Let me wrap up by mentioning a few of the very creative theories that scholars have come up with to explain homosexuality from an evolutionary perspective, which is something "Phill" wanted me to discuss. Remember, being gay seems to fly in the face of natural selection theory, and one might expect nature to have aggressively selected against any genetic substrate that lent itself to such a blatantly anti-reproductive trait. I can't possibly cover all of the vicissitudes of these evolutionary theories, nor address all of them, but I'll summarise the central points. By the way, virtually all theories in this area focus on male homosexuality; lesbianism has been almost completely ignored by evolutionary theorists.
As evolutionary psychologist David Buss has said, homosexuality is a "genuine evolutionary puzzle," so take your pick among these possible solutions (or come up with your own):
• E.O. Wilson's kin altruism theory states that homosexuality was a rare but functional alternative to traditional routes of increasing inclusive fitness because gay people in the ancestral past, who weren't burdened with their own kids, helped to raise, care for, and provide resources to their other genetic relatives, such as nieces and nephews. (This one doesn't quite gel, especially when you consider that a gay person's resources are usually funneled to their same-sex partners. Also, for most people, being gay doesn't exactly endear you to your relatives.)
• Evolutionary psychologist Frank Muscarella's alliance formation theory proposes that, in the ancestral past, homoerotic behaviours by young men with high status older men would have been an effective strategy for climbing up the social ladder. (Think Ancient Greece, or maybe Mark Foley?)
• John Maynard Smith is often credited with what is colloquially called the "sneaky f*cker theory," which argues that gay men in the ancestral past had unique access to the reproductive niche because females let their guards down around them and other males didn't view them as sexual competitors. (I rather like this one: remember, we're not infertile, we're just gay. Although in my case, it'd take a lot of gin to work.)
