# Homo Genes **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 11, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440 "2005-05-11T19:09:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440/41 "2005-05-13T18:46:30Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > [SIZE=4] Is there any truth to his claims that anal sex is some inherent, fundamental part of being gay? Personally, if I see a man in the middle of the street having buttsex, (funny word!) I am liable to assume he is gay. Now, not all people who have buttsex are gay, and not all gays have buttsex. However, I am still at first liable to assume he is gay. Why didn’t I run after seeing someone have sex in public you ask? Because I like to watch. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440/42 "2005-05-13T18:49:27Z")
> [@Scott\_plaid](#): > > Personally, if I see a man in the middle of the street having buttsex, (funny word!) I am liable to assume he is gay. Even if the person he’s having buttsex with is a woman? ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440/43 "2005-05-13T18:53:12Z")
> [@Scott\_plaid](#): > > Personally, if I see a man in the middle of the street having buttsex, (funny word!) I am liable to assume he is gay. Now, not all people who have buttsex are gay, and not all gays have buttsex. However, I am still at first liable to assume he is gay. Why didn’t I run after seeing someone have sex in public you ask? Because I like to watch. 😃 You are? Under what circumstances? If you see a man in the middle of the street having anal sex with a woman, is he gay? If a woman has bent him over and is doing him with a strap-on, is he gay? (Do you read Savage Love? It’s not all that uncommon.) If you see two men kissing in the street, you wouldn’t, then assume that they’re gay? What if you see two men having oral sex? Not gay, then? ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440/44 "2005-05-13T18:55:00Z")
Even then. Sure, she could be using a strap on, and [pegging](http://www.thestranger.com/2001-05-24/savage.html) him, but if she is wear a shirt, at first I would not figure it is a women. Now, should evidence arrive that she is in fact a she, and not a cross dresser, I would be wrong, but doesn’t change my first thought. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440/45 "2005-05-13T19:09:11Z")
It would seem that this could be solved pretty easily. Show a man a picture of Brad Pitt naked. Show a man a picture of Jennifer Aniston naked. Measure the response. I mean, an erection is more of a basal phisiological response. If it weren’t, locker rooms would be far more frightening places. The only way I could get an erection looking at a naked Brad Pitt would be if I started thinking about how the lucky bastard was able to bed Aniston for years. Should we start hating people for all of their physiological responses? Sneeze coming out of a darkened movie theater into daylight? Damn photic response faggot. ---
**Author:** ![Priam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Priam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Priam)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440/46 "2005-05-13T19:09:48Z")
I’m bi and I’m in it for the blowjobs. Does my vote count for half? ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440/47 "2005-05-14T06:04:05Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Drug users and cult members do not choose to cut themselves off from society. They simply shift to a different social circle. But, isn’t this statement true of gay people, too? ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440/48 "2005-05-14T07:10:40Z")
> [@newcomb being](#): > > I’m not saying I’m an expert on homosexuality, but I doubt it’s a result of genes. I’m not really saying it’s choice either, so don’t get me wrong here. If anything, I’d say environmental/societal factors probably have a lot to do with sexual preference, but as I mentioned before, I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, just guesses. > > Dopers, shed light on this matter. > > Art I’ve always felt that the hypothetical genetic cause has been pushed rather harder than it really merits. This is probably because it provides a neat counter-argument to various stripes of homophobia - e.g. those that scream “unnatural!”, and those that scream “against God’s Will!” There may well be some correlations between genes and declared homosexuality, but I doubt many of them are causative. (Hypothetical example - intelligence is partially genetic. Genes for intelligence may correlate with declared homosexuality because intelligent people tend to earn more money, which tends to put them in social classes that tend to be less homophobic.) A short acquaintance with the Internet will reveal that human beings will be turned on by just about _anything_. There are sneeze fetishists. There are “getting stepped on by animals” fetishists. There are “getting smacked in the balls” fetishists. The truth is, human sexuality is tremendously varied and complicated, and homosexuality is far from the strangest example. ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440/49 "2005-05-14T07:31:18Z")
> [@matt](#): > > There may well be some correlations between genes and declared homosexuality, but I doubt **many** of them are causative. Forgot to expand on this point. There may be some _indirectly_ causative correlations between genes and homosexuality. E.g. there may be genetic components to mental adaptability, imagination, and creativity. People who are open to new ideas and like to experiment may exhibit a higher incidence of homosexuality. This would clearly not be the same thing as “homosexual genes”, anymore than genes for height and fast-twitch muscles would constitute “sprinter genes”. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440/50 "2005-05-14T16:20:13Z")
The Inner Cynic says that Dear Abby wasn’t trying to be scientific, but to assuage the guilt of the mom. ('cause she was probabably all panicky about “OMG I turned my daughter gay”.) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440/51 "2005-05-15T19:57:13Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > For an earlier discussion of this and related issues, interested parties may see [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=312029). My personal favorite of your quotes in that thread is this one: > [@roger thornhill](#): > > some people who haven’t read a book can critique it far better than those who have And I see that with Bagemihl you still don’t feel the need to actually _read_ the book to dismiss him. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440/52 "2005-05-15T20:18:06Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > Yo! Queermo dudes! > rog here is claiming that anal sex is one of the defining features of homosexuality - that it’s a central characteristic, “part and parcel” being the words used. Pointing out that not all gay men have anal sex, and very few lesbians, has had no effect. He wishes to get the opinions of other gay people. So is butt lovin’ one of the central parts of identity as gay? Are you only in it for the butt sex? Is there any truth to his claims that anal sex is some inherent, fundamental part of being gay? Oh of course. The reason I miss my dead first love is the butt-sex. We never actually had butt-sex, but it’s the fact of knowing that I will never have it with him now (him being cremated and all). It has absolutely nothing to do with emotional attachment or intellectual bonding- just flat out old butt-sex. Ah butt-sex, butt-sex, butt-sex… Of course to straight guys it’s the vagina that attracts you to women- not their minds or the eyes. The reason Charles Boyer killed himself when his wife died was cause he knew he’d never be able to get into that vagina again- it had nothing to do with the fact he felt completely lost without her as some idiots would have you believe. I mean, what is a woman? She’s basically a pair of legs that evolved to carry a vagina from place to place, and if you’re lucky she won’t talk much. To gay guys it’s the old Hershey Highway rest area: the defining hallmark of being gay isn’t who you feel most comfortable with in moments of emotional and physical intimacy, it isn’t about romance or about the love of the way you feel or not having to finish sentences because you already know what the other wants or the ability to come home every night to a person who understands you and who you understand, it’s about two things: the dick and the anus, pure and simple. I read this crazy article in which Gore Vidal (never the most sentimental of emotional of fellows if you’re at all familiar with him) began crying during an interview when discussing the recent death and ever-present absence from his home of Howard Austen, his partner of 50 years. I was thinking “You old charlatan- in your autobiography you assert that you and Howard never once had butt-sex, so what on Earth can you be missing about him? Cause that’s all being queer is about- butt-sex.” The secret word for today, home audience members, is BUTT-SEX! (by which I mean sex that involves the butt, something all queers do and the defining characteristic of their relationships and their lives in general [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-genes/303440.md?page=2)