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Better source (Balthazart) for DES sentence. I promise I'll be back to update this article at some point :) |
→History of sexual abuse: I have updated the sexual abuse section with secondary sources, the former section relied too much on primary sources. The title is useful for search engine purposes (since single studies are ranking highest) and because a lot of the literature also talks about 'first sexual experience' as a non-causal factor. Most of the content is relatively similar to what was there before but I put in coverage from LeVay about the Roberts controversy. |
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== Childhood gender nonconformity ==
Researchers have found [[childhood gender nonconformity]] (CGN) to be the largest predictor of [[homosexuality]] in adulthood.<ref name=Bem2008/><ref name="Rieger"/><ref name=Bailey>{{cite journal | vauthors = Balsam KF, Mohr JJ | year = 1995 | url = http://content.apa.org/journals/dev/31/1/43| doi = 10.1037/0012-1649.31.1.43 | title = Childhood sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation: A conceptual analysis and quantitative review | journal = [[Developmental Psychology (journal)|Developmental Psychology]] | volume = 31 | pages = 43–55 | issue = 1 }}</ref> Gay men often report being feminine boys, and lesbian women often report being masculine girls. In men, CGN is a strong predictor of sexual orientation in adulthood, but this relationship is not as well understood in women.<ref name="Baumeister">{{cite book| vauthors = Baumeister RF |title=Social Psychology and Human Sexuality: Essential Readings|year=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-1-84169-018-6|pages=201–2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=roychiRaM8gC&pg=PA202}}</ref><ref name="Friedman 2008">{{cite book| vauthors = Friedman RC |title=Sexual Orientation and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Sexual Science and Clinical Practice |year=2008|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-12057-9|pages=53–7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mwtokhymV_4C&pg=PA53}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Dunne MP, Bailey JM, Kirk KM, Martin NG | title = The subtlety of sex-atypicality | journal = Archives of Sexual Behavior | volume = 29 | issue = 6 | pages = 549–65 | date = December 2000 | pmid = 11100262 | doi = 10.1023/A:1002002420159 | s2cid = 17955872 }}</ref> Women with [[congenital adrenal hyperplasia]] (CAH), which effects production of sex steroids, report more male typical play behaviors and show less heterosexual interest.<ref name="Hines 2004 75–81">{{cite journal | vauthors = Hines M, Brook C, Conway GS | title = Androgen and psychosexual development: core gender identity, sexual orientation and recalled childhood gender role behavior in women and men with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) | journal = Journal of Sex Research | volume = 41 | issue = 1 | pages = 75–81 | date = February 2004 | pmid = 15216426 | doi = 10.1080/00224490409552215 | s2cid = 33519930 }}</ref> [[J. Michael Bailey]] believes childhood gender nonconformity to be a clear indicator that male homosexuality is an inborn trait – the result of hormones, genes and other prenatal developmental factors. Bailey says boys are "punished much more than rewarded" for their gender nonconformity, and that such behavior "emerges with no encouragement, and despite opposition", making it "the [[sine qua non]] of innateness". Bailey describes gender nonconforming boys as the "poster children for biological influences on gender and sexuality, and this is true whether or not we measure a single biological marker".<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Bailey|first=J.|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281747420|title=The Man Who Would Be Queen|date=2003-03-10|publisher=|isbn=978-0-309-08418-5|location=|pages=123}}</ref>
[[Daryl Bem]] proposed the "exotic becomes erotic" theory (EBE) in 1996. Bem argues that biological factors, such as [[Prenatal hormones and sexual orientation|prenatal hormones]], [[Gene|genes]] and [[neuroanatomy]], predispose children to behave in ways that do not conform to their sex assigned at birth.<ref name="Wetherell">{{Cite book|last1=Wetherell|first1=Margaret|last2=Talpade Mohanty|first2=Chandra|title=The SAGE Handbook of Identities|date=2010|publisher=[[Sage Publications]]|isbn=978-1446248379|page=177|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BAnvcxmzylQC&pg=PA177}}</ref> Gender nonconforming children will often prefer opposite-sex playmates and activities. These become alienated from their same-sex peer group. As children enter [[adolescence]] "the exotic becomes erotic" where dissimilar and unfamiliar same-sex peers produces [[arousal]], and the general arousal become eroticized over time.<ref name="Bem 1996 320–335">{{cite journal| vauthors = Bem DJ |title=Exotic Becomes Erotic: A Developmental Theory of Sexual Orientation|journal=Psychological Review|year=1996|volume=103|pages=320–335|doi=10.1037/0033-295X.103.2.320|issue=2}}</ref> Wetherell et al. state that Bem "does not intend his model as an absolute prescription for all individuals, but rather as a modal or average explanation."<ref name="Wetherell"/>
Two critiques of Bem's theory in the journal ''[[Psychological Review]]'' concluded that "studies cited by Bem and additional research show that Exotic Becomes Erotic theory is not supported by scientific evidence."<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Peplau|first1=Letitia A.|last2=Garnets|first2=Linda D.|last3=Spalding|first3=Leah R|last4=Conley|first4=Terri D.|last5=Veniegas|first5=Rosemary C.|date=May 1998|title=A Critique of Bern's "Exotic Becomes Erotic" Theory of Sexual Orientation|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/13707155|format=PDF|journal=Psychological Review|volume=105|issue=2|pages=387–394|doi=10.1037/0033-295X.105.2.387|pmid=9577243|via=PubMed}}</ref> Bem was criticized for relying on a non-random sample of gay men from the 1970s and for drawing conclusions that appear to contradict the original data. An "examination of the original data showed virtually all respondents were familiar with children of both sexes", and that only 9% of gay men said that "none or only a few" of their friends were male, and most gay men (74%) reported having "an especially close friend of the same sex" during grade school.<ref name=":1" /> Further, "71% of gay men reported feeling different from other boys, but so did 38% of heterosexual men. The difference for gay men is larger, but still indicates that feeling different from same-sex peers was common for heterosexual men." Bem also acknowledged that gay men were more likely to have older brothers (the [[Fraternal birth order and male sexual orientation|fraternal birth order effect]]), which appeared to contradict an unfamiliarity with males. Bem cited cross-cultural studies which also "appear to contradict the EBE theory assertion", such as the [[Sambia people|Sambia]] tribe in Papua New Guinea, who segregate boys from females during adolescence and ritually enforce homosexual acts among teenagers (they believe this is important for male growth potential), yet once these boys reached adulthood, only a small proportion of men continued to engage in homosexual behaviour - similar to levels observed in the United States.<ref name=":1" /> Neuroscientist [[Simon LeVay]] has said while the theory was ordered in a "believable order",<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=LeVay|first=Simon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-J6kDAAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA20#v=onepage|title=Gay, Straight, and the Reason why: The Science of Sexual Orientation|date=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-029737-4|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|65}} the theory "lacks empirical support".<ref name=":2" />{{rp|164}} Social psychologist [[Justin Lehmiller]] stated that Bem's theory has received praise "for the way it seamlessly links biological and environmental influences" and that there "is also some support for the model in the sense that childhood gender nonconformity is indeed one of the strongest predicators of adult homosexuality", but that the validity of the model "has been questioned on numerous grounds and scientists have largely rejected it."<ref name="Lehmiller">{{Cite book|last=Lehmiller|first=Justin J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3JGDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA1&pg=PA156#v=onepage|title=The Psychology of Human Sexuality|date=2017-12-26|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-119-16471-5|location=|pages=156–157|language=en}}</ref>
In 2003, Lorene Gottschalk, a self-described [[Radical feminism|radical feminist]] suggested there may be a reporting bias linking gender nonconformity to homosexuality.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gottschalk|first=Lorene | name-list-format = vanc |title=Same-Sex Sexuality and Childhood Gender Non-Conformity: A Spurious Connection|journal=Journal of Gender Studies|year=2003|volume=12|issue=1|pages=35–50|doi=10.1080/0958923032000067808|s2cid=4178447 |url=http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/35289}}</ref> Researchers have explored the possibility of bias by comparing childhood home videos with self-reports of gender nonconformity, finding that the presence of gender nonconformity was highly consistent with self-reporting, emerged early and carried into adulthood.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Rieger|first1=Gerulf|last2=Linsenmeier|first2=Joan A. W.|last3=Gygax|first3=Lorenz|last4=Bailey|first4=J. Michael|date=2008|title=Sexual orientation and childhood gender nonconformity: evidence from home videos|journal=Developmental Psychology|volume=44|issue=1|pages=46–58|doi=10.1037/0012-1649.44.1.46|issn=0012-1649|pmid=18194004}}</ref>
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Data scientist [[Seth Stephens-Davidowitz]] reported that the actual prevalence of gay men doesn't appear to vary between states in the U.S. because the percentage of Internet porn searches that are for gay male porn are nearly the same in all states, about 5%. On this basis he believes migration of gay men to cities is overstated, and says that in states where there is a [[social stigma]] against homosexuality that "many more gay men are in the closet than are out".<ref>{{Cite news|title=Opinion {{!}} How Many American Men Are Gay? - The New York Times|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/opinion/sunday/how-many-american-men-are-gay.html|date=2019-10-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012082501/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/opinion/sunday/how-many-american-men-are-gay.html|access-date=2020-05-08|archive-date=2019-10-12|last1=Stephens-Davidowitz|first1=Seth}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=LeVay|first=Simon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-J6kDAAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA9#v=onepage|title=Gay, Straight, and the Reason why: The Science of Sexual Orientation|date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-029737-4|location=|pages=9|language=en}}</ref>
==
The hypothesis that sexual abuse, molestation or early sexual experience "causes" sexual orientation, usually homosexuality, has been a subject of speculation but does not have empirical support<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=LeVay|first=Simon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-J6kDAAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA20&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Gay, Straight, and the Reason why: The Science of Sexual Orientation|date=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-029737-4|language=en}}</ref> although female sexual orientation may be responsive to social influences.<ref name="Bailey1" /> Instead, research has demonstrated that non-heterosexuals, especially men, are more likely to be targeted for childhood sexual abuse to their gender nonconforming behaviour (femininity), which is visible from a young age and is a strong predictor of adult homosexuality. ''Childhood sexual abuse'' often includes a variety of different experiences typically before age 18, not simply early childhood. Gay males are more likely to engage in age discrepant relationships during teenage years due to hiding their sexual orientation and a lack of available partners, which may be qualified as sexual abuse, but is not evidence of a "cause" of their sexual orientation.<ref name="Bailey1" />{{rp|83}} There are a variety of other confounders which make it difficult to show causality.<ref name="Bailey1" />
The [[American Psychiatric Association]] states: "...no specific psychosocial or family dynamic cause for homosexuality has been identified, including histories of childhood sexual abuse".<ref name="AmPsychiAssn-Sexual orientation3">{{Cite web|title=Sexual Orientation|url=http://healthyminds.org/More-Info-For/GayLesbianBisexuals.aspx|publisher=[[American Psychiatric Association]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722080052/http://www.healthyminds.org/More-Info-For/GayLesbianBisexuals.aspx|archive-date=July 22, 2011|access-date=January 1, 2013}}</ref>▼
Cross-cultural evidence also speaks against the notion that a first sex partner influences a person’s ultimate sexual orientation. In some non-Western cultures, such as that of the [[Sambia people|Sambia]] of [[New Guinea]], beginning between age 7 and 10, all boys are required to engage in sexual contacts with older male youths for several years in cultural rituals before they have any access to females, yet the vast majority of these boys become heterosexual men,<ref name=":5" /> while only a small number of males have homosexual orientations, at a similar level as found in Western cultures.<ref name=":4" />{{rp|130-131}} Additionally, long term studies of students who attended single sex boarding schools, where homosexual behavior is common, found that such students were no more likely to be gay than students who did not attend such schools.<ref name=":5" />
In a 30-year longitudinal study published in the ''[[Archives of Sexual Behavior]],'' although the authors found that men with histories of childhood sexual abuse were more likely to report ever having had same-sex sexual partners, they did not find any "significant relationships between childhood physical abuse or neglect and same-sex sexual orientation in adulthood"; neither men nor women with histories of childhood physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect reported more same-sex sexual partners in the previous year or same-sex romantic cohabitation compared to men and women without such histories.<ref name="Wilson20103">{{cite journal|vauthors=Wilson HW, Widom CS|date=February 2010|title=Does physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect in childhood increase the likelihood of same-sex sexual relationships and cohabitation? A prospective 30-year follow-up|journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior|volume=39|issue=1|pages=63–74|doi=10.1007/s10508-008-9449-3|pmc=|pmid=19130206|s2cid=35893381}}</ref> Authors of the study speculated that "sexual abuse may result in uncertainty regarding sexual orientation and greater experimentation with both same- and opposite-sex relationships", but may not affect ultimate sexual orientation.<ref name="Wilson20103" />▼
The hypothesis for females is that sexual abuse would make them averse of males, causing them to seek comfort with women, but that it would somehow makes males attracted to the same sex, which has been described as contradictory.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=LeVay|first=Simon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=diwTDgAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA87&hl=en|title=Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research Into Homosexuality|last2=Ph.D|first2=Former Associate Professor Simon LeVay|date=1996-05-14|publisher=MIT Press|year=|isbn=978-0-262-12199-6|location=|pages=95-108|language=en}}</ref> There is evidence that female sexual orientation may be more responsive to external or social influences. However, there are numerous other cofounders, which can distort research and prevent any strong conclusions being made. These include personality traits such as ones level of agreeableness, which have been measured in studies of lesbians, which may make them more manipulatable by an abuser.<ref name="Bailey1" /> A 2016 review authored by six experts in the fields of sexology, psychology, biology, neuroscience and endocrinology concludes that "it would also be less surprising to us (and to others) to discover that social environment affects female sexual orientation and related behavior" but "that possibility must be scientifically supported rather than assumed".<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal|last=Bailey|first=J. Michael|author-link=J. Michael Bailey|last2=Vasey|first2=Paul L.|last3=Diamond|first3=Lisa M.|author-link3=Lisa M. Diamond|last4=Breedlove|first4=S. Marc|author-link4=Marc Breedlove|last5=Vilain|first5=Eric|author-link5=Eric Vilain|last6=Epprecht|first6=Marc|date=2016-04-25|title=Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science:|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1529100616637616|format=PDF|journal=Psychological Science in the Public Interest|language=en|volume=|pages=|doi=10.1177/1529100616637616|access-date=|via=Sage|doi-access=free}}</ref>
A 2013 study titled "Does Childhood Maltreatment Effect Sexual Orientation?" by Roberts et al (2013) reported that sexual abuse may effect men and not women, however according to neuroscientist [[Simon LeVay]], a controversy arose over whether or not she had applied these statistical instruments correctly. These results have been strongly criticised for making unjustified assumptions in their statistical instrumental regression, a criticism by [[J. Michael Bailey]] and Drew. Bailey says “Not only do Roberts et al.’s results fail to provide support for the idea that childhood maltreatment causes adult homosexuality, the pattern of differences between males and females is opposite what should be expected based on better evidence.”<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last1=Bailey|first1=Drew|last2=Bailey|first2=J.|date=2013-03-26|title=Poor Instruments Lead to Poor Inferences: Comment on Roberts, Glymour, and Koenen (2013)|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236080929|format=PDF|journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior|volume=42|issue=8|pages=1649–1652|doi=10.1007/s10508-013-0101-5|pmid=23529218|via=|s2cid=10305429}}</ref> Because long standing research has demonstrated that female sexuality, not mens, may be more responsive to psychosocial influences, it is unlikely that sexual abuse would somehow affect male sexual orientation and not women's, and instead demonstrates that the application of instruments are inadequate to assess causality, and cannot account for other unidentified variables such as genetic factors (which predispose risk taking or create risky family environments) and other effects such as reporting bias. Bailey concludes that this conclusion poorly fits experience of gay men, who usually experience same sex attraction long before their first sexual experience, and that there is "compelling evidence that male sexual orientation is fixed early in development, probably before birth and certainly before childhood adversity could plausibly affect it" and that "previous research is inconsistent with the hypothesis that childhood experiences play a significant causal role in adult sexual orientation, especially in men".<ref name=":7" /> Additionally, due to human evolution, no plausible mechanism has been provided for why men would respond to abuse by becoming homosexual.<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zietsch|first=Brendan P.|date=2018-01-01|title=Reasons for Caution About the Fraternal Birth Order Effect|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-017-1086-2|journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior|language=en|volume=47|issue=1|pages=47–48|doi=10.1007/s10508-017-1086-2|issn=1573-2800|quote="causality needs clarification and the mechanisms are not known"|via=}}</ref>
* Similarly, childhood sexual abuse, when defined as: "sexual experiences with an adult or any other person younger than 18 years when the individual did not want the sexual experience or was too young to know what was happening" are combining a number of different experiences, likely to have different causes and effects. For example: sexual experiences of children too young to have understood what was happening, and the sexual experiences of late adolescents who understood those experiences but did not want them, as well as abusive experiences with the same sex and with the other sex.<ref name="Bailey1" />{{rp|83}}▼
* Sexual minorities can also be victims of [[corrective rape]] (or homophobic rape), a [[hate crime]] in which someone is sexually assaulted because of their perceived sexual orientation or [[gender identity]]. The common intended consequence of the rape, as seen by the perpetrator, is to turn the victim heterosexual or to enforce conformity with gender stereotypes.<ref name="UNAIDS">{{cite web|title=UNAIDS 2015 Terminology Guidelines|url=http://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/2015_terminology_guidelines_en.pdf|last1=United Nations|date=2015|website=UNAIDS.org|accessdate=21 November 2015}}</ref><ref name="RASmith">{{Cite book|editor-last=Smith|editor-first=Raymond A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UdXYAQAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA49|title=Global HIV/AIDS Politics, Policy, and Activism: Persistent Challenges and Emerging Issues: Persistent Challenges and Emerging Issues|date=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313399466|location=Santa Barbara|page=49|accessdate=8 September 2018}}</ref>▼
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▲In a 30-year longitudinal study published in the ''[[Archives of Sexual Behavior]], a''uthors
▲The [[American Psychiatric Association]] states: "...no specific psychosocial or family dynamic cause for homosexuality has been identified, including histories of childhood sexual abuse".<ref name="AmPsychiAssn-Sexual
== See also ==
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