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From: jmast@unix.cis.pitt.edu (John M Allen)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.med,sci.psychology,soc.motss
Subject: Re: The persistance of homosexuality in a gene pool
Message-ID: <26392@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Date: 1 Aug 90 18:36:25 GMT
References: <32214@cup.portal.com> <1619@oravax.UUCP> <8250@pitt.UUCP> <1990Jul31.012219.3299@ariel.unm.edu>
Reply-To: jmast@unix.cis.pitt.edu (John M Allen)
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Services
Lines: 56

In article <1990Jul31.012219.3299@ariel.unm.edu> mwfolsom@hydra.unm.edu
(Mike Folsom) writes:
>
>To add my two cents.  I have been keeping an informal record fo MZ   
>lesgay twins for years.  So far out of about 6 MZ twins I have found 
>only one who "says" that his brother is straight. 
>

   Being a gay man with an identical twin, I thought that I would add
my two cents worth.

   I think that part of the reason that there is not total concord
between the sexualities of MZ twins is that people are forgetting to
take some factors into account.  One of these is that the genotype
allows a range of phenotypes which could account for some of the
discrepencies.  Another complicating factor is that orientation is not
equivalent to sexual behavior.  My own situation is a case in point.

   I have had relationships with members of both sexes, but I have a
distinct preference for men.  As far as I know, my brother, J, has only
had one relationship and that is with his wife.  All other things being
equal, this could be explained by assuming that our genotype was for
bisexuality and various environmental influences pushed me toward the
homosexual and J toward the heterosexual end of the spectrum.  I think
that this would partially explain why it took me so long to come out
(at the age of 24).

   Some additional information changes the picture.  J joined the
Mormon Church during our freshman year in college.  A book I am reading
suggests that gay men who are trying to suppress their sexuality often
join fundamentalists religions because the clear demarcation between
good and evil helps them to maintain the demarcation between them and
their sexuality making it easier to objectify and then reject this part
of them.  That J once told me, "I thought I was gay for awhile, but
then I found religion," indicates that this may be the case here.

   I think that S, J's wife, recognizes, but is unwilling to admit, the
possibility that J is gay.  My brother, F, who is also gay, seems to
get along quite well with S, but S seems to act very cold to me.  The
only reason I can see for this is that I am both gay and her husband's
identical twin.  I think that to her I embody the worst that could
happen with J.

   To sum up, I feel that our genotype lies on the homosexual side of
the spectrum and that our phenotype allows us to function as
heterosexuals and may in fact mean that J is a true bisexual.  J's
involvement in the Mormon church helps him to suppress any homosexual
feelings that he may have.

\		 |  |			John Allen
 \		\ ||			allen@mercutio.lcl.cmu.edu
/ \					jmast@unix.cis.pitt.edu

"Some day I'll dance among the stars and shower burning desire among
the clouds, but today I dance upon the earth and feel its mud between
my toes and the wind blow through my soul."  ---Ry Schwark