[Mb-civic] What Makes People Gay? - The Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

What Makes People Gay?
The debate has always been that it was either all in the child's 
upbringing or all in the genes. But what if it's something else?

<>By Neil Swidey  |  August 14, 2005 - The Boston Globe

With crystal-blue eyes, wavy hair, and freshly scrubbed faces, the boys 
look as though they stepped out of a Pottery Barn Kids catalog. They are 
7-year-old twins. I'll call them Thomas and Patrick; their parents 
agreed to let me meet the boys as long as I didn't use their real names.

Spend five seconds with them, and there can be no doubt that they are 
identical twins - so identical even they can't tell each other apart in 
photographs. Spend five minutes with them, and their profound 
differences begin to emerge.

Patrick is social, thoughtful, attentive. He repeatedly addresses me by 
name. Thomas is physical, spontaneous, a bit distracted. Just minutes 
after meeting me outside a coffee shop, he punches me in the upper arm, 
yells, "Gray punch buggy!" and then points to a Volkswagen Beetle 
cruising past us. It's a hard punch. They horse around like typical 
brothers, but Patrick's punches are less forceful and his voice is 
higher. Thomas charges at his brother, arms flexed in front of him like 
a mini-bodybuilder. The differences are subtle - they're 7-year-old 
boys, after all - but they are there.

When the twins were 2, Patrick found his mother's shoes. He liked 
wearing them. Thomas tried on his father's once but didn't see the point.

When they were 3, Thomas blurted out that toy guns were his favorite 
things. Patrick piped up that his were the Barbie dolls he discovered at 
day care.

When the twins were 5, Thomas announced he was going to be a monster for 
Halloween. Patrick said he was going to be a princess. Thomas said he 
couldn't do that, because other kids would laugh at him. Patrick seemed 
puzzled. "Then I'll be Batman," he said.

Their mother - intelligent, warm, and open-minded - found herself 
conflicted. She wanted Patrick - whose playmates have always been girls, 
never boys - to be himself, but she worried his feminine behavior would 
expose him to ridicule and pain. She decided to allow him free 
expression at home while setting some limits in public.


http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/08/14/what_makes_people_gay/

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