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Posted on 06/27/2006 7:00:11 AM PDT by presidio9
A man's sexual orientation appears to be determined in the womb, a new study suggests.
Past research by Dr. Anthony F. Bogaert of Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario and colleagues has shown that the more older brothers a man has, the more likely he is to be gay. But it has not been clear if this is a prenatal effect or a psychosocial effect, related to growing up with older male siblings.
To investigate, Bogaert studied 944 gay and straight men, including several who were raised with adopted, half- or step-siblings or were themselves adopted. He reasoned that if the relationship between having older male siblings and homosexuality was due to family environment or child-rearing practices, it would be seen whether or not a man's older brothers were biological or adopted.
Bogaert found that the link between having older brothers and homosexuality was present only if the siblings were biologically related -- this relationship was seen between biological brothers who were not raised together. The amount of time that a man was reared with older brothers had no association with sexual orientation.
"These results support a prenatal origin to sexual orientation development in men and indicate that the fraternal birth-order effect is probably the result of a maternal 'memory' for male gestations or births," Bogaert writes in his report in PNAS Early Edition.
A woman's body may see a male fetus as "foreign," Bogaert explains, and her immune response to subsequent male fetuses may grow progressively stronger.
"If this immune theory were correct, then the link between the mother's immune reaction and the child's future sexual orientation would probably be some effect of maternal anti-male antibodies on the sexual differentiation of the brain," he suggests.
Other lines of research also support the sexual orientation-maternal immune response link, he notes.
brings one word to mind: "Baloney"!
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I wonder if any link was drawn to how many homosexuals were abused as children, or recruited into the lifestyle when they were teenagers.
Hey, I'm just glad its the mom's fault for a change.
We guys have been blamed for everything for so long it time someone else gets it...
So, this research supports the thesis that homosexuality is a pathology, right?
susie
In an era of highly politicized "scientific" research, one must study the motivations behind the research, as well as the research itself, to assess its validity. Personal agendas on the part of the researcher can introduce biases which might not be obvious just from reading the paper.
In this particular instance, we need to know whether the pirncipal investigator is himself homosexual.
Sssshhhhhhh!
If you asked 944 men if they are gay or not (regardless of any other circumstances such as the number of brothers, living conditions etc.) the error rate of the simple question is +/- 4%, 19 times out 20.
The study is not statistically significant.
[cough] junk science [cough]
I think it is full of crap!
single moms do that. if there's a dad in the house, the boy knows how to behave.
My thoughts exactly. Margret Sanger, their hero, would propose a solution.
I wonder ir NARL would still support a mother's right to "choose"
LOL, my dad had 6 older brothers...guess I'll have to tell him about this study.
May I suggest that researchers instead look at the correlation between early childhood sexual abuse of boys and the onset of homosexual tendencies.
This is about as believable as the rest of Reuters "news". Rubbish.
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