Does Gay Run In Your Family?

Annoyingly, my finger slipped and posted before I was done with the poll!! I was gonna add:

"I have gay siblings AND gay cousins"

and

"I have a gay parent!"

1 straight brother, 1 gay brother, 1 gay aunt. That's all I know of.

I once knew a guy from an old school Italian family with 5 boys - three of them came out, the fourth one came out later but never told his mom because he didn't think she could handle another one. 4 out of 5 brothers.

I have a gay sister and many gay cousins.

I read it as:

Does Ray Gun in your family?

Yes! On my mother's side, a lesbian aunt. On my father's side 3 lesbian cousins and 3 gay male cousins + 1 late gay male cousin who wanted to be a woman in the 80s but then died from AIDS.

Pretty sure they are but repressed it.

Many straights seemed bi except for the societal shunning and pressure.

On those tests where they ask if you're gay, I'm sure many, many lies.

Only the mostly gays has the courage to go with it and lead the way for free closet life.

I think my dad had a lesbian aunt, but that was the 50s and she never came out. I have one second cousin who is gay and that's all as far as I know. Not many gays in the family.

Maternal: Great-granduncle (drag queen in Weimar Berlin), 1st cousin (male), 1st cousin (male, bisexual), 2 1st cousins 1x removed (male), 2nd cousin (female)

Paternal: 2nd cousin (male), 1st cousin 2x removed (male), 2 2nd cousins (male), 2nd cousin (female)

I have three brothers. My oldest brother and I are gay, the other two straight. My Dad had a first cousin who was gay. On the same side of the family I have a first cousin once removed who is gay, andI suspect that another first cousin once removed is a lesbian.

R6 that's very true - only gays have the courage to go with it and lead the way for free closet life.

There are so many men and women who took the straight path - particularly before 20 years ago.

Boy, I could write a book on this subject. I've written about this topic before on DL.

On my mother's side of the family, the gays are rampant. My mother's father had 14 brothers and sisters, and my mother had 12 brothers and sisters, so there are numerous uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, and cousins scattered across the US. My mom made it her mission to visit all these families, as she had known many of them since she was a young child. When she would return from a trip, she used the same code language with me: "Oh, you MUST meet your cousin XYZ. (pause, pause). You and he have... SO MUCH IN COMMON!"

It took me a while to figure out what she meant, but she was indeed accurate. For example, I had five cousins in LA - all brothers - and ALL gay!

I had a local cousin (we called him Sonny), 10 years older than me, who would babysit my brother and me when we were young. When Sonny graduated from high school, he went into the army and made a career of it. I never saw him again until he appeared at a funeral of another uncle, along with his "partner." I was shocked to find out he was gay. I mentioned the partner to my mom, who was with me, and she said, "Oh, Sonny's gay? Well, just like his father!"

WHAT!!! My uncle - my mother's brother, with whom she was closest - was also gay? He was married with only the one son. How could I not have known? I could go on.

Well, so much for gaydar. One thing I'm sure of - there is some kind of gay gene.

Uncle on dad's side, cousin on Mom's side.

A nephew committed suicide as a teen, so he could be another one.

There was a family in my small hometown with 7 kids and I think 6 were gay.

The parents drank.

I'm gay. My little sister is a lesbian. Others ha dabbled.

Of the three of us, my brother and I are gay and my sister will fuck anyone who feeds her addictions.

My nephew has come out as non-binary - I'm not exactly sure if that means gay or not.

I have several lesbian cousins, a couple of gay or bi male cousins & a uncle who may have been gay or bi, he had one significant relationship with a woman, never dated again when it ended, Uncle Phil dies in a boating accident in his 30's.

Do DLers run in your family?

None that I know of in my family, but I was kept in the dark about the vast majority of my relatives until my aging aunt told me about some of them after my parents died.

I had a friend in college in the 1970s whose parents were devout Catholics. He had four younger brothers. When I came out to him, he told me that two of his brothers were gay, and I met them and became friends with one of them. It was a big help to me because it was so difficult for me to come out at that time. It was a college with over 30,000 students and yet the Gay Student Alliance had very few members.

The straight brother was so chill about me being gay (perhaps because of his brothers) that we even roomed together one semester. Those three siblings made a big difference in my life!

No offense meant at all, but does trans run in the family? Maybe that’s not so bad if it can be way to find solidarity.

Yes, at least 3 generations back. Lizzies and pansies in the 20s, out of the closet in the 40s.

Two bisexual cousins that I know of, one was an older first cousin of my mom's, who sadly passed from AIDS, and the son of his older sister, who I believe married a woman.

I have a lesbian sister. I had an unmarried great uncle who as I remember was as camp as tits, but it was never confirmed that he was gay.

I’ve tried to ask a few cousins if they are gay/lesbian. The violent misogynist had gender reassignment surgery and is now a caring human. Unfuckable, but happy!

My younger sister is a lesbian and my two older brothers are straight.

I'm the only one in my family of 7, although I think my baby sister dabbled briefly in her early 20s.

7 Cousins, mostly girls, none gay.

Hard to say about ancestors - lots of huge Irish families where many remained unmarried. My grandmother had 10 siblings, but most of the men remained unmarried....hmmm. Several died in their early-mid 20s in the Spanish flu epidemic. On my grandfather's side, 7 siblings - 2 sisters remained unmarried, and one brother. Of my mom's siblings, one aunt became a nun and gave off definite lesbian vibes.

In the next generation, I have one nephew who is gay, and another one who might have dabbled in his early 20s if rumors be true.. Among my cousins, one of them has a gay son, now living a very active gay life in NYC in his early 20s.

But to me, it sounds as though the proportions in my extended family are more or less random and about what you'd expect in a certain-sized group, so if it was gene-related, it was a recessive one for sure.

I'm the only one in my family of 7, although I think my baby sister dabbled briefly in her early 20s.

7 Cousins, mostly girls, none gay.

Hard to say about ancestors - lots of huge Irish families where many remained unmarried. My grandmother had 10 siblings, but most of the men remained unmarried....hmmm. Several died in their early-mid 20s in the Spanish flu epidemic. On my grandfather's side, 7 siblings - 2 sisters remained unmarried, and one brother. Of my mom's siblings, one aunt became a nun and gave off definite lesbian vibes.

In the next generation, I have one nephew who is gay, and another one who might have dabbled in his early 20s if rumors be true.. Among my cousins, one of them has a gay son, now living a very active gay life in NYC in his early 20s.

But to me, it sounds as though the proportions in my extended family are more or less random and about what you'd expect in a certain-sized group, so if it was gene-related, it was a recessive one for sure.

My niece became a non-binary lesbian (they-them), but later progressed to a trans-masculine (he/him). Chest surgery, testosterone. Still has sex with only females or other trans-men. I’m waiting on him to decide he needs a tail and wings.

I am 72 years old and the youngest of 3 children. Neither of my siblings were/are gay. The only gay relatives I personally know about is a late uncle on my father's side, and a female cousin on my mother's side, and a late cousin from The Netherlands on my father's side. All of my aunts and uncles on both sides are long dead. I have had no contact with my extended base of cousins who are scattered all over the world in many years other than one cousin who lives on the island of St. Maarten and a couple others who live in Boston. I would imagine there are several homosexuals in the mix that I am not aware of.

Although it doesn't seem so, to us raised in a country founded by Puritans, gays enjoying life out of the closet was not uncommon in the major cities of Latin America.

From 1958, a popular song by the Spanish singer, Sarita Montiel

Hay un señorito de esos calaveras De esos que se pintan lunares y ojeras

Refers to a young man of indeterminate sexuality who wears makeup

So, yes, in my family, gays and lesbians lived happily out of the closet in Havana.

I had a gay brother and sister (both deceased) and numerous gay first and second cousins.

My aunt (dad’s sister) was a lesbian, and my dad also had a gay uncle who I don’t believe ever formally came out, but everyone was “aware.” I’m the eldest of two children—my little brother is straight, and I’m gay.

Wow OP, natural selection has definitely had enough of you and your family.

My nephew is gay and married to a guy. On my Dad's side, he had a gay uncle and a lesbian aunt but could not be verified.

R6 and yet we are seeing an explosion of people identifying as bi, trans, queer, other or +++. Lots more identifying as queer bi or other as in not straight or heterosexual.

It’s true not much of an increase at all as far as gay men. Kind of stagnant. Maybe gay men will increase in popularity in the same way bi, trans, queer, and ++++ are increasing today? Or not,

Unless of course there is a new STD outbreak then all bets are off. Although camps could be on as a bet.

Hardly anyone identifies as trans, queer, or "+++++"

The biggest increase in LGBT identification is among bisexuals, but that's largely among women. There is no huge explosion in men identifying as bisexual.

No the biggest increase is with the trans. In fact more GenZ identified as Trans more so than those that identified as a gay man.

But you are correct about bisexuals they are the big dog among the glbtqi++++

[quote]No the biggest increase is with the trans. In fact more GenZ identified as Trans more so than those that identified as a gay man.

Interesting. Can you link to a reputable source to confirm that?

R38 I'm not R37, but there is clear statistical evidence of a large boom in transgender (which includes non-binary by their own definition). This is most significant in Gen Z. The increase in girls identifying as F2M or non-binary has been particularly dramatic.

"The results are clear: Gen Z young adults are much more likely to report identifying as either trans or nonbinary than other generations. While only 1 out of 1,000 Boomers report they are transgender (one-tenth of 1%), 23 out of 1,000 Gen Z young adults (2.30%) identify as trans—20 times more. By this estimate, there are now more trans young adults in the U.S. than the number of people living in Boston.

Fewer than 1% of Boomers identify as non-binary, compared to more than 3% of Gen Z young adults. Combined with the more than 2% who are trans, that means 1 out of 18 young adults identified as something other than male or female in 2021 and 2022. With 39 million 18- to 26-year-olds in the U.S., about 2 million young adults identified as trans or nonbinary—more than the population of Phoenix, the fifth-largest city in the country."

R39, thanks for the link, but the fact that I was questioning was not whether more GenZers identify as trans or nonbinary than other generations, but rather whether more GenZers identify as trans or nonbinary than GAY. I'm guessing that the ratio is more like 1:10 - for each person identifying as trans or nonbinary, there are 10 identifying as gay. I could be way off, but I'd like to see some documented proof.

There's a "boom" in trans because it's trendy.

Kids love being on trend!

Being fake gay/lez/bi was easy for these kids because all you had to do was announce it and go to fun gay bars for a year or two when you're in your early 20s then as you age out of being young and trendy, you could quietly back away from those silly youthful statements. There might be an embarrassing photo or two of you making out with a same sex friend but that could be easily destroyed or blamed on being drunk/high.

With the trans bandwagon, it takes more effort...you have to dress the part but since gender bending style is also on trend, (aka, sloppy and messy) it's easy! Bad haircut, some Manic Panic dye, piercings, sweats and you're good to go!

The problem arises when some dum dum kids take it to the next step and start fucking around with hormones. But, the wannabees tend not to got TOO far into it since there's a part of them internally thinking, "hey....in 10 years this will be a faint memory of your silly youth!"

R40 The relative increase in Gen Z identifying trans has certainly exceeded the increase in those identifying as gay. In actual numbers, its more like a ratio of 1:2 than 1:10. 2.3% of Gen Z identify as trans vs 5% as gay or lesbian in that cohort. The most alarming statistic I've seen was for the famous Tavistock Clinic in the UK which saw an increase of 5,000% in girls seeking F2M over a period of only 7 years.

R41, no one is "fucking around with hormones" to be trendy. Where do you guys even get this stuff? Do you think someone is going to spend all that money and effort on hormone treatments just to be trendy?

I remember when straight bigots claimed gays just wanted attention, because we were refusing to live life in the closet

Opt-in polls can produce unreliable data, especially for young people

How should I know, darling. None of them sucked my cock.

[quote] I remember when straight bigots claimed gays just wanted attention, because we were refusing to live life in the closet

R43 Yeah, wasn’t that just yesterday?

Gay and lesbian cousins and siblings all over the place, and one of my late uncles was probably gay. No homophobes among us. I love my family.

One brother is gay, one straight brother, two straight sisters. Two first cousins of my dad, gay man and lesbian. First cousins on my mother’s side have children who have come out (I think those are my first cousins once removed).

R6 progressives think everyone is gay. 🙄

But they just watch too much porn. 😂

R43 Yes, I do believe there are idiots out there fucking around with hormones.

I know of one stupid kid who bought hormones off the dark web.

I know someone who got their tits chopped off and later regretted it.

Look, I believe trans is "real". I also believe there are stupid people out there playing "dress up" and some of them are willing to do moronic things like take non-prescribed hormones they ordered from China.

If there's a will, there's an idiot willing to find a way.

R50 I won't say that people are necessarily playing dress-up, but I do believe there is some form of mass hysteria going on. History is full of such situations, but historically, you had to be in close proximity to each other for it to spread. Today, physical proximity is no longer a limiting factor.

Whoops All Lesbians in my family. One of my most interesting great-aunts was a WAC in World War 2. She died before I was born. I would have loved to meet her.

Another is deeply closeted but everyone knows and overlooks it.

A distant cousin is a lesbian poet. One of my saner living relatives.

On the other side of my family we have Tony/Toni, who likes to dress up and go shopping. They’re fine although the makeup is awful.

R51 - yes, you're right. My pediatrician brother was talking about how self-cutting was really popular a few years ago and now it was dying out.

Mass hysteria definition and examples in history.

There are no gays on my dad's side.

On my mom's side, though: my mom had two brothers, and both were gay. My mom had three kids, and one is gay. Her sister (my aunt) had one kid, who is a lesbian. The lesbian has two kids, and one will very likely come out as gay.

My mother's maternal great grandmother had two siblings. Daughter A gave way to all the gays above. Daughter B had one child: a gay son. Son C had two grandkids, and one was a lesbian.

My mother's paternal grandfather was possibly gay (rumored to have cheated on his wife with a man).