And questions about the sexuality of sons were far more common than more generic searches about having a gay child or queries about having a gay daughter.īridges, who studies gender identity and coauthored the book Exploring Masculinities: Identity, Inequality, Continuity and Change, was surprised by his findings. Bridges discovered that parents were Googling “Is my son gay?” 28 times more often than “Is my son a genius?” - accounting for thousands of searches a month (including variants). When sociologist Tristan Bridges read a New York Times story about how often parents ask Google if their kids are geniuses - 2.5 times more often if their kids are male - he had another question: How often do parents ask Google if their kids are gay? A lot, as it turns out.
