I found this research through a tweet by @dwillingham. I have heard the strangest beliefs about why someone would be (or even worse, people sometimes say chose to be) gay. This research already sent one of those theories to the recycle bin!
Abstract of the research that can be downloaded here:
Peers have a powerful effect on adolescents’ beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Here, we examine the role of social networks in the spread of attitudes towards sexuality using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Although we found evidence that both sexual activity (OR=1.79) and desire to have a romantic relationship (OR=2.69) may spread from person to person, attraction to same sex partners did not spread (OR=0.96). Analyses of comparable power to those that suggest positive and significant peer-to-peer influence in sexual behavior fail to demonstrate a significant relationship on sexual attraction between friends or siblings. These results suggest that peer influence has little or no effect on the tendency toward heterosexual or homosexual attraction in teens, and that sexual orientation is not transmitted via social networks
I wrote this on the comment page of a news article featuring the same study: Before Christianity, bisexuality was the norm in Rome and Greece. Yet now, it’s not. The reason same-sex attractions don’t spread very much these days is because people have internalized the Christian homophobia of the last 1600 years. I’ve written a free book on this, BTW: grero.com
The point is that gay is not a choice but gay is not the only way to like other men. These other ways (including what I call grero) can be culturally suppressed though.