How do you know if your son is gay

By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Young children of both sexes enjoy pretend play, but the roles within the fantasy context are gender-segregated by age two.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule; it is only when comparing the aggregate data that sex differences leap into the stratosphere of statistical significance. These behavioral patterns are feared, loathed and often spoken of directly as harbingers of adult homosexuality.

Early signs to tell : 11, , AM PDT / Source: TODAY Alexander

But predicting sexual preference is still an inexact science. If your son likes sissy stuff or your daughter shuns feminine frocks, he or she is more likely to buck the heterosexual norm. In looking carefully at the childhoods of gay adults, researchers are finding an intriguing set of behavioral indicators that homosexuals seem to have in common.

In innumerable studies, scientists have documented that these sex differences are largely impervious to learning. Michael Bailey and Kenneth J. Zucker, both psychologists, published a seminal paper on childhood markers of homosexuality in Bailey and Zucker examined sex-typed behavior—that long, now scientifically canonical list of innate sex differences in the behaviors of young males versus young females.

He's mentioned the subject several times, so I'm getting concerned. We all know the stereotypes: an unusually light, delicate, effeminate air in a little boy's step, an interest in dolls, makeup, princesses and dresses, and a strong distaste for rough play with other boys.

Getty Images. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. Not surprisingly, therefore, boys naturally select other boys for playmates, and girls would much rather play with other girls.

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In little girls, there is the outwardly boyish stance, perhaps a penchant for tools, a square-jawed readiness for physical tussles with boys, and an aversion to all the perfumed, delicate trappings of femininity. Parent Suspects That Child Might Be Gay If I think that my teen might be same-sex attracted, how should I talk to him about it?

If your son likes sissy stuff or your daughter shuns feminine frocks, he or she is more likely to buck the heterosexual norm. So on the basis of some earlier, shakier research, along with a good dose of common sense, Bailey and Zucker hypothesized that homosexuals would show an inverted pattern of sex-typed childhood behaviors—little boys preferring girls as playmates and becoming infatuated with their mother's makeup kit; little girls strangely enamored of field hockey or professional wrestling—that sort of thing.

Empirically, the authors explain, there are two ways to investigate this hypothesis, with either a prospective or retrospective study. Toy interests are another key sex difference, with boys gravitating toward toy machine guns and monster trucks and girls orienting toward baby dolls and hyperfeminized figurines.

This method is not terribly practical for several reasons. By Jesse Bering. Sometimes, you might just have a feeling that a family member of yours is LGBT. It is only relatively recently, however, that developmental scientists have conducted controlled studies to identify the earliest and most reliable signs of adult homosexuality.

But predicting sexual preference is still an inexact science. The most salient differences are in the domain of play. Girls enact the role of, say, cooing mothers, ballerinas or fairy princesses, and boys prefer to be soldiers and superheroes.

Curiously enough, the age-old homophobic fears of many parents reflect some genuine predictive currency.

Using the prospective method, young children displaying sex-atypical patterns are followed into adolescence and early adulthood so that their sexual orientation can be assessed at maturity. Whatever the reason, there isn't a surefire way to figure out if a family member is LGBT; however, there are ways to find evidence that your family member is a part of the LGBT community and to let them know you support them.

They are also found in every culture examined.