The ‘Born Gay’ Myth: When Iology Masqueras as Science| Natnal Catholic Register

5 MYTHS ABOUT GAY PEOPLE DEBUNKED

Gay people have been acced of many stereotyp that are not te. Here are 5 myths about beg homosexual. * is myth gay *

"There is nsirable evince that both lbians and gay men want to be strong, mted relatnships [and] are succsful creatg the partnerships, spe difficulti created by social prejudice, stigma, and the lack of legal regnn for same-sex relatnships most parts of the U.

S., " said UCLA psychologist Anne Pepl, -thor of a book chapter on the subject published the 2007 Annual Review of example, John Gottman, a Universy of Washgton emer profsor of psychology, and his lleagu llected data om homosexual upl across 12 years, and found that about 20 percent had broken up over that time. That rate projected over a 40-year perd is slightly lower than the divorce rate for first marriag among heterosexual upl over the same time span, acrdg to the study published 2003 the Journal of Homosexualy. "The overall implitn of this rearch is that we have to shake off all of the stereotyp of homosexual relatnships and have more rpect for them as mted relatnships, " Gottman fact, the same study found that gay upl tend to be better at rolvg nflicts and enuragg posive pedophil are gay(Image cred: © Normasmond |)An pecially pernic myth is that most adults who sexually abe children are gay.

A number of rearchers have looked at this qutn to terme if homosexuals are more likely to be pedophil than heterosexuals, and the data dite that's not the example, a 1989 study led by Kurt Frnd of the Clarke Instute of Psychiatry Canada, scientists showed pictur of children to adult gay and straight mal, and measured sexual aroal. (Image cred: © Alanpoulson |)Many of those who oppose gay marriage and gay adoptn charge that same-sex parents aren't good for kids, and that a child needs both a father and a mother to grow up to be a healthy adult.

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

* is myth gay *

Rearch, however, shows that children of gay parents tend to fare jt example, one recent study looked at nearly 90 teens, half livg wh female same-sex upl and the others wh heterosexual upl, showg that both groups fared siarly school. "Both studi were scribed a lerature review paper published Febary 2010 the Journal of Marriage and gay is a choiceThe mystery DNA spippets are about 300 tim ls likely than other regns of the genome to be lost durg the urse of mammalian evolutn.

THE 'GAY GENE' IS A MYTH BUT BEG GAY IS 'NATURAL,' SAY SCIENTISTS

(Image cred: Dreamstime)While some claim that beg gay is a choice, or that homosexualy n be cured, evince is mountg that same-sex attractn is at least partly geic and blogilly tt whether gen play a role, rearchers have pared intil tws ( which all gen are shared) to aternal tws ( which about 50 percent of gen are shared).

20 GAY GREEK GODS

A 2001 review of such tw studi reported that almost all found intil tws were signifintly more likely to share a sexual orientatn – that is, to be eher both gay, or both straight – than aternal tws, who are ls geilly close. "The rults support the theory that differenc the central nervo system exist between homosexual and heterosexual dividuals and that the differenc are possibly related to early factors bra velopment, " said Sandra Welson of McMaster Universy Ontar, an thor on the 1998 ner ear fdg published the journal Proceedgs of the Natnal Amy of Scienc.

THE 'BORN GAY' MYTH IS AD

Ever sce born-aga sger and orange juice pchwoman Ana Bryant helped kick off the ntemporary anti-gay movement some 40 years ago, hard-le elements of the relig right have been searchg for ways to monize gay people — or, at a mimum, to fd arguments that will prevent their normalizatn society.