Absence Of One's Father In The Home Doesn't Apparently Cause The Gay by:
Autumn Sandeen Tue Nov 25, 2008 at 05:00:00 AM EST Dr. Warren Throckmorton has highlighted in his
Crosswalk blog a study published in the
Journal of Sex Research entitled
Family and Sexual Orientation: The Family-Demographic Correlates of Homosexuality in Men and Women. From the abstract of the study: Using a nationally representative sample of young adults, I identify the family-demographic correlates of sexual orientation in men and women. Hence, I test the maternal immune hypothesis, which posits that the only biodemographic correlate of male homosexuality is the number of older brothers, and there are no biodemographic correlates of female homosexuality. For men, I find that having one older brother does not raise the likelihood of homosexuality. Although having multiple older brothers has a positive coefficient, it is not significant. Moreover, having any older sisters lowers the likelihood of homosexual or bisexual identity. For women, I find that having an older brother or having any sisters decreases the likelihood of homosexuality. Family structure, ethnicity, and education are also significantly correlated with male and female sexual orientation. Therefore, the maternal immune hypothesis cannot explain the entire pattern of family-demographic correlates. The findings are consistent with either biological or social theories of sexual orientation.
