Boys with Older Brothers Born to be Gay

Just found this article on the New Scientist website (yes, I like to read that magazine..) and I think that its a load of rubbish, if not a humourous theory.

IF YOU'RE male, having more older brothers makes it more likely you'll be gay. It now seems clear that it's how many brothers you share with the same mother that matters, not how many you grew up with.

Each older brother increases your chance of being homosexual by about 30 per cent, but this statistic has been dogged by the suggestion that it's due to social rather than biological factors. Sceptics propose that rough-and-tumble play between brothers may lead the younger boys to become gay.

Now Anthony Bogaert, at Brock University in St Catharines in Canada, has largely ruled that out. He looked at a total of 944 homosexual and heterosexual men, including one group raised with non-biological male siblings. Bogaert reasoned that if simply being brought up with a lot of older brothers produced the effect, it shouldn't matter if they had the same mother or not.

In fact, it did matter: only the number of biological older brothers was linked to sexual orientation. This was true even when the biological older brothers lived separately (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0511152103). "It's pretty strong in suggesting a prenatal origin," he says.

From issue 2558 of New Scientist magazine, 01 July 2006, page 22

What do you think?

haha wow, I don't know what to say. The little bit about it being due to rough and tumble play was a bit off, but if the statistics simply show that a 4th born is more likely to be gay than a 1st born... well I can deal with that.

Its odd though.

I know its pretty odd... but my dad has 4 younger brothers and they're all married (to women) so I don't think they're gay... unless they're hiding it...

I know I'm not gay, my younger brother isn't gay..we're still undecided about my older brother and the fourth sibling likes men, but that's because its a she.

yeah but thats circumstantial evidence, its not the same as doing a study with 944 men...

and besides, when they say it increases the likelyhood by 30% well.. it probably changes things from like 0.01 % to 0.013.

like maybe its just too tiny a difference to really even think about

edit: or maybe my % is WAY off, but the point still stands.

( Edited on 29.06.2006 13:54 by theduffman )

The percentage of homosexuals is closer to 5% than 0.01%. Wombs make you gay.

The_cackling_idiot said:
The percentage of homosexuals is closer to 5% than 0.01%. Wombs make you gay.

according to that article apparently so

yeah but thats circumstantial evidence, its not the same as doing a study with 944 men...

Because doing a study based on 994 men isn't circumstantial evideence? In the 2004 UK census there was 39,261 same sex couples.

That study would barely cover 1% of the UK's male homosexual community, let alone the worlds.

2004 UK census

( Edited on 29.06.2006 14:10 by Der SegaHund )

Matthew Gastrian Evans said:

yeah but thats circumstantial evidence, its not the same as doing a study with 944 men...

Because doing a study based on 994 men isnt circumstantial evideence? In the 2004 UK census there was 39,261 same sex couples.That study would barely cover 1% of the UKs male homosexual community, let alone the worlds.

yea but that doesnt really say anything - what about the single gay men?

Der SegaHund said:

2004 UK census

( Edited on 29.06.2006 14:10 by Der SegaHund )

Whats wrong with that grumbles?

I have two brothers, I'm the middle one. I know I'm not gay, my big brother has a son and a girlfriend, and my little brother has a girlfriend and routinely breaks the computer downstairs due to excessive and careless pr0n1 surfing.

I know I'm not gay

Do you?

I have an older brother, but don't favour sausages, yet....

I must be gay

what a load of crap. the difference beween gay and straight is to do with growth in the brain. if you compare a straight brain to a gay brain their is apparently a difference. their is no real evidence to support a nature verses nurture arguement. but just because someone is surrounded by sisters or play fights with brothers cant make u gay. it just is. you either are or your not! i have a few gay friends and they wouldn't agree with the article. aren't there more pressing things in the world like poverty, hunger, drought that they could be sorting than OMG HE'S GAY!!!!

Couldn't have said it better. I would give you a star but my star button doesn't work. I've never given a star!! It's so annoying...

I would have thought that it would be the other way around, the more older sisters they have...

I always thought that it was something you were just born with, regardless of what gender your siblings are.