Citation

Dank BM. Arch. Sex. Behav. 1971; 1(3): 193-204.

Affiliation

California State College, Long Beach, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1971, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF01541682

PMID

24179065

Abstract

A family consisting of several homosexual siblings is reported. All ten of the siblings in this family were to some degree homosexually experienced. Six were homosexual or predominantly homosexual, and five had a homosexual identity. The sex composition of the family was three females and seven males. Of the three females, one was homosexual, one was bisexual, and one had had some homosexual experience. There was one set of male dizygotic twins concordant for homosexuality in the family. All ten siblings were exposed to relatively similar family dynamics. The father's behavior toward the children and his wife was characterized by hostility, violence, and alcoholism. He was eventually murdered when the youngest child was 6 years old. The mother demonstrated qualities that were essentially opposite those of the father. She was described as affectionate and loving toward all the children, and she did not display violent behavior. The male homosexual sibling who was interviewed displayed a strong identification with his mother via a feminine self-identification, the adoption of the housewife role in a homosexual marriage, and the adoption of the passive role in anal intercourse. Only one other multiple homosexual sibling family has been reported in the scientific literature. This family consisted of 14 siblings, 11 male and three female. The four homosexual siblings in this family were all male and consisted of two sets of dizygotic twins. The behavior of the parents of this family was quite similar to the behavior of the parents in this study-a hostile and violent father and an affectionate and loving mother. These two multiple homosexual sibling families provide support for theories that emphasize the importance of early family relationships in the development of a homosexual adaptation. It is held that multiple homosexual sibling families can be employed as strategic data in testing various etiological theories of homosexuality.

Language: en