Childhood gender nonconformity and the stability of self-reported sexual orientation from adolescence to young adulthood in a birth cohort.

This chapter turns to the area of gender and sexuality, and examines parents’ contrasts between “just gay” and “truly trans” explanations for childhood gender nonconformity. Given age-old statistics that link childhood gender nonconformity with adult homosexuality, these deliberations are no small part of parents’ journeys. Modern-day LGBT rights discourses assert a firm distinction between “gender” and “sexuality”—gender identity is one thing, sexual orientation is another. However, parents’ deliberations signaled something more fluid and potentially permeable between these two realms of self, across a morphing “spectrum” of possibilities. This conceptual work, the chapter argues, gives increasing intelligibility to (trans)gendered understandings, versus ones formerly understood within a grid of (homo)sexuality. In social-constructionist terms, this is not merely descriptive labor, but productive labor, helping to bring broadening transgender possibilities into being. This work also prioritizes child-rooted shifts in a way that further troubles firm distinctions between these categories of the self.

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Sexual orientation and childhood gender nonconformity: Evidence from home videos.

Developmental Psychology ◽

10.1037/0012-1649.44.1.46 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 44 (1) ◽

pp. 46-58 ◽

Cited By ~ 163

Author(s):

Gerulf Rieger ◽

Joan A. W. Linsenmeier ◽

Lorenz Gygax ◽

J. Michael Bailey

Keyword(s):

Sexual Orientation ◽

Gender Nonconformity ◽

Home Videos ◽

Childhood Gender ◽

Childhood Gender Nonconformity

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Does Sexual Orientation Precede Childhood Sexual Abuse? Childhood Gender Nonconformity as a Risk Factor and Instrumental Variable Analysis

Sexual Abuse ◽

10.1177/1079063215618378 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 29 (8) ◽

pp. 786-802 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Yin Xu ◽

Yong Zheng

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Sexual Orientation ◽

Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽

Instrumental Variable ◽

Gender Nonconformity ◽

Gender Nonconforming ◽

Instrumental Variable Analysis ◽

Childhood Gender ◽

Childhood Gender Nonconformity ◽

Variable Analysis

Research suggests that there is a relation between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and adulthood nonheterosexual orientation. To explore whether nonheterosexual orientation increases the risk of CSA, we recruited a large sample, added the variable of childhood gender nonconformity (CGNC), and applied the instrumental variable method. We found that heterosexual and nonheterosexual men who were more gender nonconforming in childhood were significantly more likely to report having a history of CSA than their gender-conforming counterparts. There was no relation between CSA and CGNC for heterosexual and nonheterosexual women. The instrumental variable analysis revealed that the increased prevalence of CSA experienced by nonheterosexuals compared with heterosexuals may be due to the influence of sexual orientation on CSA. In sum, the results suggest that nonheterosexuality may increase the risk of childhood sexual abuse.

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Genome-Wide Linkage and Association Study of Childhood Gender Nonconformity in Males

Archives of Sexual Behavior ◽

10.1007/s10508-021-02146-x ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alan R. Sanders ◽

Gary W. Beecham ◽

Shengru Guo ◽

Khytam Dawood ◽

Gerulf Rieger ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sexual Orientation ◽

Association Study ◽

Gender Nonconformity ◽

Chromosome 8 ◽

Sibling Pairs ◽

Childhood Gender ◽

Genome Wide ◽

A Genome ◽

Childhood Gender Nonconformity ◽

Male Sexual Orientation

AbstractMale sexual orientation is influenced by environmental and complex genetic factors. Childhood gender nonconformity (CGN) is one of the strongest correlates of homosexuality with substantial familiality. We studied brothers in families with two or more homosexual brothers (409 concordant sibling pairs in 384 families, as well as their heterosexual brothers), who self-recalled their CGN. To map loci for CGN, we conducted a genome-wide linkage scan (GWLS) using SNP genotypes. The strongest linkage peaks, each with significant or suggestive two-point LOD scores and multipoint LOD score support, were on chromosomes 5q31 (maximum two-point LOD = 4.45), 6q12 (maximum two-point LOD = 3.64), 7q33 (maximum two-point LOD = 3.09), and 8q24 (maximum two-point LOD = 3.67), with the latter not overlapping with previously reported strongest linkage region for male sexual orientation on pericentromeric chromosome 8. Family-based association analyses were used to identify associated variants in the linkage regions, with a cluster of SNPs (minimum association p = 1.3 × 10–8) found at the 5q31 linkage peak. Genome-wide, clusters of multiple SNPs in the 10–6 to 10–8p-value range were found at chromosomes 5p13, 5q31, 7q32, 8p22, and 10q23, highlighting glutamate-related genes. This is the first reported GWLS and genome-wide association study on CGN. Further increasing genetic knowledge about CGN and its relationships to male sexual orientation should help advance our understanding of the biology of these associated traits.

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