# Why do so many gay people gravitate to show business?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-gay-people-gravitate-to-show-business/527156>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 31, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-gay-people-gravitate-to-show-business/527156 "2010-01-31T20:29:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-gay-people-gravitate-to-show-business/527156/41 "2010-02-05T16:00:17Z")

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> [@Walloon](#):
>
> You wrote: “Thirty years ago, Bob faced almost certain dismissal from his job for being gay, in all but a very few places.”
> 
> Well, I was around in 1980. And with your talk about “almost certain dismissal”, you make 1980 sound like it was 1950. It wasn’t.

I’m sure different people had different experiences. For context, a sense of your perspective on this, where were you in the 80s?

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**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-gay-people-gravitate-to-show-business/527156/42 "2010-02-05T16:15:35Z")

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> [@lissener](#):
>
> And it’s a fact that homosexuality is not a behavior.

Exactly what do you mean by this? I’ve always considered both homosexuality and heterosexuality behaviors–or clusters of behaviors, if you prefer.

Then again, I consider atheism, Christianity, bird-watching, and Yankee-liking behaviors as well.

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**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-gay-people-gravitate-to-show-business/527156/43 "2010-02-05T16:21:03Z")

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> [@StusBlues](#):
>
> Exactly what do you mean by this? I’ve always considered both homosexuality and heterosexuality behaviors–or clusters of behaviors, if you prefer.
> 
> Then again, I consider atheism, Christianity, bird-watching, and Yankee-liking behaviors as well.

Sexual orientation is not a behavior. You can be gay–or straight–and a lifelong celibate. You can live a life of heterosexual sex, marriage, children, and still be secretly gay. “Gay” is not about what you do–behavior–it’s about who you are.

Christianity, bird-watching, and Yankee-liking are all behaviors.

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