down cause I have two younger sisters then I have a younger brother who is only a couple months old, and I'm scared we will be more feminine or perhaps gay - not like there's anything wrong with that, but it can make life 478547182795829 times harder
     
  20. Black Cat

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    Same here. I'm the oldest and, so far, the only LGBT one of my siblings.