If a young boy likes fashion and playing "house" more than he likes fighting and sports, he’s going to be gay when he grows up. Likewise, almost all adult lesbians were tomboys when they were young, more interested in playing baseball with boys than playing with dolls.
Such statements reinforce long-existing stereotypes about gay men and lesbians. But some researchers now say the notion that gay men are innately more effeminate than straight men, and lesbians are naturally more butch than heterosexual women, may be grounded in science.
Gerulf Rieger, a psychology doctoral student at Northwestern University, conducted a pair of studies looking at whether gay men and lesbians could be differentiated from their straight counterparts based on how masculine or feminine their mannerisms were as a child. In one study examining whether a child’s gender identity can predict his or her sexual orientation as an adult, Rieger collected childhood home videos from gay men, lesbians and heterosexual men and women.
A separate group of participants watched the videos and rated the masculinity and femininity of each child. Rieger analyzed the ratings to determine if the men who grew up to be gay were rated more effeminate as boys, and whether the girls who grew up to be lesbian displayed character traits rated as more masculine.
"It was true for most gay people that they were gender non-conforming when they were kids," says Rieger, who conducted the yet-to-be-published study as part of his doctoral dissertation. "The trends we find, of course, are not perfect — they don’t mean every single person falls into the stereotypical pattern.
"You might be able to pick one out that is not gender non-conforming, but frankly, most of the gay men and lesbians I’ve seen did fit the stereotype as chi
ldren," adds Rieger, who is gay.
Rieger also casts doubts on the heterosexuality of any adult man who admits that as a child he was more interested in activities typically associated with girls.
"Frankly, if as a little boy, he was totally into fashion and playing with dolls, I would question whether he is straight, because gender non-conformity is so well linked to sexual orientation that I would doubt that he is seriously straight," Rieger says.
Rieger’s research was profiled during a recent episode of the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes," during which Rieger — along with his academic mentor, Northwestern professor J. Michael Bailey — explored whether gay people were genetically predisposed to adopt interests and mannerisms that weren’t typical for their gender.
"Those kids [featured in the home video study] who became gay were rated more gender non-conforming in their childhood, and the difference occurred before [age] 2 or 3, which is fascinating," Rieger says. "If the differences show up that early, the inference that it’s environment-based is faulty."
In the home video study, participants rated each child on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 designating the "most gender-conforming" behavior, 7 representing the "least gender-conforming" behavior, and a score of 4 representing the middle ground, or gender-neutral behavior.
The viewers gave the boys who grew up to be straight an average rating of 3.4, compared to the 4.3 average rating for the boys who eventually identified as gay. Girls who later identified as heterosexual received an average rating of 3.1, compared to a 4.0 average rating for girls who became lesbians.
The results of the video study virtually mirrored the data from an earlier experiment by Rieger, which was designed to see if gay adults showed detectable differences in their levels of masculinity or femininity compared to heterosexual adults.
In that study, Rieger conducted videotaped interviews with gay men, lesbians and heterosexual men and women, then altered the tapes so that no voices could be heard. The images of those interviewed were converted into indiscernible silhouettes.
A separate group, using the same 1 to 7 scale to measure gender-conformity, watched the videos and rated whether the body language and mannerisms of each silhouette was masculine or feminine.
Viewers rated the average straight man 3.2, compared to 4.5 for the average gay man, and the average straight woman received a 3.1 rating, compared to the 4.7 rating given to the average lesbian.
"Those people who watched the clips could discern from gay and straight people," Rieger says. "I know people are interested in the fact that there are differences between gay and straight people, and although they may be subtle, you can spot them fairly quickly."
Rieger’s hypothesis contradicts lesbian Rachael Smith’s life experience. Growing up in central Florida, Smith says she was "an intensely feminine child."
"I had, much to my delight, a white, four-poster canopy bed with a white faux fur and pink satin comforter, and matching pink satin sheets, pillowcases and curtains," Smith remembers.
Despite her feminine ways —-which would be considered gender conforming for a young girl —-Smith says her earliest romantic crushes were directed toward other girls, most of whom were more masculine.
"My femininity always seemed like a good balance to their gender presentation, and I never felt any ‘less gay’ because of my girlishness," Smith says.
Smith doesn’t consider a child’s gender expression to be a telling sign of what his or her sexual orientation will be, especially since she knows "hyper-masculine" gay men who grew up playing with G.I. Joes, as well as "hyper-feminine, Barbie-loving" lesbians.
"The bottom line here is that gender and sexuality are their own continuums, and they can intersect at any number of places along the lines," Smith says.
Warren Throckmorton, a psychology professor at Grove City College, a private Christian school in Pennsylvania, focuses his research on homosexuality and sexual development. He also disagrees with Rieger’s suggestion that all people who don’t conform with gender norms are likely homosexual, calling the hypothesis "pretty presumptuous, really."
"I think that’s taking the research and over-generalizing," Throckmorton says. "There are many exceptions as well —-there are gay men who are not only masculine in their gender identity, but they also have gender-typical interests; and there are men who have artistic preferences who don’t have erotic attraction toward other men."
Parents should avoid having "the mindset that if my kid is not inte
