This may be a variation of homosexuality is genetic/learned behavior debate. The figures ive always read say that 5-10% of humans are gay. Aside from the “forced sex” encounters we all read about in prisons is there still only 5-10% of the men engaging in sex? Or if a guy is in prision for 30 years with no other outlet than masterbation does he “go to the other side”? My girlfriend states that everyone is bi-more so or less so depending on the person, and that after awhile a hole is a hole and she asserts that homosexual behavior…particularly with long term inmates with no other options will be far greater than the 5-10% figure. I myself feel that either you are gay or your not and being put into prision isnt going to change that. Your thoughts??
It’s refered to as “situational” homosexuality. Quite a few straight men will have sex with other men only if there are no women around. When these men leave prison, they usually stop having sex with men.
My own thoughts? I don’t believe everyone is bi – I think it’s as simplistic an idea as “everyone is straight” or “everyone is gay.”
I believe sexuality is a sliding scale – we could use the Kinsey Scale. A 0 on the Kinsey Scale is exclusively heterosexual, a 1 is mostly straight but could “swing the other way,” say, in prison. A 3 is completely bisexual, a 6 is exclusively gay. I think both extremes and all the variations in the middle exist. Human sexuality is a very individual thing.
I agree with Hamish to a point (sorry Hamish, I know that probably just ruined your day).
Ever see these men that are just so outrageously anti-homosexuality that they freak out if they think someone they know is gay? I mean the ones who won’t so much as be in the same ROOM as someone they know is gay.
My personal opinion is that men like that know that, if they were seriously hard up for sex, they’d do a guy if that was the only way they could get laid. This scares the shit out of them, thus they make a lot of noise about how they are straight.
It’s not that they think they are gay, they just know what they are capable of.
I really don’t see it in terms of sexuality - I think it’s more along the lines of a biological urge. If you’re normally a heterosexual male, and you happen to go to prison, I think after a while the instincts kick in.
PROcreATE!..PROcreATE!..PROcreATE!..PROcreATE!..PROcreATE!..
It’s not about being with another man. It’s about animal urges.
And BTW, I agree with the girlfriend. Given the right circumstances, I think you could get anyone to “swing the other way.”
Just my opinion, and probably not a very popular one - but I think our society is too hung up about sexuality. We’re all people, we all need love, so why not live and let live?
There’s a difference between behavior and identity. E.g., the CDC identifies “men who have sex with men”–a behavioral category–not “gay men” in its statistics. Behavior (observable acts) and identity (self-report of psychological processes) do not always overlap.
Animals, and people, respond to a behavioral sink (overcrowded or stressful conditions) with an increase in homosexual sexual behavior. I don’t know stats on this. I also don’t know if female animals/humans do so, or whether mixed-sex groups do so.
AFAIK this is not all that common.
In certain very long term situations, such as natural life without parole, I believe this occurs from time to time.
Where I work most inmates are either gay or straight they don’t change one way or the other, but openly gay inmates are fairly rare.
In Wakefield prison in the UK, there are many inmates in for sexual offences of every hue, and these insects will not be let out, or will be very old when they finally do so. It is apparently not unusual for such inmates to form partnerships of a long term nature.
Perhaps its not just the fact that the inmate is without female company, but more along the lines of being inside due to certain urges that predicts this better.
I’m wondering what kind of debate there is here, are you suggesting perhaps that homosexuality is a learned behaviour ?
That it might simply be an extension of heterosexual behaviour that is subject to unusual circumstance?
Nuture or nature perhaps ?
Thanks, casdave. I’d always taken the guys-becoming-gay-in-prison story at face value even though it contradicts everything I know about my own sexuality.
I realize now I’ve never seen the slightest statistic on this sort of thing, and it may be grossly exagerrated. I think many people assume everyone who’s locked up for even a short “becomes,” temporarily, gay.
If it is only a minority, then that reinforces my theory that these men are just farther up the Kinsey Scale than they had previously thought, and only discover it in the absence of women.
Another factor to take into account is the degree to which the incidences of male-male sex are coerced or forced. When elements of force are involved, then it seems to me that it’s more of a matter of power and domination, rather than a reflection of either party’s sexuality.
I mean, if a rapist, incarcerated for life for raping women, turns to raping men in prison, does that mean that he’s gay, or that he’s a rapist?
Well in my OP i discounted the forced sex issue. But i also had the thought like Hamish that the guys who “became” gay in prison already had those tendencys and this was the “trigger” that brought it out.,if not the prison situation it might have been a guy in a coffee shop 10 years later instead.