Can booze make you gay?

A recent study by scientists at Pennsylvania State University (the other PSU) seems to suggest that booze may not only lower your inhibitions, but it might actually catapult you from latency to flown blown ass pinching, sibilant, homosexuality... If you happen to be a fruit fly.

Randy flies reveal how booze affects inhibitions

12:40 03 January 2008

NewScientist.com news service

Peter Aldhous  

Fruit flies that develop homosexual tendencies when drunk may help reveal how alcohol loosens human sexual inhibitions, claim researchers. 

Kyung-An Han and her colleagues at Pennsylvania State University in University Park used a voyeuristic chamber dubbed the "Flypub" to observe the influence of alcohol on the sexual behaviour of male Drosophila fruit flies. 

The researchers got the flies drunk on the fumes of an ethanol-doused cotton pad placed at the base of the chamber, and filmed them using a camera held above the Flypub's transparent ceiling. The first time they were exposed to alcohol, groups of male flies became noticeably intoxicated but kept themselves to themselves. But with repeated doses of alcohol on successive days, homosexual courtship became common. 

From the third day onwards, the flies were forming "courtship chains" of amorous males. Han argues that the drunken flies provide a good model to explore how alcohol affects human sexual behaviour.

 I’ve heard of an amorous male  “courtship chain” but I’ve never seen one with my own eyes, much less participated. I can only imagine that they are messy affairs.  

In my opinion, the researchers made their first mistake by naming their experimental chamber the Flypub. This can only be the name of a gay bar, or a hipster joint- same difference. It is clear to me that only gay or bi or “straight” flies wearing vintage polo shirts with popped collars would go there. When you throw alcohol into a repressed mélange of male desire, of course, you are going to get homosexual courtship. Add a camera to the mix and those exhibitionist flies are gonna’ go off! 

As far as whether or not this is indicative of human behavior, I’ve had more than enough supposedly straight guys offer to blow me after several rounds. But maybe that’s just me. Maybe I have that kind of look that just gets these guys going. My shapely thighs, my Bette Davis eyes? Who’s to say?  I’m sure the mysterious Mister Kyle Ritter gets these kinds of propositions all the time too. 

So, what’s the take home lesson here? Birds do it. Bee’s do it. Even inebriated fruit flies do it. So go ahead, rock that amorous “courtship chain.”