Is being gay hereditary?

[QueenEagle]

Some years ago, it was big news that a "gay gene" from the mother was responsible for your kids being gay. I didn't think it was true at the time.

But I wonder if it might be true now. dd's uncle is gay, and I have always had leanings that way but never really acknowledged them til recently. dd is currently openly experimenting with a same sex relationship and today ds2 said he wants to be a girl.

So it got me thinking....are you born with your sexuality fixed or is it your environment? In my household it seems very likely that I might be attending at least a couple civil partnerships in the future!

What's your view?

i think there must be something in it, this is how it goes in my family.
On my dads side, my grandmas brother was gay,(my great uncle) my grandma had 3 sons , two of them are gay(one of these is my dad)
The brother that is not gay has two sons, both of them are gay(my cousins)
My brother at one time thought he was gay but is now happily married with a baby(proberbly confused)
I am not gay but if i was i would definately fancy Angelina Jolie and Seven of nine from star trek !!!

This has been a topic of some discussion in our household for some time as DH has one sister and five female cousins, my sil and 3 cousins are gay! no gay men in the family that we are aware of though, the joke is that if dd turns out to be gay we'll know where the genes come from! I think where homosexuality seems to run in families it could be a sociological thing too, as if once one has run the gauntlet it becomes more acceptable for others to follow their true feelings too. In my opinion there are many totally straight and totally gay people out there but for a hell of a lot of people there is a big grey area where you just fall in love with /are attracted to the people you fall in love with etc and it is becoming more acceptable for this to be either sex. Which is no bad thing.

As ELF said, I think we all have a slight leaning towards both sexes deep down, whether acknowledged or not; however the reason homosexuality may 'run in families' could be because if someone in your family is openly gay then you feel more accepted, not so stigmatised, so more likely to be able to be yourself instead of hiding away. Does that make sense?

I wanna be a fish