Is being gay Hereditary?

Why does it matter?Ever thought of that?In my personal opinion it can be genetic,environmental,or a combination of the two.And even when environmental,it still is not a choice.But in the end...why does it matter?I know its all comforting to have a clear answer.X Y Chromosomes and all of that.I quite like a sense of mystery though.It keeps things interesting.In the end it is not a choice though,whether hereditary or not.That is just my opinion,feel free to disagree.I suspect that it is genetic(I have heard that this has been proven but not sure how much truth there is in that statement its probably more of a strong suspicion)however,if it is...so what.And even if it is not hereditary-why is that a problem?I suppose it makes things easier if there are clear answers though so it does ''matter'' to an extent.However,I feel that people should be accepting of it regardless.

---------- Post added 23rd Mar 2014 at 12:53 AM ----------

I do feel it is okay to ask that question though,so please do not misinterpret.Sounds much more logical to me than,for instance,thinking it has ties to freemasonry and is a spiritual disorder(yes,that is an opinion of someone living close to my house,despite him being gay himself,which he confirmed).

 

I voted Yes (I have family members that are suspected or confirmed LGBQ). My great-uncle and maybe my female cousin are gay (but I don't have any contacts with them) and maybe there's another family member who isn't cisgender but I'm not sure.

 

Suspect it's hereditary but not necessarily as you think. The Minnesota twin study revealed that "identical" twins share sexuality 50% of time, and fraternal twins about 25%. There may be some additional very slight correlations for non-twins, but that's about extent of it.

2. gay uncle and bisexual cousin

 

I voted "no" because -- while I believe it is possible genetics have some influence on sexuality -- I think prenatal development might play a larger role. I have a gay grandmother and gay second-cousin.

 

I don't see how it could be. Gays typically don't reproduce. Kinda seems like if it were genetic natural selection would've prevented homosexuality from existing. I hear it may have somthing to do with testosterone levels in the womb though. I don't really care.

 

Okay, I voted wrong. I meant to vote No (I have family members that are suspected or confirmed LGBT I think that it is genetic or pre-natal development, but it can't be passed down.

 

I think it is. My mom said she went though a bisexual phase when she was younger.
I think that other factors, like being the youngest of multiple brothers and the flow of chemicals to your brain while in the womb are more powerful, however.

 

Withholding my vote because I honestly have no idea. I have a half sister who's lesbian, but nature vs. nurture is a very old and never completely closed problem.

 

Hereditary, I'm not sure. Every member of my family is VERY STRAIGHT except me. Mother didn't pass it down, its just the way I was meant to be. Like how I didn't choose my gender or the size of my nose

 

I don't know. but this guy searched the globe for an answer.

Survival of the Fabulous - The Nature of Things

 

I did not vote
There isn't evidence in either direction
Everyone has a gay family member somewhere
For me it's a distant cousin
I do sometimes wonder I I'll have gay or bi kids
But who knows

 

I suspect a second cousin is gay but it's circumstantial evidence. There was also an older distant cousin that people said was crazy. It turned out when I spoke to her that she was a lesbian. She wasn't crazy just different.

 

I don't believe it is.
I believe we are all born with no orientation,
and that as we grow it sets into place as a fixed unchangable thing when we are very young.
I don't believe it is possible to control or change what a persons orientation is.

 

Weren't there a study about gay gene on late 80s or early 90s? Later it proved to unpredictible so we are back at "for unknown reasons" square. But they know gay rams has hormonal or molecular difference in their brains.

 

I voted no simply because I have no gay family members.

 

I have no family members that I know of who were LBG or T.

 

On my dad's side I have no idea as he was adopted. On my mum's side there was an uncle who was suspected of being bi or gay and there was also a (first cousin or something I think?) male who the family had also speculated about who unexpectedly committed suicide despite having a seemingly happy life, lovely wife, two young children, good job etc. Nothing confirmed though. My mum herself had an experience with a woman once but says she didn't enjoy it, and also mentioned having 'bisexual feelings' for one of her female friends. Honestly though I think if you look close enough every family probably has a few people that could be gay or bi so it doesn't tell you very much. Personally I give more credence to the uterine development theory. I read about studies that showed women who have the ring finger considerably longer than the index finger (a known sign of high testosterone exposure in the womb, and something I myself have) were almost universally lesbian. With men who had shorter ring fingers than index the results were a bit more complicated but they still displayed some variance from the males with typical finger ratios: being gay, trans etc.

Well the main theory is that the gene would be passed down by the parent of the opposite sex; mother to son or father to daughter, thus someone could be carrying the gene without it affecting them personally and still produce offspring, some of which may be gay.
Regardless of the cause I've always thought there could be strong evolutionary benefits to having a percentage of a species being gay, because it strikes me that this would be an effective way to avoid extinction through overpopulation. The survival of a species depends not just on reproduction but also on the the ability to fit in with the ecosystem without consuming all its resources. It has been shown in studies with lab rats that when a pregnant female is placed under stress (scarce food, overcrowding etc) her offspring will be far more likely to display atypical gender/sexual behaviors.