Or is the rate of gay getting higher due to population increase. Whats the earliest recorded instance of gay? I was thinking, what if gay is sort of like natures defense mechanism to over-population.
Animals, no idea. Humans, every possibility of forever I guess. I mean, looking back towards the times of the Romans for example, being gay was condoned to a certain extent, with it being treated as normal for a man to have sex with another man. Many emperors were homosexual. Obviously, that is all rather controversial, thinking what the bible would say, but whatever. And I know humans were quite obviously knocking around long before this, but since you are talking like 2000 years ago, the social stigma and oppression gays face has changed, yet the proclivity had not altered. So it's a fair argument to say 2000 years, maybe 20,000 years before again, and the human psyche would have been identical to what it is now. I am unsure of any instance of gay relations however. Population would increase the numbers of gays, and strait people. So there would be more, but the percentage may not alter. It is however, an interesting point you made about natures self defense to a population increase. I think for a true as it could be, arguably it all occurs due to hormones and brain activity. Maybe every gay person has been struck by lightning in their sleep without realizing, although that seems unlikely I mean, natural selection arguably is what is maintaining population growth. Since humans have been around long enough, you would like to believe that each child that is born takes everything of worth from their parents, to adapt well to their environment. And without being rude, there are still people who are let's say not quite as attractive, and may find it harder to eventually reproduce.
Just a thought (and it isn't very thought-through at all because it just ocurred to me...) but if homosexuality was nature's defence against overpopulation, wouldn't that suggest that there is some external entity that affects us? Whether it be God, Mother Earth, Zeus, Lucifer, Vishnu or Chuck Norris.... And if there isn't said external influence, would the parents' knowledge of overpopulation have an effect on the chances of their child being homosexual? (Theoretically, of course) If a man and a woman were completely secluded from everything, having no knowledge of anything beyond their own little 'world' (and therefore not knowing that the world was overpopulated), would they their children only be heterosexual? Haha feel free to completely blast that to smithereens if you like I sorta typed it out as i thought about it so there's bound to be great, gaping holes of obviousness that will go against it... Oh well.... Just a thought.
One of my friends once hypothesized that this is the next step in human evolution. Humans sense far too many of its own kind through smell, pheromones, and contact, so something has to be done. I'm pretty sure this argument is all ego, though. As for myself, I believe that there has always been a necessary number of homosexuals in every human population. The Greeks had commonplace homosexual relations in every facet of society - and that was 4000 years ago. Same with the romans, Native Americans, and even Asian populations. The fact that it seems there are more gays, is because there are far more in relation to the current population. Hell, anywhere from 3-15% of the U.S. population is gay! We just don't choose to acknowledge it as readily as some cultures because of our Puritanical roots. Homosexuality has been observed in over 5000!, yes >5000 species including all major felines, dolphins, all domesticated animals and even Vultures and penguins.:hat: I believe there is always a ready and necessary population of gays in every community, and the newfound "animal homosexuality" is only seems like there's more because this is the first time as a society we have studied such a thing.
Boys will be boys and that is the way it has been for countless millenia It's all about pleasure, bonding, establishing mutual trust - things that humans have been doing since we first discovered how to make fire ... or even further back than that Did you know that male dolphins shag each other for pleasure?
Rats become extremely hostile and gay when they get overpopulated so thats probably natures way of balancing out the population.