I came out to my 80 year old parents last week. They were surprisingly accepting, but I fear that they are "blaming" themselves. I made it very clear I'm very happy to be gay, would not want to be straight and I wouldn't change it for anything. But back in the day there were all these theories that the behavior of parents towards a kid is what turned him gay -- mother was too smothering or too distant, dad was too distant, whatever. We now know this is all wrong, but I am not sure my parents understand that. My mom even asked me if the art classes she had me take when I was 5, or the toy ironing board she bought me at 6, had something to do with me being gay (!!!!) I assured both of them that nothing they did or didn't do had anything to do with my sexuality. Anyway what I'm looking for is a good, simple and short online resource that summarizes the scientific research, debunking all those old theories and laying out the evidence that gayness is with us from before birth. Thanks for any suggestions!
That area of science still needs more research, but there are a couple of studies out there that shows homosexuality to begin at conception. Epigenetics comes to mind, the increased chance of homosexuality in twins, increased chance of a son being gay in a family that has multiple sons, etc. There are also brain differences that have been observed in male and females homosexuals (trans as well) compared to their hetero counterpart. This little animation talks briefly about one plausible source (around 2:00) [YOUTUBE]LYMjXucTFaM[/YOUTUBE]
Twin studies are really interesting. Are there any articles on fraternal twins? Most of the studies I come across where they're looking at homosexuality in twins is in identical twins.
Just did a really quick search here, and according to this research, the chance of fraternal twins both being homosexual is half that of identical twins. However, the conclusion of these researches (dating from 1991, 1993) claims that homosexuality is likely the result of choice, which is untrue. The rest of the data is accurate and based on observation in a controlled environment however. Still, this area needs further research to reach any conclusion.
