Gay siblings statistics
If it were purely due to DNA, we would expect identical twins to always have the same orientation. One study found there could be hundreds or thousands of genes that may contribute to your sexuality! Intersex people are born with traits that would not necessarily be characterized as male or female at birth.
When investigators are planning studies on marginalized communities, it's important to engage community members throughout the decision-making and research-planning process to help prevent ethical issues. Bisexual, transgender, and other genderqueer-identifying folks are typically left out.
Justin Torres, a queer novelist and the youngest of three brothers, asks: Should it matter?. Even though we often group all of these together, they are very different. If only part of your sexual orientation can be explained by genetics, what else is there?
The greatest effect was due to individual environmental factors. To make things more complicated, these genes partly overlap with other personality traits that are influenced by your environment. From studying twins and families, we know that genetics is only a part of what determines your sexual orientation.
Other gender identities are not as well studied. Sexual orientation is different from gender identity. While many different processes can cause this, often this has a simple genetic explanation. Studies worldwide show that queer people tend to have more older brothers than other kinds of siblings.
These statistics reveal that gay siblings, while diverse in their activism, collectively exemplify a remarkable familial dedication to strengthening LGBTQ+ visibility, support, and advocacy—proving that when it comes to fighting for equality, love and teamwork go hand in hand.
For example, little to no research has been done on transgender and gender-diverse communities.
Fraternal Birth Order Effect : ¹⁻⁴ LGBTQIA+ includes a wide range of sexual orientations and gender identities
However, these studies usually only include people who identify as gay or lesbian. It stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, genderqueer or questioning, intersex, and asexual. The fraternal birth order effect is an observation that the more older brothers a male has from the same mother, the greater probability he will have a homosexual orientation.
They worried that it might lead to discrimination and other negative outcomes. However, it's important to note that these studies have limitations. Many of them only focused on individuals who identify as gay or lesbian, leaving out bisexual or asexual individuals.
It was identified by Ray Blanchard and Anthony Bogaert in the s, who attributed the effect to a prenatal biological mechanism, as the association is only present in men with older biological brothers, and not present. Sexual orientation refers to who you are attracted to, whereas gender identity refers to how you feel inside about your gender despite your physical body or expression.
Men with older brothers : The short answer is that it’s complicated
In a recent study surveying these communities, most people were concerned about the potential impact of this kind of research. Whereas a transgender person is someone who understands their gender identity does not match the physical body they were born in.
But that is not the case. This article explains different characteristics that may make you intersex and the genetic mechanisms involved. Some studies suggest that sexual orientation is a combination of genetic, environmental, and hormonal factors.
Studying twins and families can also help us determine genetic factors. A cisgender person is someone who understands that their gender identity matches the body they were born in.