People even typed “Is he gay?” - a fairly bizarre search - into Google more commonly than “Is she gay?” People had more questions about husbands, dads, uncles, and grandfathers than about wives, mothers, aunts, or grandmothers. After Bridges first started looking at search volumes for “Is my son gay?” in 2016, fellow sociologist Mónica Caudillo and doctoral candidate and Emma Mishel extended that research and noted that the same gender gap apparent in searches about children’s sexuality was also noticeable in regards to searches about adults. Still, parents have clearly not stopped Googling this question behind closed doors. That’s partially why experts warn that there’s one sign of homosexuality parents should look out for. While some progressive parents might be curious about their effeminate sons, it seems likely (given that rankings are affected by clickthrough rates for stories) that genuinely anxious parents are turning to search engines for help. It is probably not a coincidence that the top search ranking for “Is My Son Gay?” is a bigoted Focus on the Family post about mourning. It’s that applying broadly drawn conclusions to specific children doesn’t work and can be harmful.Įssentially, the attempt to figure out if young kids are gay is a stereotype-fueled fool’s errand at best and a stigmatizing act of insecurity at worst. The problem with the premise of “ prehomosexuality,” an outdated field of inquiry popular in the 1980s and 1990s, isn’t that correlations are impossible to understand. While some research has found that gender-nonconforming behavior in kids may mean they’re more likely to grow up gay or trans, it’s not quite that simple.Īny findings on the subject invariably come with the caveat that this data represents averages and isn’t ultimately applicable on the individual level.
And questions about the sexuality of sons were far more common than more generic searches about having a gay child or queries about having a gay daughter.īridges, who studies gender identity and coauthored the book Exploring Masculinities: Identity, Inequality, Continuity and Change, was surprised by his findings. Bridges discovered that parents were Googling “Is my son gay?” 28 times more often than “Is my son a genius?” - accounting for thousands of searches a month (including variants). The issues of sexual orientation and sexual behavior (as well as the points they differ and overlap) still require further research and are more complex than most believe.When sociologist Tristan Bridges read a New York Times story about how often parents ask Google if their kids are geniuses - 2.5 times more often if their kids are male - he had another question: How often do parents ask Google if their kids are gay? A lot, as it turns out. Politics is all about rights and bills, which genuinely affect people the most.
Though, it’s worth mentioning that the recent year saw a rise of several pro-LGBT religious groups, including individual churches, synagogues, and denominations. Religion comes from the perspective of religious fundamentalism. Healthcare is all about biology, particularly neurobiological research, and our psychosexual development studied by Freud. As every field brings its side of sexuality to the front, and none take a comprehensive approach. And we doubt they’ll achieve a common ground anytime in the future. Is it a choice or a predisposition? The best minds of our world have not come to a unanimous conclusion yet. Numerous scientists, psychologists, healthcare professionals, and even religious activists are debating the nature of homosexuality (as well as other kinds of sexuality). Why am I gay ? That is a question that is even harder to answer.