Hello and thank you for being a DL contributor. We are changing the login scheme for contributors for simpler login and to better support using multiple devices. Please click here to update your account with a username and password.

Hello. Some features on this site require registration. Please click here to register for free.

Hello and thank you for registering. Please complete the process by verifying your email address. If you can't find the email you can resend it here.

Hello. Some features on this site require a subscription. Please click here to get full access and no ads for $1.99 or less per month.

Does Gay Run In Your Family?

On my mom's side there's four of us first cousins. I'm gay and my brother and one female cousin is bi and her brother is...well, there's been some examples of "questioning" behaviour.

On my dad's side, there's 8 of us. Again, me and my brother. Then, a female cousin and one of her brothers. Her other brother is definitely a straight. Don't much about the third branch of three; we weren't close to them.

by Anonymousreply 29July 8, 2025 3:47 PM

Annoyingly, my finger slipped and posted before I was done with the poll!! I was gonna add:

"I have gay siblings AND gay cousins"

and

"I have a gay parent!"

by Anonymousreply 1July 8, 2025 12:27 AM

1 straight brother, 1 gay brother, 1 gay aunt. That's all I know of.

I once knew a guy from an old school Italian family with 5 boys - three of them came out, the fourth one came out later but never told his mom because he didn't think she could handle another one. 4 out of 5 brothers.

by Anonymousreply 2July 8, 2025 1:19 AM

I have a gay sister and many gay cousins.

by Anonymousreply 3July 8, 2025 1:25 AM

I read it as:

Does Ray Gun in your family?

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 4July 8, 2025 1:29 AM

Yes! On my mother's side, a lesbian aunt. On my father's side 3 lesbian cousins and 3 gay male cousins + 1 late gay male cousin who wanted to be a woman in the 80s but then died from AIDS.

by Anonymousreply 5July 8, 2025 1:30 AM

Pretty sure they are but repressed it.

Many straights seemed bi except for the societal shunning and pressure.

On those tests where they ask if you're gay, I'm sure many, many lies.

Only the mostly gays has the courage to go with it and lead the way for free closet life.

by Anonymousreply 6July 8, 2025 1:32 AM

I think my dad had a lesbian aunt, but that was the 50s and she never came out. I have one second cousin who is gay and that's all as far as I know. Not many gays in the family.

by Anonymousreply 7July 8, 2025 1:32 AM

Maternal: Great-granduncle (drag queen in Weimar Berlin), 1st cousin (male), 1st cousin (male, bisexual), 2 1st cousins 1x removed (male), 2nd cousin (female)

Paternal: 2nd cousin (male), 1st cousin 2x removed (male), 2 2nd cousins (male), 2nd cousin (female)

by Anonymousreply 8July 8, 2025 1:39 AM

I have three brothers. My oldest brother and I are gay, the other two straight. My Dad had a first cousin who was gay. On the same side of the family I have a first cousin once removed who is gay, andI suspect that another first cousin once removed is a lesbian.

by Anonymousreply 9July 8, 2025 1:49 AM

R6 that's very true - only gays have the courage to go with it and lead the way for free closet life.

There are so many men and women who took the straight path - particularly before 20 years ago.

by Anonymousreply 10July 8, 2025 1:57 AM

Boy, I could write a book on this subject. I've written about this topic before on DL.

On my mother's side of the family, the gays are rampant. My mother's father had 14 brothers and sisters, and my mother had 12 brothers and sisters, so there are numerous uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, and cousins scattered across the US. My mom made it her mission to visit all these families, as she had known many of them since she was a young child. When she would return from a trip, she used the same code language with me: "Oh, you MUST meet your cousin XYZ. (pause, pause). You and he have... SO MUCH IN COMMON!"

It took me a while to figure out what she meant, but she was indeed accurate. For example, I had five cousins in LA - all brothers - and ALL gay!

I had a local cousin (we called him Sonny), 10 years older than me, who would babysit my brother and me when we were young. When Sonny graduated from high school, he went into the army and made a career of it. I never saw him again until he appeared at a funeral of another uncle, along with his "partner." I was shocked to find out he was gay. I mentioned the partner to my mom, who was with me, and she said, "Oh, Sonny's gay? Well, just like his father!"

WHAT!!! My uncle - my mother's brother, with whom she was closest - was also gay? He was married with only the one son. How could I not have known? I could go on.

Well, so much for gaydar. One thing I'm sure of - there is some kind of gay gene.

by Anonymousreply 11July 8, 2025 2:20 AM

Uncle on dad's side, cousin on Mom's side.

A nephew committed suicide as a teen, so he could be another one.

by Anonymousreply 12July 8, 2025 2:37 AM

There was a family in my small hometown with 7 kids and I think 6 were gay.

The parents drank.

by Anonymousreply 13July 8, 2025 2:41 AM

I'm gay. My little sister is a lesbian. Others ha dabbled.

by Anonymousreply 14July 8, 2025 2:42 AM

Of the three of us, my brother and I are gay and my sister will fuck anyone who feeds her addictions.

by Anonymousreply 15July 8, 2025 2:58 AM

My nephew has come out as non-binary - I'm not exactly sure if that means gay or not.

by Anonymousreply 16July 8, 2025 2:59 AM

I have several lesbian cousins, a couple of gay or bi male cousins & a uncle who may have been gay or bi, he had one significant relationship with a woman, never dated again when it ended, Uncle Phil dies in a boating accident in his 30's.

by Anonymousreply 17July 8, 2025 3:10 AM

Do DLers run in your family?

by Anonymousreply 18July 8, 2025 3:11 AM

None that I know of in my family, but I was kept in the dark about the vast majority of my relatives until my aging aunt told me about some of them after my parents died.

I had a friend in college in the 1970s whose parents were devout Catholics. He had four younger brothers. When I came out to him, he told me that two of his brothers were gay, and I met them and became friends with one of them. It was a big help to me because it was so difficult for me to come out at that time. It was a college with over 30,000 students and yet the Gay Student Alliance had very few members.

The straight brother was so chill about me being gay (perhaps because of his brothers) that we even roomed together one semester. Those three siblings made a big difference in my life!

by Anonymousreply 19July 8, 2025 3:14 AM

No offense meant at all, but does trans run in the family? Maybe that’s not so bad if it can be way to find solidarity.

by Anonymousreply 20July 8, 2025 3:39 AM

Yes, at least 3 generations back. Lizzies and pansies in the 20s, out of the closet in the 40s.

by Anonymousreply 21July 8, 2025 3:50 AM

Two bisexual cousins that I know of, one was an older first cousin of my mom's, who sadly passed from AIDS, and the son of his older sister, who I believe married a woman.

by Anonymousreply 22July 8, 2025 4:34 AM

I have a lesbian sister. I had an unmarried great uncle who as I remember was as camp as tits, but it was never confirmed that he was gay.

by Anonymousreply 23July 8, 2025 4:53 AM

I’ve tried to ask a few cousins if they are gay/lesbian. The violent misogynist had gender reassignment surgery and is now a caring human. Unfuckable, but happy!

by Anonymousreply 24July 8, 2025 5:35 AM

My younger sister is a lesbian and my two older brothers are straight.

by Anonymousreply 25July 8, 2025 5:37 AM

I'm the only one in my family of 7, although I think my baby sister dabbled briefly in her early 20s.

7 Cousins, mostly girls, none gay.

Hard to say about ancestors - lots of huge Irish families where many remained unmarried. My grandmother had 10 siblings, but most of the men remained unmarried....hmmm. Several died in their early-mid 20s in the Spanish flu epidemic. On my grandfather's side, 7 siblings - 2 sisters remained unmarried, and one brother. Of my mom's siblings, one aunt became a nun and gave off definite lesbian vibes.

In the next generation, I have one nephew who is gay, and another one who might have dabbled in his early 20s if rumors be true.. Among my cousins, one of them has a gay son, now living a very active gay life in NYC in his early 20s.

But to me, it sounds as though the proportions in my extended family are more or less random and about what you'd expect in a certain-sized group, so if it was gene-related, it was a recessive one for sure.

by Anonymousreply 26July 8, 2025 9:08 AM

I'm the only one in my family of 7, although I think my baby sister dabbled briefly in her early 20s.

7 Cousins, mostly girls, none gay.

Hard to say about ancestors - lots of huge Irish families where many remained unmarried. My grandmother had 10 siblings, but most of the men remained unmarried....hmmm. Several died in their early-mid 20s in the Spanish flu epidemic. On my grandfather's side, 7 siblings - 2 sisters remained unmarried, and one brother. Of my mom's siblings, one aunt became a nun and gave off definite lesbian vibes.

In the next generation, I have one nephew who is gay, and another one who might have dabbled in his early 20s if rumors be true.. Among my cousins, one of them has a gay son, now living a very active gay life in NYC in his early 20s.

But to me, it sounds as though the proportions in my extended family are more or less random and about what you'd expect in a certain-sized group, so if it was gene-related, it was a recessive one for sure.

by Anonymousreply 27July 8, 2025 9:09 AM

My niece became a non-binary lesbian (they-them), but later progressed to a trans-masculine (he/him). Chest surgery, testosterone. Still has sex with only females or other trans-men. I’m waiting on him to decide he needs a tail and wings.

by Anonymousreply 28July 8, 2025 3:20 PM

I am 72 years old and the youngest of 3 children. Neither of my siblings were/are gay. The only gay relatives I personally know about is a late uncle on my father's side, and a female cousin on my mother's side, and a late cousin from The Netherlands on my father's side. All of my aunts and uncles on both sides are long dead. I have had no contact with my extended base of cousins who are scattered all over the world in many years other than one cousin who lives on the island of St. Maarten and a couple others who live in Boston. I would imagine there are several homosexuals in the mix that I am not aware of.

by Anonymousreply 29July 8, 2025 3:47 PM
Loading
Need more help? Click Here.

Yes indeed, we too use "cookies." Take a look at our privacy/terms or if you just want to see the damn site without all this bureaucratic nonsense, click ACCEPT. Otherwise, you'll just have to find some other site for your pointless bitchery needs.

×

Become a contributor - post when you want with no ads!