Gay link found to older brothers (Australian, 26 Jun 2006, Page 5)

Gay link found to older brothers
Leigh Dayton D.D. McNicoll
Australian
26 Jun 2006


BOYS with a number of older brothers are more likely to grow up to be gay than those with few older brothers, younger brothers or sisters of any age.



And for each additional older brother, a boy’s chance of being homosexual increases by a third, according to a Canadian study of 1000 men.



Anthony Bogaert — a psychologist specialising in human sexuality at Brock University in Ontario — reports the findings this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science .



Associate Professor Bogaert found the effect was consistent regardless of education, family structure and other social or



psychological factors.



Ten years ago, Professor Bogaert and Ray Blanchard of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto first reported the finding that the more older bothers a boy has, the more likely he is to be gay.



Since then, other researchers have found the same thing, but what caused it was unclear. Some experts thought it was due to the amount of time boys spent with their older
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