There are numerous articles mentioning that gay men seem to outperform straight men, gay women & straight women in education. I began wondering why that is.

 

In at least one article it stated the following:

Quote

That's because boys in the United States still face a very narrow set of expectations about what it means to "be a man" — and one of these expectations is that "real men" shouldn't appear overly concerned with the daily hard work of being a conscientious student.

Analyzing about 7,000 student survey items, my research identified the attributes most predictive of being a boy. They were things such as time spent playing video games and expectations of becoming a professional athlete. Classroom striving was not among them. Gay boys, however, answered very differently from straight boys. For these students, stepping outside the strictures of straight masculinity significantly supported academic success.

What do you think?

 C, xo xo

thank god they didn't test ATRL. we would be out performed by rocks and spit, i fear

2 minutes ago, King Fabray said:

thank god they didn't test ATRL. we would be out performed by rocks and spit, i fear

fr my last hookup asked me if i knew what my bronchus were for and i sat there like

 

I always thought the high attainment from gay men in academia comes from throwing themselves into studying in an attempt to draw attention away from their sexuality/lack of interest in a lot of normal high school dating distractions. I know the reason I worked hard in school was because I always felt like I had something to prove, which didn't really seem the case for a lot of my peers.

I've read studies that gay men want to move up socially and financially because they will experience less overt homophobia later in life that way

 

In my own experience that seems to sadly be the case, and I say sadly because that should obviously never happen wherever you are in life, but it does. I never experienced overt homophobia (meaning homophobia that I was aware of) in uni or the jobs I had after

Gay men have always been a bit of a secret elite, it's a thing. So many scientists, authors, philosophers etc. And the stats go beyond education, we are also the richest category out of the four.

 

I'm less sure of the why. I do like the explanation in the OP that stepping out of the norms of heterosexual masculinity, which are often in conflict with the school system, allows gay men to be more conscientious students. I certainly was one and I find that the gay coded students I teach at school are often the same. And then maybe this advancement in education leads to greater success in later life, but without the economic difficulties women face around child-rearing etc. So we end up being the top group

No wonder i was a valedictorian of my class  statistics don't lie!

Because they have no choice. Since they face discrimination and exclusion in the working world, they need hard credentials. 

being an out and proud gay is a privilege that sometimes only middle class people can afford, hence the statistics being skewed. there may be thousands of gay men from working class backgrounds who never came out, so they wouldn't be included in these statistics. 

 

that's not to say poor people are always homophobic, but having money/status does shield you from a lot of bs in life and people may find it easier to stomach your fagg*try if you have a high status career or a degree, so the middle class gays will be more likely to come out. obviously this is a generalisation but it's the same reason why children of gay parents tend to perform better in school - gay parents often have to prove that they have enough resources to adopt/use a surrogate, whereas there are no such hurdles for straight people. so it's not that gay people are inherently better parents, but that in order to be a gay parent you have to be middle class, and having money is a big predictor for how well you children perform in school. your sexual identity is inevitably tied to your social and economic class.

Edited August 24, 2025Aug 24 by John Slayne

Its a good excuse for "Are you dating a girl?" 

 

"No, Im too busy studying and working on myself"

 

I agree with the discrimination -> isolation 

-> higher educated pipeline. 

 

We also (generally) have less distractions, like we won't fall pregnant at a young age or drop out of college because we need to provide for said child etc.  

 

And also work hard, play hard… Gays like to play hard so maybe that means we work hard too? 

24 minutes ago, King Fabray said:

thank god they didn't test ATRL. we would be out performed by rocks and spit, i fear

 

21 minutes ago, Venice B said:

fr my last hookup asked me if i knew what my bronchus were for and i sat there like

 

Another study showed that people who obsess over celebrities have lower intelligence in general so we are all cooked I fear. Somehow I still got all A's at school though.

 

 

We were all motivated to go to college because of FraternityX 

20 minutes ago, Europe said:

That's because boys in the United States still face a very narrow set of expectations about what it means to "be a man" — and one of these expectations is that "real men" shouldn't appear overly concerned with the daily hard work of being a conscientious student.

This was definitely the case at my school. The guys who tried to do well in school got bullied for "being gay", especially by guys that slacked their way through the whole thing. 

 

So I'm not surprised that gay men outperform. Straight men will tell themselves that it's too gay to do homework and be educated. 

 

But my friends who went to schools that had many parents with high school/college education didn't have the same experience, because it was more accepted to be an academically disciplined man. There's wide socio-economic differences to this. 

I follow so many gay guys on Twitter from my country or some outside of my bubble, and a lot of them seem like overachievers academically-work wise. Sometimes I wonder if that comes from trying to rise above the weight society puts on us since childhood, or if it's because many gay men-lgbti people are for some random reason more organized and clean, which makes them more focused on their studies compared to some messy straight guys. When i was in uni all my gay classmates were always like taylor swift. Obssesed with grades and to be the top one. Of course not everyone is like that but i know so many gays like that. There's a tendency for perfectionism*
 

I'm definitely not part of that group.  Learning is the best thing-feeling in the world...... I know im smart in my unique ways (we all have different intelligences-gifts) but I've been struggling to adapt to the current educational system, or maybe it's just that my country's education system feels disappointing and soulless. So my academic achievements are near to Zero

Sometimes if you want me to confess it's hard, because you see tons of gay guys with seemingly perfect lives-the best jobs-academic achievements, and it can be a dealbreaker when it comes to friendships and u feel like an anomaly. I don't compare myself to them cause i love who i am and im in the right spot as a rebel heart, and i dont regret a single thing and i had tons of unique life experiences ..........but it's still hard to cope with all their expectations and youre treated like u dont belong in some spaces. Some are like:  "U have some nerve" talkin to us. U dont belong to our upper echelon.

I also feel like nowadays there are so many expectations for gay men to have the perfect body, wealth, to be the typical charismatic sassy,partygoer and insanely funny gay, and to live up to these standards. And if you don't fit into that box, people look at you weird. Cause gays been stereotyped into all these new roles.

I remember one time a female classmate of mine telling me...........Why U dont have the gay spice. Why are you not loud like the rupaul queens? Why are you so cold and soft. Why u dont experiment with your fashion as much as them? i wanted a gay bff but youre not what im lookin for lol

Now goin back to the first part. If gays were less divided im totally sure they would conquer the world or have half-total ownership of it 
Gays-Lesbians-Trans community have some special flavor and i feel like we are very emotional
if u get me u get me. We all have the best of both worlds....
But the situation is.........We fight too much between each other.
As long as we are divided we will be in the sidelines of society instead of the core
Im in so many whatsapp gay groups and instead of helping-encouragin each other with positivity-kindness..... There's always catfights and shade
of course ATRL is different cause is a space designed for that-entertainment but in Real Life i dont think thats is helping us.........

Not facts. just my feelings. 
But yes. Raise up gays. Unicorn power 
 

 

Edited August 24, 2025Aug 24 by AvadaKedavra

31 minutes ago, Venice B said:

fr my last hookup asked me if i knew what my bronchus were for and i sat there like

 

Why would he ask that in the first place

Then why do so many gays act like gay guys are broke when they see them traveling or doing fun things in life? There are a lot of gays in high earning careers who can afford that exotic vacation. 

20 minutes ago, theboyismine said:

Why would he ask that in the first place

Because I said I had bronchitis when he offered me a cig 

I've met a lot of really stupid gay men so I think it evens out overall.

Well, look at the voting pattern. 

Two reasons:

 

1. Most gay men aren't going to go into blue collar or any other manual labor jobs 

 

2. It helps with having less ammunition against you. People can "drag" us for being gay but we try to give them less to talk about. 

It's because of discrimination. Some people also do it because they wanna migrate to more gay-friendly places, for example. 

6 hours ago, Venice B said:

fr my last hookup asked me if i knew what my bronchus were for and i sat there like

 

Is that to do with not having a gag reflex? 

 The ones out here are as dumb as ****. Talking to them makes me want to jump off of a cliff. 

I don't know how to say this without sounding like I'm just being boastful or cocky but I really do believe that a strong percentage of queer people in general are just generally more intelligent than cishet people. it just… has always felt that way. I won't say that I haven't hooked up with/dated my fair share of dipsh*ts but I do feel like if we round up all the stimulating discussion I've had in my life, the vast majority will have been had with other queer people. I feel like there's a level of complexity that pervades the internal monologues a lot of us have and a lot of our anxieties are sourced from maybe less corporeal and more like… out there sh*t than the anxieties of a lot of our non-queer peers. I've read sh*t about like queer people being more open-minded inherently (more as a generalization but still!) from seeking out unusual experiences not limited to sexually, and this past year of working nights as a concierge for me has also made me realize that a lot of people I've been dealing with have been not very bright. people I work with (so, not my residents) sometimes are baffled at how worked up I can get or how quickly I type or how I don't need people to repeat things… it's just the way I am. I have things that work well for me, just as everyone does. maybe it's the me having been raised in a competitive environment by an east coast jewish mom of it all that contributes to me being somewhat of a hardass, maybe it's the fact that I'm a musician, maybe it's the fact that I neeeeeed to be stimulating. it also makes me wonder what the correlation is between queer people and ADHD lol