A Stroke Turns a Straight Man Gay

[British Lad]

This is an old one but:

Here’s a scenario you’ve never likely considered: You’re engaged to your long-time boyfriend, a rugby player who loves going to the pub and watching sports with his buds. Then, one day, during a freak accident, he breaks his neck, suffers a stroke, and ends up in a coma. You and his family anxiously wait by his bed, praying for his recovery. While you fear that the accident will irrevocably alter his life, it does so in a way no one expected. He wakes up gay.
Crazy, right? Well that’s exactly what happened to Chris Birch, a chubby bank teller and jock from Wales who suffered a stroke in 2005 that he says turned him gay.

A Stroke Turns a Straight Man Gay - iVillage

Straight Rugby player to Gay Hairdresser thought stroke, how weird is this world?

[Aeon Magus]

Ohh... the "stroke of gayness" story. I remember this one. I wouldn't say the world is strange, rather the people that live in it are.

[DarkClarity]

I remember this.

I couldn't help but think that because he had a near death experiance he thought "You only get one life and I want to be happy" so he came out and he did what he wanted to do. I do wish that it was something less stereotypical though.

[Zontar]

This was just posted like, a month ago.

My assessment was that a stroke can theoretically cause sexual orientation, although it's far more likely this man was just deeeeeeply closeted.

[Friendly ghost]

Originally Posted by DarkClarity

I remember this.

I couldn't help but think that because he had a near death experiance he thought "You only get one life and I want to be happy" so he came out and he did what he wanted to do. I do wish that it was something less stereotypical though.

This was my first thought too. I think its right, this happened recently, and if he truly was a straight man before the stroke, then he wouldn't just wake up gay. Even if it changed his sexuality, he would still have to go through the process of figureing it out like the rest of us. It would most likely not be a sudden switch. And a hairdresser? That is a different kind of opinion. The stroke would of have to had changed more then his sexuality. I think it was being near death, and having an excuse for it.

[British Lad]

I must say, he looks 1000% better then he did as a "straight" guy

[anatta]

Originally Posted by DarkClarity

I remember this.

I couldn't help but think that because he had a near death experiance he thought "You only get one life and I want to be happy" so he came out and he did what he wanted to do. I do wish that it was something less stereotypical though.

Why? Don't feminine men masquerading as butch men (and there are many of them out there, probably as many if not more than there are gay men masquerading as straight men) deserve to stop pretending and be themselves as well, and get fair media representation? Their lives are harder, they get bullied from an even younger age, by their own parents in many cases, and have to hide EVERYTHING about themselves, even how their body automatically moves, not just whom they're attracted to.

[steel03]

^I think the problem I have here is not that he is "doing what he wants to do" or whatever, but that it comes across very strongly in the story that "now that he's gay he's going to do all these gay things." I would be much more inclined to believe the stroke did have some effect on his sexuality if very little else about his personality had changed.

[txnathrt]

I've had two strokes , d speaking only from that experience,they can profoundllynd belue change your life - i found that beliefs id held my whole life eere no longer true for me.

[anatta]

Damage to part of the hypothalamus causes straight male ferrets to become gay, as well:

Bilateral damage to the sexually dimorphic medial preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus of male ferrets causes a female-typical preference for and a hypothalamic Fos response to male body odors

In both ferrets and other animals including humans, males attracted to females have a larger INAH3/SDN region of the hypothalamus than males attracted to other males. So perhaps it makes sense that if this region of the brain loses many neurons, rendering it closer to the male-attracted size, sexual attraction will change accordingly.

Originally Posted by steel03

^I think the problem I have here is not that he is "doing what he wants to do" or whatever, but that it comes across very strongly in the story that "now that he's gay he's going to do all these gay things." I would be much more inclined to believe the stroke did have some effect on his sexuality if very little else about his personality had changed.

There are widespread average differences between the brains of gay and straight people, that are involved in personality rather than sexual attraction. The difference in ratio between the size of the right and left hemisphere in gay vs. straight people might explain how it could be possible for a stroke to change his personality at the same time, especially as at the time that his brain would have been repairing itself, it wouldn't have had the influence of generous helpings of testosterone that it had while he was in womb, so there would be nothing to stop it developing anew along female-typical lines, as all undeveloped brains do without interaction with large amounts of testosterone.

Gay men and heterosexual women have similarly shaped brains, research shows | Science | The Guardian

The above article explains that the right hemisphere is larger than the left hemisphere in both men and women who are attracted exclusively to women. Although not explained in detail in that particular article, the same study found that the female-attracted brains behaved when resting in way suggesting higher tendency towards aggression and lower tendency towards anxiety - fight vs. flight.

Perhaps, analogously to lost brain cells in the hypothalamus creating female-typical sexual attraction, the man who had a stroke also lost brain cells right across the right hemisphere in such a way as to render his personality closer to the female-typical pattern.

While many men with attraction to men have no more obvious female-typical traits in addition to this attraction than their average straight counterparts do (around 60% of gay men report seeing themselves as within average range for masculine personality traits), and likewise with gay women, the reason that a disproportionate number DO report more female-typical personality traits is that ‘gender expression’, i.e. sex-correlated personality traits, and attraction to men/women, are caused by the same process of neurological masculinisation in the womb.

The average male fetus is much more masculinised by this process than the average female fetus, although they start off with the same default completely female-typical brain type. The default female-typical pattern includes traits such as attraction to men and lack of attraction to women, greater emotional expressiveness and empathy, greater affinity for language and sequential thought and lower affinity for spatial and numerical thought, higher trait anxiety and lower trait aggression, etc. Fetuses change from this pattern to the masculine pattern to a greater or lesser degree depending upon how much testosterone their brains are exposed to, genetic factors influencing how easily testosterone is able to change the brain, and crucially WHICH areas of the brain bear the brunt of the testosterone exposure. This is why few people are close to 100% female-typical or male-typical.

Lots of people like both dressing up and sports, for example, but the truth is there is a negative correlation between the two: the more you like competitive sports, the less likely you are, statistically, to like, for example, dressing up. You're more likely to have a generally 'butch' personality. This is because if one part of your brain was heavily masculinised in the womb, it’s more likely that other parts were as well. Likewise, if hypothalamus was left in the female-typical, attracted-to-men-only state, then it’s more likely that other parts would have been left in a female-typical state as well - relative, that is, to how likely it is in people whose sexual attraction was made typical of their sex.

[Sythan]

Clever way to come out.

[Just Passing]

I remember reading this some time ago and I really feel bad for his fiance more than anything.

[British Lad]

Originally Posted by Just Passing

I remember reading this some time ago and I really feel bad for his fiance more than anything.

The broke up before his change of life, and she was trying to get back with him. I read

[Friendly ghost]

very informative post anatta.

[Emberstone]

Bullshit!!! He magically turns into every single gay stereotype? The more I learn about this guy, the more it becomes clear that this is a stunt for attention. With the talk of lucrative deals, this has to be a total publicity stunt.

[qboy]

A documentary about this is being shown on BBC Three on Tuesday evening.

DOCUMENTARY: I Woke Up Gay
On: BBC Three (7)
Date: Tuesday 17th April 2012 (starting in 2 days)
Time: 21:00 to 22:00 (1 hour long)

At 21, Chris Birch was a typical, burly, rugby playing lad with a girlfriend and a job in a bank, but after a stroke everything changed. Today Chris looks different, sounds different and has a completely different life - he is a gay, image conscious hairdresser interested in fashion and interior decor. Chris has lost touch with some former friends and family and cannot recall many of the details of his life before the stroke. This film follows Chris as he gets to grips with his new life and his new personality, tries to discover who he used to be and attempts to build bridges with some of the people he has lost touch with.
(Editor's Choice, Stereo, Widescreen, Subtitles, Audio Described, 2012, 4 Star)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
Marked By: 'Reminder: I Woke Up Gay' marker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
Excerpt taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.tv/?p=1&r=36091

Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

[Just Passing]

Originally Posted by qboy

A documentary about this is being shown on BBC Three on Tuesday evening.

Oh that's awesome, thanks for posting it, I'll definitely watch it.

[Bradley]

I love how so many of you who say that sexual orientation is not a choice try and attack this guy, claiming he is just doing it for attention; Sounds a lot like some parents reactions in the coming out section.

Maybe he was just closeted and saw an opportunity to come out, if it is true though, this guy proves your point further. He is proof that sexual orientation is hardwired in the brain. Strokes can cause irreparable brain damage, and he just happens to be the one-in-a-million case where that particular part of his brain was changed.

Originally Posted by Emberstone

Bullshit!!! He magically turns into every single gay stereotype? The more I learn about this guy, the more it becomes clear that this is a stunt for attention. With the talk of lucrative deals, this has to be a total publicity stunt.

Have you ever considered that perhaps this man is just a very open and true individual, who upon feeling the new urges decided to be true to himself instead of hiding it? Just because some of you felt shame or had difficulty with your sexuality doesn't mean everybody does.

[Peregrine]

I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, because I (and I suspect most people here) know how it feels to be told "no, you're confused, that's not what happened to you, you're wrong about how you say you feel". I've also never had a stroke, but I know they can change a lot of personality traits. Who knows? In general though, even if someone is lying or in denial, I just have sympathy for them and hope they are able to make peace with whatever they come to discover. The process is hard enough without being judged about how you wrestle through it.

[Pseudojim]

Originally Posted by Bradley

I love how so many of you who say that sexual orientation is not a choice try and attack this guy, claiming he is just doing it for attention; Sounds a lot like some parents reactions in the coming out section.

Maybe he was just closeted and saw an opportunity to come out, if it is true though, this guy proves your point further. He is proof that sexual orientation is hardwired in the brain. Strokes can cause irreparable brain damage, and he just happens to be the one-in-a-million case where that particular part of his brain was changed.

Have you ever considered that perhaps this man is just a very open and true individual, who upon feeling the new urges decided to be true to himself instead of hiding it? Just because some of you felt shame or had difficulty with your sexuality doesn't mean everybody does.

seconded