Well, my ex-best friend, now a practicing homosexual, has home problems, as well. He doesn't believe that they affected his orientation, either...he thinks that he was "born gay." But I know that that was not the case.
Several things can lead to homosexual orientation. Perhaps the most common are :
1.) bad relationship with father
2.) sexual molestation
3.) peer rejection
4.) adultery within the family
Sadly, my friend suffered all of these - though they weren't obvious to him, they are obvious to me.
My friend has never had a good relationship with his father. His father believes that men should be, well, manly. Men should grow up to become automechanics or business leaders. And, when his son showed interest to do otherwise, to do anything that was held to be "unacceptable" for a man, he would hit him. He once told me, "He held me by the arm and beat me with a baseball bat." He was 7 years old.
I don't think they've ever had an intimate conversation with one another - usually, neither of his parents show any interest in what he does at all. He only eats one meal a day. He weighs little over 100 pounds, and his growth has been stunted by food deprivation. He has anorexic tendencies - he thinks that he is fat. The doctor said that he will probably eventually contract muscular dystrophy because of his condition.
As a child, my friend was sexually molested by another boy whom he went to school with. By the age of 5, he had engaged in "oral sex" with this other boy. Most probably, the boy who did these acts with my friend was molested by an adult, and performed this with my friend because he thought that he was showing affection to him. This gives him an excuse to say "I was born this way. I've loved boys for as long as I can remember."
Also, as a child, my friend was made fun of by his peers. When he was very young, he was fat. When he grew older, he lost weight, but remained very short (5'3"). His voice hardly changed when he hit puberty, and other boys always teased him because of that. He has two sisters, both of whom hold a striking resemblance to his father. He looks like his mother spit him out of her mouth.
Recently, just before my friend became fully engaged in the homosexual lifestyle, his parents almost got a divorce because his father had gone to a late nite strip club and had sex with a woman whom he met there.
Now, my friend is a homosexual because he feels that he can only "be a man" by having sex with other men. He was always teased by other boys for being "fat" or "short" or having a high voice or looking like his mother. He was around an unaffectionate, uncaring father, who cheated on his mother and beat him as a child. He took part in sexual acts at a very young age most likely because his friend had been a victim of sexual molestation. And now, he has very low self-esteem, and has taken the feminine role in his homosexual relationship. It is the only way that he can find to be a real man.
True, homosexual orientation doesn't always happen to children from stormy homes who were teased in elementary school. My boyfriend, for example, was heavy as a child. He also has a semi-high voice. His parents are divorced. He was always teased as a child, and now he has many, many problems as a result of his low self-esteem, and has started seeing a psychologist for help. But he's not a homosexual!
I guess a lot of it depends on how you cope.
*Tiffany*