Allow me to use my biological family as micro study. My older brother has been married 4 times, I was gay, my sister (next in order) cannot maintain a relationship with a man, has had an abortion and is a miserable obese harridan who is sexually attracted to but hates men; the surviving twin has been married twice and the youngest twin died of AIDS in 1995. My sister, youngest brother and I have similar personalities, my two straight brothers also have similar personalities the way people react to life is determined by how they perceive and react to their situation and circumstances.
Studies have shown that children raised in single parent homes don’t adjust to society as well as children raised in “traditional” families. This is one reason some heterosexual’s oppose gay couples adopting children. It is not the lack of a man (father) in the home that I am referring to it is a lack of a “relationship” with the father. This can be overcome through relationships with uncles, grandfathers, etc.
I have a lesbian niece, a beautiful girl who was sexually molested by her mother’s adult cousin when she was nine, the same year her parent’s divorced. My brother’s second wife treated her with contempt calling her ugly, etc. my brother said some things that did not affirm her as a woman. His oldest son has rejected his father, his youngest daughter is divorced, and his youngest son married a Mormon girl who leads him around by his nose.
I have a lesbian cousin (she is my great aunt’s youngest daughter but she is one year younger than I am) who was raised in an abusive family. Her oldest brother sexually molested his two sisters. Her father was an alcoholic wife beater. Her oldest brother has been married a couple of times, has 2 sons (both gay) and one daughter who has disowned him. Her older sister married a man 15 years her senior she could control. They have 3 children, one son is gay, the other son has remained single, and the daughter is married. Her other brother has one son who is ex-gay (although he denies every being gay) and married.
The one common denominator of all my gay and lesbian relatives is personality and our relationships or lack of relationships with our father’s. I know some gay activist’s would point to a genetic predisposition to homosexuality, however, this is indicative of a genetic personality trait. All of my gay and lesbian relatives are on my mother’s side of the family. Dean Hamer tried to prove a genetic link through the mother as the existence of a gay gene, but he ignored the possibility of this being a gene that affects personality not sexuality. Our personalities are genetic, however, they are also molded by environment in conjunction with experience.