What do YOU consider the root causes of sexual orientation?

What do YOU consider the root causes of sexual orientation?

AmbroseJohnson

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I am an American white male, age 58.

I consider myself bisexual to an age even before puberty. My 2-year-older brother also considers himself bisexual since before puberty.

I don't believe there are any true known scientific causes for sexual orientation.

If homosexuality is genetic, then how could one's mother and father have even possibly reproduced that person? According to my mother, my brother and I were conceived naturally. My father's penis went into my mother's vagina and here I am now. Certainly, bisexuals can reproduce naturally.

I don't even know if my mother and/or father were heterosexual or bisexual. Not one of my parents ever indicated what they really were. My father once said that homosexuality was not his cup of tea.

As a boy growing up, I had only interest in partaking in masculine things as football, baseball, weight training, cowboys and Indians, guns, hunting, fishing, playing ball with dogs and Tonka trucks. Once when I was about 5, over my head and body like a sheet worn as a Halloween ghost costume, I slipped on one of my mother's mumus (spacious Hawaiian dress) that was laying in the back seat of the car to "pretend to be a ghost". She told me promptly to take that off because boys don't wear women's clothes. Putting on the mumu was not out of desire to be feminine but rather to just goof off. It gave me no sexual gratification to put the mumu on and play Halloween. After that, I never had any desire to put on female clothes whatsoever for any reason. Much of gender conformity is from mother culture, not genes or biology. Human babies newly born don't have any natural instinct that a dress is female and pants are male. Clothes aren't even natural to begin with. Gender-based clothing is learned behavior. In ancient times, men and boys wore crotchless/legless clothing as robes, tunics and togas that might be stereotyped as "dresses" in modern culture. The sexual identity associated with clothing is merely a human construct. Male pants-wearing arose historically out of horsemanship needs. I don't know the Scotsman's practical need to wear a kilt.

I consider myself a gender-conforming male in manner of dress, deepness of voice and character.
 
The answers to this question are likely to be rather homophobic. I will just say that my sexual dis-orientation, fetishes and proclivities are from CSA.

Gender-based clothing is learned behavior. In ancient times, men and boys wore crotchless/legless clothing as robes, tunics and togas that might be stereotyped as "dresses" in modern culture. The sexual identity associated with clothing is merely a human construct. Male pants-wearing arose historically out of horsemanship needs. I don't know the Scotsman's practical need to wear a kilt.

Earlier garments were made like this because they were easy to construct.

I use to get into so much trouble, into my late teens, with playing with mom's clothes and her catching me with diapers.

I consider myself a gender-conforming male in manner of dress, deepness of voice and character.

To be honest, I am only a gender-conforming male because I have to be, I would transition today if I didn't have a family that would be impacted by it.
 
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I think sexual orientation is highly complex. I do believe that birth order plays a part in it. But I don't believe that is the only factor. I think it has to do with birth order, antigens, hormones, genetics...and maybe environment. I obsessed for about a year wondering what caused me to be gay and finally decided it was a question that was only driving me mad and wasn't going to help me move forward. I am gay.
 
I've been told that domineering, bitchy or militant women "drive men to be gay". We have evolved to where women aren't sweet, gentle and submissive as they used to be. There may be sociological factors.
 
I've been told that domineering, bitchy or militant women "drive men to be gay".
A myth, straight from the psychological quackery of the early 20th century. Although in the 1970s many women "chose" to be lesbians for political reasons, it's likely they were gay in the first place. Being gay was extremely dangerous for previous generations, and still is in many parts of the USA and the world today. The fact that even when people are likely to be beaten up or killed for practicing homosexual acts, people continue to do such acts, and to me this is proof that being gay is not a choice for most.

The bottom line is no one really knows why some people are gay and others are not. Some scientists suspect exposure to hormones in the womb, or genetics, or a combination. Same with bisexuality.
 
But how in the devil could a homosexual person get "gay genes" from two heterosexual biological parents? I think there is much more to human attraction than merely having a hot dog shaped thing or a lips shaped thing in the groin region.
 
But how in the devil could a homosexual person get "gay genes" from two heterosexual biological parents? I think there is much more to human attraction than merely having a hot dog shaped thing or a lips shaped thing in the groin region.
The same way a person gets any other genetic factors. How does a blue-eyed person get born to two parents with green eyes? Because the parents have recessive traits that have skipped a generation. So, if you are looking at it from a purely genetic standpoint, it's entirely possible for heterosexual parents to carry a "gay gene." However, if you are equating the act of a man and woman having sex as the sole indication that they are heterosexual, we all know there are many men (and women) who have had traditional nuclear families only later in life to "come out of the closet." All that's required to create a child is the union of a sperm and egg and that does not require strict heterosexuality.
 
Have you ever put a magnet on an old tube TV which it was switched on? I discovered magnets living in car speakers when I ‘explored’ a junkyard as a kid. After sticking the magnet to everything else, I put it by and then on the TV tube and the picture got weird and the colors flowed around with the magnet and when I took away the magnet, the picture didn’t go back exactly as it was originally until after the TV had been left turned off for a while.

All life creates an electromagnetic field. When we are closer to other people and trees and rocks and rivers, our electromagnetic field responds to the changed local environment. Emotionally charged events interact with our ability to generate our electromagnetic field, heart rate/pressure brain patterns gut/vagal response. The intensity and frequency of the event or stimulus pattern leaves an enduring change.

The magnet on the TV is CSA or whatever and the picture changes from exposure.

Leave predisposition and genetics aside for a moment and I see a sequence of events that can’t not have an ongoing influence regardless of the initial conditions. Especially if the event get replayed in memory, consciously or unconsciously,
 
Have you ever put a magnet on an old tube TV which it was switched on? I discovered magnets living in car speakers when I ‘explored’ a junkyard as a kid. After sticking the magnet to everything else, I put it by and then on the TV tube and the picture got weird and the colors flowed around with the magnet and when I took away the magnet, the picture didn’t go back exactly as it was originally until after the TV had been left turned off for a while.

All life creates an electromagnetic field. When we are closer to other people and trees and rocks and rivers, our electromagnetic field responds to the changed local environment. Emotionally charged events interact with our ability to generate our electromagnetic field, heart rate/pressure brain patterns gut/vagal response. The intensity and frequency of the event or stimulus pattern leaves an enduring change.

The magnet on the TV is CSA or whatever and the picture changes from exposure.

Leave predisposition and genetics aside for a moment and I see a sequence of events that can’t not have an ongoing influence regardless of the initial conditions. Especially if the event get replayed in memory, consciously or unconsciously,
 
The same way a person gets any other genetic factors. How does a blue-eyed person get born to two parents with green eyes? Because the parents have recessive traits that have skipped a generation. So, if you are looking at it from a purely genetic standpoint, it's entirely possible for heterosexual parents to carry a "gay gene." However, if you are equating the act of a man and woman having sex as the sole indication that they are heterosexual, we all know there are many men (and women) who have had traditional nuclear families only later in life to "come out of the closet." All that's required to create a child is the union of a sperm and egg and that does not require strict heterosexuality.
Bruh, what you said!! We apply labels to ourselves as societal expedient (default if nothing else said, assume 'straight' applies). But we have no friggin idea of anyone's thoughts, feelings, attractions, sexual urges that they may act on or suppress, their actual behaviour - what sexual acts they're doing (or not doing) with whomever they may be doing it with. And whatever may accurately describe all of those components of sexuality at an given time are not fixed to have been true in the past or will be the case in the future (for anyone including ourselves).
Yes, there are subsets in any population who may 'fit' a stereotype more overtly (e.g. an effeminate boy or girl who is a tomboy who may have an indeterminable neurochemical or genetic disposition to sexually be attracted to people of same gender). Even if that applies or they identify as gay, it doesn't mean anyone knows anything about their sexuality, what characteristics they're attracted to, their fantasies or actual sexual behaviour. Corollary to that: does being a 'feminine female' or a 'masculine male' , as a child or adult, indicate anything about their sexual orientation, either an identity they claim or could be applied to behavior that may not comply with presumed 'straightness'?
It is not uncommon for a person to discover they're attracted to an individual outside of the gender attraction they had thought defined their sexual orientation.
And all of that is just in reference to cisgender men and women; all the labels go out the window for someone of a gender variant.

As to people with dogmatic religious views defining 'normal' sexuality based on some translated passage written in ancient languages many centuries ago, I will quote the Bard: "the devil may cite scripture for his purpose."
 
I've been told that domineering, bitchy or militant women "drive men to be gay". We have evolved to where women aren't sweet, gentle and submissive as they used to be. There may be sociological factors.
@AmbroseJohnson - not hating on you , dude, but as to what you've 'been told', I myself have been told that a lot of people repeat things they've 'been told' , with no consideration of context, possible biases of the party that 'been tolded' them, other possibilities or thoughts that differ, or any objective evidence to support that thing they're repeating that they'd 'been tolded'.
You are more than welcome to share thoughts and ideas you've been thinking on, and there have been interesting engaged responses on the thread you opened with your first post. But in that sharing, it would reflect well on you to be posting with the intent of opening your mind to other perspectives (as opposed to posting to assert that what you've 'been told' is more than some postulation or opinion and should be accepted as 'truth').
Take care of yourself, bro.
 
No root cause to me. It’s just how i was born just like others who are heterosexual. I dont think the stuff I experienced as a kid caused me to be gay. Did it cause sexual issues that impact me even today, yes. Did i struggle over being gay in my late teens and 20’s yes a lot. I asked why am i like this, yes. It was not what I wanted. But i can say i did learn thought therapy its not a choice and is just who I am.
 
But how in the devil could a homosexual person get "gay genes" from two heterosexual biological parents? I think there is much more to human attraction than merely having a hot dog shaped thing or a lips shaped thing in the groin region.
there are evolutionary reasons for homosexuality. I think it is conplex could be one or a combination of factors that result in people being gay; ie. genetics, hormones in utero, nurture, nature. It definately isn’t a choice or some strange idea we concoct.
 
No root cause to me. It’s just how i was born just like others who are heterosexual. I dont think the stuff I experienced as a kid caused me to be gay. Did it cause sexual issues that impact me even today, yes. Did i struggle over being gay in my late teens and 20’s yes a lot. I asked why am i like this, yes. It was not what I wanted. But i can say i did learn thought therapy its not a choice and is just who I am.

You did not "want to be" a homosexual because of how negatively homosexuals were treated. It wasn't YOUR fault. People were once drafted into the army but did not want to be soldiers in the first place. It was not a personal choice. Some of these draftees did in fact become good soldiers and brave decorated heroes.

We are all dealt a hand of cards by fate. When life hands you lemons, make lemon-meringue pie!! When life hands you peach pits and cherry pits, plant them and cultivate them with loving care to later on enjoy the sweet and juicy fruits of your labors!!!

My mother was a liberal. I once made a comment against feminism in my late teens and my mother took that as hatred for women. She suggested sarcastically that I move to San Francisco to "become a homosexual" because "I liked boys so much". Anyway, why should there even be "special places" on the map for people of certain sexual orientations? Does hatred of a certain sex even have anything to do with sexual orientation?
 
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You did not "want to be" a homosexual because of how negatively homosexuals were treated.
I definitely can relate. I wanted to be gay, before puberty also, but knew that I would be hated by family and friends. I wanted to be with boys and have them love me.
 
Genetics, full stop, nothing but genetics. Did my abuse influnce my sexuality? Yes, 100% it did but it didn't make me gay. It made me angry and scared and it filled me with self doubt. But it did not make me gay.
 
She suggested sarcastically that I move to San Francisco to "become a homosexual" because "I liked boys so much".
Well, that's obviously hate speech - against you. She wasn't much of a person to say those things to you.
Anyway, why should there even be "special places" on the map for people of certain sexual orientations?
When you are part of an extremely oppressed minority, it makes sense that you'd want to be around people like you who are also part of that minority. It's not sinister, it's self-protection.
Does hatred of a certain sex even have anything to do with sexual orientation?
I don't think so, no.
 
You did not "want to be" a homosexual because of how negatively homosexuals were treated. It wasn't YOUR fault. People were once drafted into the army but did not want to be soldiers in the first place. It was not a personal choice. Some of these draftees did in fact become good soldiers and brave decorated heroes.
Exactly the way gay people were spoked about in Texas and how they were made out to be sick or bad or perverts is the reason i had a major struggle with it. I am happy to be who i am now and wish i had found that confidence in my teens but that would have been very difficult out of fear of being beating up at school.

I had enlisted in the Air Force but this was before dont ask dont tell so I panicked when i was going to be giving a polygraph for the filed i was going in to. My blood pressure shot crazy high and was put in med and on meds and still had issues. I lied on the question about have sex with someone of the same sex and about bedwetting after the age i think 10 was the age on the question, So after 3 weeks in med hold i just told the Dr. I need to get out. He did not ask any questions just said ok and i was giving an entry level separation. I regret it in that I really had wanted to be in the Air Force and had pictured it being a career.
 
I went into the army in 1988. I was asked if I was a homosexual and said no. In fact, I thought of myself as a bisexual then. I was never asked about bisexuality. I heard a lot of negative things said about homosexuality when I was in but I stayed in the "bi closet" for all my 7 years in service. I tried to appear to others to be strictly heterosexual on the surface. I was from California and heard all the "queer" jokes about California.

I had a two-seat automobile: a Corvette. If I gave another guy a ride in the "b_tch" seat, there were humorous implications about homosexuality but it was all in lightened-up fun.

There was a discussion about DADT in the mid-1990's at my unit and another young soldier said he didn't think homosexuals should be in the military.

One time, another male soldier was lying supine on his back with his legs spread duing first aid training. I glanced toward his groin area and all sorts of humourous giggling was going on. The soldier lying down was acting embarrassed too with a stupid grin. There is a lot of immaturity in the military. Insecurity if you know what I mean.

I had army "buddy" who turned out to be a Christian phanatical homophobe extrordinaire. In Germany we went down town to drink, look for women, whatever. We came to a bar and I was about to open the door and walk in. My "buddy" then noticed a sign on the door that had the word "GAY" printed on it. He shouted, "Let's get away!" He suddenly took off running like a little girl who just met Bigfoot in the woods. Like a monkey-see-monkey-do idiot, I hastilly followed right behind him down the street in the city of Nurenburg. It wasn't the homosexual bar sign that was embarrassing to me; it was this childish behavior of an American army man supposed to be in his 20's. I myself was age 30 then. I never told him how embarrassed I was about this. I did not want to go inside that particular bar at the time anyway: I would have just civillly walked away, words unsaid, from an establishment I did not want visit once I recognized the nature of it.

Being a bisexual man, I still don't want to visit gay bars. It's just not my style. Of course, being in the Army back in 1994 still under DADT then, I could not have gone into a gay bar as an off-duty soldier, especially with a homophobic Army buddy present, even if I had been personally interested. I did not find Germans attractive anyway and I would still rather find a partner in a more wholesome setting than a drinking establishment.
 
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