More reseach stacking up that one is indeed born gay.
WASHINGTON - Having several older brothers increases the likelihood of a man being gay, a finding researchers say adds weight to the idea that there is a biological basis for sexual orientation.
“It’s likely to be a prenatal effect,” said Anthony F. Bogaert of Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada, “This and other studies suggest that there is probably a biological basis for” homosexuality.
S. Marc Breedlove of Michigan State University said the finding “absolutely” confirms a physical basis.
“Anybody’s first guess would have been that the older brothers were having an effect socially, but this data doesn’t support that,” Breedlove said in a telephone interview.
The only link between the brothers is the mother and so the effect has to be through the mother, especially since stepbrothers didn’t have the effect, said Breedlove, who was not part of the research.
Bogaert studied four groups of Canadian men, a total of 944 people, analyzing the number of brothers and sisters each had, whether or not they lived with those siblings and whether the siblings were related by blood or adopted.
He reports in a paper appearing in Tuesday’s issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that having several biological older brothers increased the chance of a man being gay.
It’s an effect that can be detected with one older brother and becomes stronger with three or four or more, Bogaert said in a telephone interview.
****'Some sort of prenatal factor'****
But, he added, this needs to be looked at in context of the overall rate of homosexuality in men, which he suggested is about 3 percent. With several older brothers the rate may increase from 3 percent to 5 percent, he said, but that still means 95 percent of men with several older brothers are heterosexual.
The effect of birth order on male homosexuality has been reported previously but Bogaert’s work is the first designed to rule out social or environmental effects.
Bogaert said he concluded the effect was biological by comparing men with biological brothers to those with brothers to whom they were not biologically related.
The increase in the likelihood of being gay was seen only in those whose brothers had the same mothers, whether they were raised together or not, he said.
Men raised with several older step- or adopted brothers do not have an increased chance of being gay.
“So what that means is that the environment a person is raised in really makes not much difference,” he said.
What makes a difference, he said, is having older brothers who shared the same womb and gestational experience, suggesting the difference is because of “some sort of prenatal factor.”
One possibility, he suggests, is a maternal immune response to succeeding male fetuses. The mother may react to a male fetus as foreign but not to a female fetus because the mother is also female.
It might be like the maternal immune response that can occur when a mother has Rh-negative blood but her fetus has Rh-positive blood. Without treatment, the mother can develop antibodies that may attack the fetus during future pregnancies.
Whether that’s what is happening remains to be seen, but it is a provocative hypothesis, said a commentary by Breedlove, David A. Puts and Cynthia L. Jordan, all of Michigan State.
The research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13555604/from/RS.2/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13555604/from/RS.2/)
Re: Men with older brothers more likely to be gay (biological basis)
[quote]
95 percent of men with several older brothers are heterosexual
[/quote]
gee here i thought the 'researcher' may actually have something of consequence instead of the usual faggody wet dream of passing on their assinine behaviors as 'natural' and 'God inflicted'.
Re: Men with older brothers more likely to be gay (biological basis)
Few arsholes trying to justify their sick behavior. People these days blame every sick thing on genes, environment, upbringing.......blame everyone except the criminal.
Re: Men with older brothers more likely to be gay (biological basis)
The article/research doesn't say how many %age of the gays have older brothers ... instead that more the number of older brothers, the higher the percentage of gays among the group studied. Or at least thats how I understand it.
Re: Men with older brothers more likely to be gay (biological basis)
^
Yes the vast majority of people with older brothers are straight, 95% according to this study but the research shows that having older brothers increases the like hood that you will be born gay, but again that likehood remains very small.
Re: Men with older brothers more likely to be gay (biological basis)
They liklihood of being gay if you have had older brothers is small, but the precentage of gay people is just as low. The population of gays coinicides with the low probablity of being born gay if your have several older brothers. So statistically it makes some sense...
The fact that the chances of winning the lottery are so small, doesnt change the fact that there still are people who win.
Re: Men with older brothers more likely to be gay (biological basis)
What is normal family size in US versus that in Pakistan, India, Bengladesh, China, Iran, Iraq etc etc. What about California vs Texas family size (not volumes please :p)? I bet family size in southern (relatively conservative) state is larger than faggoty LA or other places. So to blame someone's perversion of mind on family size is just lame.
Re: Men with older brothers more likely to be gay (biological basis)
That theory doesn't seem true, most of the gay guys I've known (and I've known lots) have been the eldest sibling, the few that did have had older brothers were less batty/effeminate and actually more masculine in the way they carried themselves and had typically manly hobbies such as football.
Re: Men with older brothers more likely to be gay (biological basis)
thats pretttty gayy
wenever a mother kills her child blame it on same disorder and now saying ppl r born gay
how lamee....we just need an excusee or justifications for all this
is it normal?
