Same-sex Sexuality and Childhood Gender Non-conformity: A spurious connection

Abstract

Biological and hormonal theories of same-sex sexuality are usually based upon an assumption of congenital gender inversion, that is, that a lesbian is in some way masculinised and a gay man in some way feminised. Commonly, and also because of the assumption of biology, such evidence of gender inversion is sought in childhood. In this paper I present a challenge to the theory that childhood gender non-conformity is associated with homosexuality, noting in particular that discussions of gender non-conformity and 'homosexuality' do not attempt to explain the experiences of heterosexual women. By demonstrating that childhood gender non-conformity has been wrongly associated with same-sex sexuality and posing an alternative explanation for childhood gender non-conformity, it is my intention to present a challenge to the theory that same-sex sexuality is related to congenital gender inversion.