{The Calgary Gay History Project is revisiting its most impactful blog posts—now numbering in the hundreds—since its inception nine years ago. Gay men are smarter than straight men—so says history has been, hands down, its most popular post since it was published on July 18, 2013. It also has a notable time reference to the big Calgary flood.}
The sixties were a boom-time for psychometric assessment, and in particular Intelligence Quotient (IQ) research. Perhaps one of the most famous and controversial papers of the time, was Arthur Jensen’s article, published in 1969, How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement? It concluded that 80% of the variance in IQ in the population studied was the result of genetic factors due to race.
Similar lines of research were done on homosexuals. In Canada, a University of Toronto Social Work professor, John C. Spencer, published an article in the Canadian Journal of Corrections (1961). He looked at 132 sexual offenders in the Toronto Forensic Clinic. These incarcerated individuals were categorized into three groups: exhibitionists, pedophiles and homosexuals. Spencer concluded that while exhibitionists and pedophiles had essentially normal IQ’s, the average intelligence of the homosexual offender was significantly higher than average (IQ of 114 vs. the population average of 100). Reading between the lines, he may have been an early homosexual rights advocate as he mused openly about criminal law being a vehicle for moral condemnation (see article image below).
Other researchers confirmed the IQ findings. Renée Liddicoat, published A Study of Non-Institutionalized Homosexuals, also in 1961, and found that South African homosexual men and women had significantly higher verbal IQ scores than that of her heterosexual control group.
A 1949 study of 100 neurotic homosexual and 100 neurotic heterosexual soldiers similarly found evidence of higher intelligence scores and educational achievement amongst the gay soldiers (Winterstein-Lambert, E. Bulletin de la Faculté de Médicine de Instanbul). In fact, this paper’s conclusion was that the gay community did not need psychological treatment, rather job placement support in order to deal with neurotic symptoms.
However, like many IQ studies there is a potential for cultural bias in the research as well as other sources of error. Some studies showed no difference, and at least one showed reduced intelligence in homosexual men. A quirky finding in many intelligence studies was the homosexual male’s sensitivity to art and culture. Silvio Marone, in the International Journal of Sexology (1954) wrote: “homosexual behaviour is not rare among artists, and homosexuality has a great influence on art.”
Finally, speaking of great influences, the Calgary Public Library’s Magazine’s and Newspapers department was devastated by the recent flooding in Southern Alberta. Many of the articles researched for this website have come from that basement department (such as: this one). We are really saddened by this particular loss. Individuals interested in donating to the Library’s flood recovery fund can find more information: here.
{KA}
Calgary Gay History 
Reblogged this on Queer Landia.
I am a gay man, definitely assured of his homosexuality and comfortable. While an article in a professional journal on gays always pricks (no pun intended) my interest, the statements in and of themselves seem racist. I question the sample on which the study is based. Spuriousness abounds in the study and we know much more now about gays than we did then. We now longer refer to gays as “deviants.”
I concur with the statement gay men on “average” are smarter. I mean look at everything we have to contend with growing up and coming out. We have to be in tuned with our environment better, take on both male and female social roles, we have to compete with everyone and their mother, etc… I think where gay men really excel though is our households can out earn the rest. This means that we have much more money to spend on higher education which means more “formal” intelligence. Just my thoughts because you’re not going to convince me in the least bit that some Joe Smoe straight guy will ever be smarter than my fellow gay men and I. In a game of chess its usually the queen that’s the most dangerous piece not the king.
THE MOST FAMOUS HOMOSEXUALS OF THE HISTORY
1. The Man Prague (5000 A.C.)
2. Sappho of Mytilene (600 A.C. – B.C.) Greek poet
3. Socrates (470-399 A.C. – B.C.) Greek philosopher
4. Plato (427-347 A.C. – B.C.) Greek philosopher
5. Alexander the Great (356-323 A.C. – B.C.) King of Macedonia
6. Wu (140-87 A.C. – B.C.) Chinese Emperor
7. Julius Caesar (100-44 A.C. – B.C.) Roman Emperor
8. Adriano (76-138 D.C.) Roman Emperor
9. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Holy and Father the Catholic Church
10. Benedict IX (1012-1056) Pope
11. Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199) English king and Crusader
12. Eduard II (1254-1327) English king
13. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Renaissance artist, inventor and Italian scientist
14. Michalengo Buonarrotti (1475-1564) Architect, sculptor and painter Italian
15. Montezuma II (1480-1520) Aztec emperor
16. Julius III (1487-1555) Pope
17. Ieyasu Tokugawa (1542-1616) Japanese Shogun founder of the Edo Shogunate
18. John Alexander Normandy (1545-1640) French journalist and poet
19. Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) British statesman
20. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) English poet and playwright
21. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Playwright, poet and English actor
22. Christina Alexandra (1626-1689) Swedish queen
23. Philippe of Orleans (1640-1701) French Prince of Bourbon Dynasty
24. Peter the Great (1672-1725) Tsar of All Russia
25. Frederick the Great (1712-1786) King of Prussia and military leader
26. Madame de Staël (1766-1817) French writer and intellectual
27. Lord Byron (1788-1824) British poet
28. Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) Danish poet and writer
29. Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) Euro-American writer and journalist
30. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Euro-American philosopher and poet
31. Herman Melville (1819-1891) Euro-American writer
32. Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Euro-American poet
33. Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Russian composer
34. Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) French poet
35. Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) British author
36. Chief Crazy Horse (Tashunca Witko) (1849-1877) Chief tribe Oglala Sioux Chief
37. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) English writer and playwright
38. Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) Songwriter and English artist
39. Sir Alfred Douglas (1870-1945) English writer and poet
40. Marcel Proust (1871-1922) French writer
41. Sergei Diaghileff (1872-1929) Russian Ballet businessman
42. Willa Cather (1873-1947) Euro-American writer
43. Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) French writer
44. Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) American writer and poet
45. William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) British writer and playwright
46. Alice Babette Toklas (1877-1967) Euro-American writer
47. Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) British Writer
48. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) Novelist, essayist and British writer
49. John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) British economist and Nobel Prize
50. Ernst Röhm (1887-1934) German Nazi Military
51. Thomas Edward Lawrence -Lawrence of Arabia- (1888-1935) British soldier
52. Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) Poet, diplomat, and feminist pedagogy Chilean
52. Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) French naturalist and writer
53. Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950) Russian ballet dancer
54. Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) British writer
55. Cole Porter (1893-1964) Euro-American composer
56. Bessie Smith (1894-1937) American black singer
57. Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) Poet, playwright and prose writer Spanish
58. Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) German actress and singer
59. Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987) Belgian-American british writer
60. Salvador Novo (1904-1974) Poet, essayist, playwright and Mexican historian
61. Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) British author and writer
62. Greta Garbo (1905-1990) Swedish nationalized American actress
63. Frieda Kahlo (1907-1964) Mexican artist and Activist
64. Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973) Writer and poet
64. Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) Writer, teacher and French philosopher
64. Bayard Rustin (1910-87) American Human Rights activist
65. Alan Turing (1912-1954) British mathematician
66. Tennessee Williams (1914-1983) Euro-American playwright
67. Chavela Vargas (1919-2012) Mexican singer
67. Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) Writer, poet and Italian film director
68. Truman Capote (1924-1984) Euro-American author
69. James Baldwin (1924-1987) Novelist, essayist, playwright, poet and social critic
70. Gore Vidal (1925- ) Euro-American writer
71. Andy Warhol (1928- ) Plastic artist and American filmmaker
71. Harvey Milk (1930-1978) Euro-American political
72. Andy Warhol (1930-1987) Euro-American Pop Artist
73. Audre Lorde (1934-1992) African-American writer and activist
74. Alejandra Pizarnik (1936-1972) Argentina poet
74. Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993) Russian dancer
75. Ian Mckellen (1939- ) British actor of stage and screen
76. Antonio Arbulú Neira (1944- ) Peruvian psychologist
77. Freddie Mercury (1946-1991) Pop British singer/songwriter/musician
78. Elton John (1947- ) British Singer/songwriter/musican, singer
79. Pedro Almodovar (1949- ) Film director, screenwriter and producer Spanish
80. Juan Gabriel (1950- ) Mexican singer and composer
81. Janis Ian (1951- ) Euro-American Singer/songwriter/musician
82. John Travolta (1954- ) Actor, singer, dancer and pilot American aviator
83. Nathan Lane (1956- ) Euro-American actor
84. Martina Navratilova (1956- ) Czech tennis champion
85. Miguel Bosé (1956- ) Spanish actor and singer
86. Ellen Degeneres (1958- ) Euro-American Comedian/actor
87. George Alan O’Dowd (1961- ) Singer, musician and British disc jockey
87. Melissa Etheridge (1961- ) Euro-American Singer/songwriter/musician
88. Tom Cruise (1962- ) American Actor
89. Alan Cumming (1965- ) British Actor
90. Ricardo Fort (1968-2013) Singer, actor and producing Argentinian
91. Ricky Martin (1971- ) Singer, songwriter, actor and Puerto Rican writer
92. Nein Patrick Harris (1973- ) Actor, singer and the American director
93. Leonardo di Caprio (1974- ) Actor and producer of American cinema
94. Cristian Castro (1974- ) Singer, actor and Mexican composer
95. Pablo Ruiz (1975- ) Argentine singer
96. Emiliano Rafael Boscatto (1981- ) Conductor argentine television
97. Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (1985- ) Portuguese footballer
98. Robert Thomas Pattinson (1986- ) Actor, model, producer and British singer
99. Zac Efron (1987- ) Actor of cinema and American televisión
100. Joseph Adam Jonas (1989- ) Singer, musician, actor and dancer American
Are homosexuals smarter or are they more “incentivized” to hone their intelligence?
Being gay makes you realize early on that you probably won’t be able to count on your family or old friends for any support.
Being gay prevents you from easily interacting with other guys (never going to fit in with sports and harder to have good drug hookups when your younger).
Being gay prevents relationships when your younger.
So no sports, no wild partying, no demanding girlfriends, a general disconnect from peers. That basically leaves academics.
Secondly most gay kids grow up in small intolerant towns and suburbs. They know they will need to go to a city to find people like them and have any chance of ever fitting in.
So gay kids have nothing to do besides academics, they know they need to leave for the city, and they know they are going to have to do everything by themselves.
Basically you get a gay teen that studies constantly, is always working towards scholarships to pay for college (in the city), and is willing to do anything to claw his way to the top so that he will have the means to take care of himself.
40% of homeless youth are LGBT. Gay teens know this and they know the cost if they fail. It makes sense gay men would be smarter, have a better education, and earn more money. Unlikely their straight peers gay men have nothing to fall back on if they need help except for themselves.
High risk, high reward.
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I have known this for years! At least since the 1980’s growing up that my gay friends were smarter, more savvy, ofter more shrewd and cunning than most of our heterosexual rivals. I aways say to this day….”the gay brain is a good brain!” Many,many, great innovators ,creators and inventors throughout history in every endeavor possible were homosexual. they have to be in order to simply survive and thrive in a hostile and unwelcoming world. One field where this is obvious is in verbal skills,language skills and writing skills. Any journalist will tell you that in the world of authors and creative writing pools…most staff writers are gay.Things are far better today ; however, unfounded hate,fear and discrimination persists and probably always will. However, far less so than in generations past and this is due to increased visibility and acceptance towards a sexual minority within the framework of the greater world.