Why am i gay
Why am I gay?
Human sexuality comes in many forms, from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual. But seeing as homosexuality creates apparent reproductive and evolutionary disadvantages, listener Ahmed from Oslo wants to know: why are some people gay?
CrowdScience presenter Caroline Steel examines what science can - and can't - tell us about the role of nature, nurture and evolution in human sexual attraction. She asks a geneticist what we know of the oft-debated 'gay gene', as successfully as looking into why homosexual men on average have more older brothers than heterosexual men.
Caroline looks into the role of nurture with a developmental psychologist to answer a question from a CrowdScience listener from Myanmar. He wonders if the distant relationship he has with his own father has impacted his own feelings of attraction.
She also learns about research into a group of people in Samoa who may shed light on the benefits of traditionally non-reproductive relationships for communities as a whole.
Presented by Caroline Steel
Produced by Jonathan Blackwell for BBC World Ser
Explore further
Why do I experience same-sex attraction? Read around a bit and you’ll soon find that there are a whole host of theories to choose from. Some are linked with a ‘cure’, but we do not endorse this simplistic idea. Others make the verb that there is no cause. Some are part of a blame game. Still others maintain that there’s no one to blame because there’s nothing mistaken.
My choice?
According to some people it is a decision that I made. And therefore, I’m to blame. That one day I woke up and consciously chose to be attracted to some of the boys I was growing up with rather than some of the girls. I could possess changed but I wrongly chose not to.
The problem is that this was not the case. As puberty began, I was as instinctively drawn to some of the boys as they were instinctively drawn to some of the girls. I was simply wired differently. I carried out no rewiring myself. Though there is evidence supporting the fluidity of sexuality in a small number of people (especially women), there is small scientific evidence that we ourselves can turn ou
by Fred Penzel, PhD
This article was initially published in the Winter edition of the OCD Newsletter.
OCD, as we know, is largely about experiencing severe and unrelenting doubt. It can cause you to doubt even the most basic things about yourself – even your sexual orientation. A study published in the Journal of Sex Research found that among a group of college students, 84% reported the occurrence of sexual intrusive thoughts (Byers, et al. ). In command to have doubts about one’s sexual identity, a sufferer require not ever have had a homo- or heterosexual experience, or any type of sexual experience at all. I have observed this symptom in young children, adolescents, and adults as well. Interestingly Swedo, et al., , create that approximately 4% of children with OCD experience obsessions concerned with forbidden aggressive or perverse sexual thoughts.
Although doubts about one’s own sexual identity might look pretty straightforward as a symptom, there are actually a number of variations. The most obvious form is where a sufferer experiences the thought that they mig
Hi. I&#;m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I&#;m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O&#;Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I possess multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren&#;t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.
I have some human assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O&#;Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often point to to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.
If you&#;d like a quicker respond to your question and don&#;t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.