The reason gay men exist might be because their moms tend to have more babies!
The University of Padova in Italy has found a correlation between gayness in males and higher rates of reproductive success in their female's relatives. In other words, the moms and aunts of gay men tend to have more kids compared to others. When viewed in this light, male homosexuality has a sort of a genetic tradeoff. By passing on that gene, the chances of one of your kids not reproducing is high, but you'll also have *more* kids, which means that the chances of your genes living on is higher.
The research also had some interesting hypothesis of how this genetic trade might work, both on males and females. To put it shortly, they think that this trait makes women more attractive to men. Being more attractive means they can mate with better partners.
They also found that the moms and aunts of gay men had some advantages over moms and aunts of straight males: they're more fertile, they have fewer gynecological disorders and complications during pregnancy, they're more extroverted, funnier, happier, more relaxed and have fewer family problems.
That said, the causes of homosexuality are still very undiscovered, and the dominant theory is that it's a number of factors that causes it, and not one particular gene. However, this research suggests that even if gay men have little options as far as reproduction goes, they benefit the females in their family just as much!
