I want to share this. I think most of you will find this Ted Talk by James O’Keefe to be of interest. The title is “Homosexuality: It’s About Survival-Not Sex”. Date is 11/15/2016. After watching it, I’d like to know if your mother experienced an unusual amount of stress while pregnant with you. Mine did because my dad became suicidal during her pregnancy with me. Fascinating topic! I apologize if someone has already posted this here.
I'm not sure about some of the things he's saying in that talk, i.e. not sure I buy it. I do think we're meant to control the population somehow, though. When I was in college, I took a class on sexual orientation, and we read research/studies on what makes someone gay or lesbian. There are several different ideas out there. The one that always stuck in my head is that it is genetic on your mother's side of the family, just like many other issues (baldness and, I believe, color-blindness, for more examples). And there do seem to be a lot of gays and lesbians in my mother's family (but especially lesbians). I do know that my mother experienced stress while she was pregnant with me because she has told me many times that she didn't want another child when she was pregnant with me, and she cried.
MOGUY.....I recently watched that video too. I found it interesting as well. it's one more of an increasing number of "studies" that are showing a significant genetic and/or in-utero cause of sexual orientation. I can only really speak for myself...so here is my take on this, again, just for me. I was born in 1950. I had one older, straight brother. According to some studies that means that, even though my brother was straight, as a second male my chances of being gay were increased. When I was growing up there was nothing in the media about the LGBTQ Community...that terminology had not even been invented yet. I lived in a very rural area. I had zero exposure to anything LGBTQ related. I had never heard of the concept of being gay. There were no flamboyant men where I lived. I never heard the word "faggot" (this is funny in retrospect) except at Summer Church camp when we would have a "testimony" service and would throw a stick (the faggot) into the campfire when we stood up to talk! My knowledge of being LGBTQ was absolutely zero, nada, nothing. Yet by the age of eight years old, I knew that I liked watching boys play basketball a lot more than I like just watching basketball. I didn't cheer for a team...I cheered for the cutest, hottest boys, even thdough I didn't have a clue why I felt that way. So how could I have chosen to be gay when I didn't know that it existed? I wasn't influenced by anyone or anything. I had no knowledge of any kind that referenced being gay. I first heard the term "Homo" when I was 14. Some older boys at the city park were talking and I overheard their conversation. They were talking about a boy that was, perhaps 16 years old who was playing with some girls on the swings across the park. At that point I only knew that it was a bad word, a bad thing to be because of the way they said the word...and because of what they said they were going to do to him. It scared me. It took maybe another 6-9 months before I really understood what being "homo" meant. Then I was really terrified because I knew that I was "homo". My whole point in sharing this is to counter the idea that we choose to be gay, bi, etc.. I sure didn't choose. If I could have chosen, I would not have chosen to be gay. I would have spared myself the decades of depression and self-hate. But I am gay and I have accepted myself and finally learned to love my homo self! .....David
I come from a family of eight children. At least 4 of us are gay or bisexual. I'm not out so it's possible that I have more siblings the same. I grew up like Quebec. Never even heard of homosexuals. My first crush was a boy at 13 and I didn't even know what sexual attraction really was (BTW, he is an out and proud gay man...so, there was something that we both knew...but didn't...as Catholic school boys) I have multiple gay relatives on my mom's side. My siblings and I were all raised a bit differently since we grew up in changing social and family economic times. Our personalities are vastly different as are IQs early vs late maturity etc etc. My mom still, at mid eighties, has no gray hair. She doesn't even understand stress because she doesn't experience it and never has. There is, probably, a genetic element with, perhaps, a biological trigger. My cousins, from small families, are not so gay. Anyway. I think as time goes on we will learn more about the "reasons" behind homosexuality. Notice I didn't use the word "cause". Gay is not a disease...it just is...and, we should accept it for what it is. My real genetic affliction is that damned bald spot I'm getting! Now, that's a problem!
Some theories are just that, theories. Helps people get grants to have jobs. I take some of this stuff with a grain of salt.
This speech annoyed me. I do not have the skill to comment on the research so i won't. What got to me was the amount of stereotypes he used to link the studies he discussed. Not all gay men are sensitive, emotionally intelligent or project a calming vibe to their families. Nor are they necessarily good decorators, fans of disco or possess a natural flair for floral arrangement. I respect that for some people the subject was interesting but for me i just felt uncomfortable through most of the 17 long minutes.
Hi, all. I didn't see the TED talk but was interested in the different comments made here. I can't speak about the gay or lesbian issues because I don't identify as such but I liked what people said here. My brother, 82, recently gathered up the box of old family photos and sent them off to each of our siblings who were in them. In my packet there was a picture of me at age two carrying a toy purse. I was two! I'd never heard of any trans behavior. I was just playing with something that apparently appealed to me and it wasn't a toy truck. Like many of us, I've wondered what caused me to be me and I've read theories about various hormone washes that did or didn't happen at this or that stage of utero development but I don't think any of us can really know. I agree with Lady Gaga. I live in a small town with a fairly large gay and lesbian population, so much so that it isn't a thing. People are people, some are nice, some are jerks, some are great decorators. There aren't any distinctions between gay or straight or who loves who. It's kind of nice. Out of deference to my wife I am very much in the closet, unhappily so, but that's another topic. But it's a nice mix of people. Hard to know what signs any of us might be giving off but this reminded me of a time, many years ago, I was Christmas shopping with my 14 year old daughter for a gift for my wife. I'm not a good shopper but my wife had been talking about a new purse. I picked one that I liked and took it to the counter. The place was packed, lots of shoppers, mostly women, when my daughter, being the perfect obnoxious teen-age girl, spoke up in a very loud voice and said, "DAD, you should stop pretending you're buying this purse for mom and finally admit that you're a transvestite!" She's 48 now and knows all about me now (what did she know then?) and says she doesn't care if I come out or not but is tired of me living on the fence all her life. Commit, one way or another, but do something. I wish I was as brave. Thanks, Susan
I’m an only child...I was born one week premature and was basically stillborn due to a prolapsed umbilical cord during delivery. I was resuscitated and spent the first four days in the NICU (this was 1971 however and I’m sure it was not S technically advanced as today)...it was Lso discovered later in life that I was born with a heart defect... Anyway my mother had. Lot of stress during her pregnancy And after I was born my parents were advised to not have any more kids...ok so I grew up with the stigma of being an only child....of being resusicitated...of feeling a tremendous amount of guilt for what my parents went through etc... I also grew up feeling that I was not the same as others and felt that either I should have been a girl or that I was bi or gay but would not dare to confront my feelings... I posted a question about in utero because of my own experience as well as some things I have read about maternal stress and hormones possibly contributing to orientation...that’s why I thought possibly I may have received an excessive amount of estrogen when my blood supply was cut off; I am aware that this is probably very off base or rediculous but as I have gotten older I cannot help but question this...
