Saturday 7 July 2012

How Does A 'Non-Sexual Entity' Have A Sexual Orientation?

July 6, 2012

Is Your Child Gay?

"If your son likes sissy stuff or your daughter shuns feminine frocks, he or she is more likely to buck the heterosexual norm. But predicting sexual preference is still an inexact science.

Both lesbians and gay men often have a history of cross-sex-typed behaviors: little boys becoming infatuated with their mother's makeup kit; little girls enamored of field hockey or professional wrestling.

Prehomosexual [what?] boys tend to be more attracted to solitary sports such as swimming, cycling and tennis than they are to rougher contact sports such as football and soccer.

Children who show pronounced sex-atypical behaviors may have more of a genetic loading to their homosexuality.

We all know the stereotypes: an unusually light, delicate, effeminate air in a little boy's step, an interest in dolls, makeup, princesses and dresses, and a strong distaste for rough play with other boys. In little girls, there is the outwardly boyish stance, perhaps a penchant for tools, a square-jawed readiness for physical tussles with boys, and an aversion to all the perfumed, delicate trappings of femininity.

These behavioral patterns are feared, loathed and often spoken of directly as harbingers of adult homosexuality. It is only relatively recently, however, that developmental scientists have conducted controlled studies to identify the earliest and most reliable signs of adult homosexuality. In looking carefully at the childhoods of gay adults, researchers are finding an intriguing set of behavioral indicators that homosexuals seem to have in common. Curiously enough, the age-old homophobic fears of many parents reflect some genuine predictive currency."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-your-child-gay

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