Is There a Causal Link Between Childhood Gender Nonconformity and Adult Homosexuality?

Abstract

The correlation between childhood gender conformity or nonconformity and adult sexual orientation is well established. A meta-analysis of 48 studies with sample sizes ranging from 34 to 8,751 confirmed that gay men and lesbians were more likely to recall gender-nonconforming behaviors and interests in childhood than were heterosexual men and women. The Exotic-Becomes-Erotic (EBE) theory proposes a single unitary explanation for both opposite-sex and same-sex desire, asserting that the same developmental pathway accounts for both heterosexual and homosexual orientations for both men and women. The theory proposes that exotic becomes erotic because feeling different from a class of peers in childhood produces heightened nonspecific physiological arousal which is subsequently transformed into erotic attraction. Perhaps the most obvious intervention strategy suggested by EBE theory is to attenuate a child’s gender nonconformity. Of course, the society hardly needed EBE theory to suggest it.