Do You Have Gay Siblings?

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Are you a gay man and, if so, do you also have a gay brother?.. . That familial pattern is surprisingly common among gay men..In fact, the overall incidence of non-traditional sexual orientations in the same family is higher than we might ordinarily expect.. . For example, the landlord in my rental property in Provincetown grew up in Brockton, Mass., just south of Boston, and is friends with a family where all 4 of its sons are gay.. . A friend from NYC who introduced me to his 84 y.o. great uncle and his 79 y.o. partner of almost 58 years in Palm Springs two years ago informed me at the time that there were 8 LGBTQ members in his extended family.. . In investigating this topic, I came cross news of a 2006 research study under the auspices of the National Academy of Science, which found that the more older brothers a boy has, the more of a chance that boy will be attracted to men. In fact, with each brother, the chance that a man will be gay goes up by about a third (scientists think they have a biological explanation as to why this pattern happens, and it starts long before birth). . Clearly, this pattern is not absolute: I am the oldest of three siblings, including a devoutly heterosexual younger brother whose inclinations in that direction were apparent from the age of 7, at least.. . What’s your familial situation in terms of gay siblings?.. . Today’s photo is of my then-22 y.o. brother, Steve; in San Diego in 1977. He’d moved out west from our home in Connecticut earlier that year, chasing an old girlfriend, and ended up needing to undergo back surgery soon afterwards. Here, he’s in the beginning stage of recovery from that operation, as can be detected by the stiffness with which he is posing for my camera.. . #35mm.

A post shared by Mike Balaban (@bammer47) on May 30, 2019 at 12:20pm PDT