Monday, June 26, 2006

We Are Family

Since the last post was depressing, I'll follow it up immediately with something lighter. Yet another study came out today (done by the same people who've done all the previous studies to the same effect) showing that men who have multiple older brothers are more likely to be gay. With every older brother, your chances of being gay increase by about a third. Interesting stuff. One theory for why this is the case says that mothers eventually develop a certain immune response to all the foreign testosterone in the womb. So the boys don't get the typical amount of androgens at the point where the brain might develop an interest in the fairer sex. Nobody claims this accounts for the entirety of homosexuality (I mean, there are TWINS who have different sexual orientations...albeit fewer identical pairs, so genetics are involved). Still, here's a question:

Of the gay men you know, how many fit this pattern? When I mentioned this to V a week ago (before this specific study came out) he said it fit very well with the guys he knows. I'd always thought it didn't really fit, but then I realized, while I do know a bunch of gay men without older brothers, I can't think of any that have straight younger brothers. Maybe I'm not thinking of someone totally obvious, but here's the round-up, as far as I can think in this tired state:

Gay men I know with no straight younger brothers:
Greg
V
Mike L.
Lebowitzes
Perhaps other twins
Eric H.
Eric S.
Romero
Sergi (gay enough for my data)
Billy R.
Trevor McG.

Gay men with younger brothers whose s/os I don't know:
Jason F.
Chris P.
Steve B.

Assuming all three "don't knows" are straight (no idea), that probably means nothing. If only one is straight? I don't know. There are also a lot of gay dudes I know from college but don't know their sibling situations at all. Oh well, please let me know of gay men you know with definitively heterosexual younger brothers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The fact that you said Sergi is "gay enough for my data" has totally just made me snarf my chocolate milk.

Great new pick up line - "hey baby, you're gay enough for my data"

"yo sexy, want to see my data?"

oh dear.

-heid