Is anyone in your family gay?

[Daisy]

Hi all

I've checked and there are a few threads on this already, but a long time ago so I thought I'd just start a new one.

 

For various reasons I am curious to know how many people in GA have other family members who are also gay/whatever. It can be in the immediate family or the side family or in the past generations....or

 

Myself, my mum isnt very sure what she is. other than that I have no clue about the rest of the family for sure, but I think its no.

 

Just interested,

Celia

Edited July 18, 2008 by AFriendlyFace

[Drewbie]

I have a uncle who is gay, mom (str8) and uncle J's, uncle is gay too. That is a great uncle?

 

someone else might be bi, no idea if that's still the case.

[Daisy]

I kind of want to add the qualifier, if you answered No to the gay question yourself, did you answer yes or no to the family question, but its too late now, sigh. thanks for the answers so far. Celia

[Tiger]

My aunt was a lesbian. I have two cousins who are gay and one I suspect of being bi. Other than that, they're all straight as far as I know.

[Trebs]

Family rumor is that one of my mom's older brothers may have been gay...

[FrenchCanadian]

until the death of my grandma, it was something not to be discussed, but my uncle, my mums youngest bro, died in 1993 of aids and it was caused by his sexuality (in other words he was most likely gay)

[Phantom]

So far it seems i'm the only one in my family that's gay... though I do wonder about my uncle (he's in his late 30's and has never had a girlfriend that me or my dad know of...)

[JamesSavik]

I don't know. Southern families aren't exactly forthcoming about such matters. I suspect because there are parts of the family that seem to avoid other parts so we can't for a union or something.

[Krista]

Well my Brother-in-law is Bi.. does that count? I'm sure there are other family members that are gay in my family, we have a large family so it's just numbers game. Some of our family are open to the idea of people being gay and others are not.

[Ieshwar]

Well, not \"out\" gays anyway. There are a number of uncles who aren\'t married. (that\'s something huge here ) So, perhaps, some in-closet gay uncles?

 

Ieshwar

[AFriendlyFace]

until the death of my grandma, it was something not to be discussed, but my uncle, my mums youngest bro, died in 1993 of aids and it was caused by his sexuality (in other words he was most likely gay)

Errr, not to be rude - especially about such a delicate issue - but I don't think that's phrased quite the way you meant it. Right now it reads such that being gay caused him to contract AIDs and die. It probably lead to his exposure, and I can understand the correlation, but I don't think being gay specifically caused it. The specific cause, IMO, would have been the presumable unprotected sex (just theorizing he may have gotten it in other ways). Also, I'm not trying to criticise him if that was case - back in the day when he likely contracted HIV people weren't as knowledgeable about safer sex practices (because HIV/AIDs wasn't as well known).

 

Anyway, I probably sound pedantic and rude, and I definitely know what you meant, but I just wanted to be explicit that being gay doesn't specifically cause HIV/AIDs - if for no other reason than that someone less informed about these issues might read this thread. Also, I know that likely wasn't what you meant to imply.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, in my family I'm gay obviously and I strongly suspect my cousin is a lesbian, though I have no proof (and would be surprised if she were a practicing lesbian). However, my family is tiny so even one - possibly two - GLBT people in it is statistically significant. Really there's less than 10 in my immediate family on each side, so just the one confirmed case is higher than average .

 

On a side note, because people have to respond to each question in the poll, it's actually slanted toward finding results where none might exist. For example in the second one, even though it says "if yes" you can't leave it blank. So if myself and everyone in my family were completely straight I would have still had to indicate - as the weakest form available - that someone in older generations may have been (even if I had no reason to assume this...though I guess there's probably someone gay in everyone's family tree if you go back far enough).

 

I would suggest the addition of a "N/A" option there, and perhaps also an "Unsure" there and in a couple of other places (like maybe the 2nd to last question)

 

 

Great poll though and interesting discussion!

 

Thanks, Celia

 

Take care all and have a great day

Kevin

Edited July 11, 2008 by AFriendlyFace

[Tarin]

Well, my cousin and I used to search for straight porn together...and we both turned out gay. I always wondered if he was interested in the porn or not.

 

I have several second cousins that I'm curious about, I think they are gay.

 

And my mom's cousin, she has lived with this man for 15 years and they've never had sex as far as anyone can tell...

[kitten]

My brother, who is my only sibling, is gay.

[Daisy]

On a side note, because people have to respond to each question in the poll, it's actually slanted toward finding results where none might exist. For example in the second one, even though it says "if yes" you can't leave it blank. So if myself and everyone in my family were completely straight I would have still had to indicate - as the weakest form available - that someone in older generations may have been (even if I had no reason to assume this...though I guess there's probably someone gay in everyone's family tree if you go back far enough).

 

I would suggest the addition of a "N/A" option there, and perhaps also an "Unsure" there and in a couple of other places (like maybe the 2nd to last question)

 

 

Great poll though and interesting discussion!

 

Thanks, Celia

 

Take care all and have a great day

Kevin

 

Hi kevin, yep I quickly realised that I had created a bad poll. If I could change it I would, but I don't know how to, plus its too late for those who answered already. oh well its my first time creating one, I'll make sure I think it through alot more next time. also realise some people may have children etc who are gay, no option for that either.

 

Celia

Edited July 11, 2008 by Smarties

[sumbloke]

Little brother

Two cousins

Aunt

Uncle

 

That's "legal" family. Solidarity family is so queer it's psychadelic.

[corvus]

As far as I know, I'm the only one; and according to my dad, my family can be traced to the Eastern Zhou dynasty (~770 BC). But I guess that sort of information wasn't written in the family annals.

[BeaStKid]

Since I can't really answer the second question if the answer to the first is not yes, I am posting my reply here.

 

I DON'T KNOW for sure. I mean, who would like to come out in a country where gay sex is illegal? Well, in my family I know of no one who might be gay/bi.

 

And, i am bisexual (heavily leaning male)

 

 

BeaStKid

[NickolasJames8]

My cousin's gay, but sometimes I wonder if he's not asexual since he doesn't date Also, I have an uncle out in Cali that I personally think is gay and deep in the closet because he's 26 and has never had a girlfriend. According to my dad and my other uncle, he's never even looked at a girl. Add to that the fact that he goes out on deep sea fishing trips with lots of men for weeks at a time, and that he's Greek, and everything kinda falls in place IMO.

 

Okay, maybe the Greek thing shouldn't count, but whenever I think about it, I can't help but include it

[Daisy]

Although I said that I was pretty sure that the rest of my family weren't, I also have an uncle who I wondered about. My dad's brother, he's not married, in his 50's and I've never ever seen or heard him talk about girls. My mum tells me that at one point he did have a girlfriend but for some reason it ended. but its funny how we are all speculating . But I think in the end I just decided that it wasnt my business, and really its just as likely he is just a loner or not very good with girls and interacting in general, which fits. if he's happy its good, but I hope he is otherwise I really want him to find someone. Apparently he had a major breakdown years and years ago, and now works for the samaritans in his spare time, so that is likely linked with it all. but anyway, its funny how we are so quick to jump to that assumption.

 

Celia

Edited July 11, 2008 by Smarties

[Rakuten06]

I think I'm the only person in the family who is gay (coincidence that I'm the only deaf member too), but I never asked or looked on them, I just playing and communicating until someone from my family comes out to me, then that counts too. I haven't received it like that...

[Tiger]

Errr, not to be rude - especially about such a delicate issue - but I don't think that's phrased quite the way you meant it. Right now it reads such that being gay caused him to contract AIDs and die. It probably lead to his exposure, and I can understand the correlation, but I don't think being gay specifically caused it.

 

I think he was trying to say that his uncle's death was contributed to unsafe sexual practices, most likely of the male-to-male variety. There is an undeniable higher risk associated, but that does not mean all who have HIV/AIDS are into male-to-male sex or that all of us have it. I don't think Sacha meant it that way.

[Benji]

........I have no clue if anyone in our family tree is gay, not that I could ask anyone anyway.

[steph]

My family doesn't really talk about "this sort of thing". One of my mom's cousins is gay, or at least my mom thinks she is, since she's lived with the same woman for more than a couple decades now. The story, as my mom knows it, is that her cousin was set to marry her boyfriend after high school (both she and my mom graduated in '60), but after high school, she called off the wedding and nothing else was ever really said. I don't know how long she and her partner have been together. Whenever I saw/see them, it was with the entire extended family (which is huge; my grandmother had 7 siblings). The family, as a whole, never really shows any PDA, so it wouldn't be obvious. Her partner is divorced with grown kids.

 

The family also has several males who are in their late 30's-early 40's and still unmarried, but that doesn't mean much, really. I'm #$%@ 34 and never been #$%@ married. But two of these guys I've never seen with with a girlfriend... one is in theater (so, if you want to follow the stereotype!) and the other I strongly believe has aspergers (which would tip the scales toward just being social inept).

 

Most of the rest are married, so we'd never know if they're bi or closeted.

[B1ue]

I tossed in a cousin that isn't actually a relative, and I think there's another (distant) cousin that is a lesbian, but that's about it.

 

That said, I have a huge bloody family, many of them young, so who knows what may come out of the woodwork. And, in fact, I'm not out except to a few individuals in the larger family, mostly because I can't stand most of that family except for said individuals. Actually, I can't stand a few people who do know, but my cousin has loose lips, though I love her anyways. So there are potentially several people that are "family" in my family, and just choose not to say anything about it.

[rknapp]

I have no idea if anyone else in my family is gay. It's just not a topic of discussion. Not that it couldn't ever be a topic, it just never has been.

 

That said, there are a lot of things about my family that I don't know. It seems that I learn one or two new things about my extended family every year lol. I learned at my great uncle Billy's funeral that he was a big man in the military during WWII. He was one stripe away from having the most stripes anyone could ever get... I think in the air force... could be navy, not sure. Before then I only knew that he existed, and now my sister and I are pissed because we could have heard a lot of interesting stories from him and he lived only ~30 minutes away from us in Clark (oddly enough the place where our first family reunion, or "Cousin's Party" was last summer lol).