Chris Birch was a rugby playing bank worker with a fiancee when he broke his neck attempting a back flip in the local gym. He suffered a stroke and when he woke up in the hospital, Birch no longer felt attracted to women.
He then quit his job, broke up with his fiancee and stopped drinking beer and watching sports with his rugby playing friends during weekends. He then began working out, dropped 112 pounds, bleached his hair, became a hair dresser and started dating the 19 year-old twink he now lives with.
The weird thing: neurologists and stroke experts say this sort of thing is totally plausible.
According to The Daily Mail:
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[Birch] sought advice from his neurologist who said the changes in his personality could be due to the stroke opening up a different part of his brain.
There have been cases of patients waking up with different accents and of others becoming artists following strokes.
…Stroke association spokesman Joe Korner said: ‘Strokes can have a big effect on individuals and lead to personality changes.
‘During recovery the brain makes new neural connections which can trigger things people weren’t aware of such as accent, language or perhaps a different sexuality. Whether or not the stroke turned Chris gay, or whether he was gay anyway but unaware of it, his experience seems to be a positive one, which is great.’
Birch says he didn’t care that he had never felt attracted to men before his stroke; he felt gay in his heart after the stroke and felt he had to follow that, which is rad. But his young boyfriend might wanna make sure Birch doesn’t break his neck or stroke out again, lest his newfound beau go back to being a breeder.
Alex
Just FYI, the Daily Mail is the last newspaper you should trust to give you accurate scientific evidence. It is well-known here in the UK for being inaccurate, racist, xenophobic, sexist, extremely homophobic, alarmist and for supporting fascist (literally) politicians in the early 20th century. Look at this if you think the Daily Mail is a reliable purveyor of scientific truth: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=269512464297
ladyrassilon
While this is a sensationalist piece by the daily mail, what is more likely is that the neurological damage may have removed some inhibition, OR its equally possible that facing death in the face made him face up to who he really is.
I won't grow up
For his next trick, pigs will come flying out of his ass and we’ll all have free bacon for the rest of our lives.
roger
again we are back to the old their must be something wrong with their brain mentality.
its more likely he saw life was too short to deny your true self and this gave him a
easy out, its not my fault the accident made me gay, puleeze
Anthony
@roger: @roger:
I guess only an academic can view the “brain” theory or gayness as something non-offensive. It’s not that there’s something “wrong” with the brain, it’s just that there’s something “DIFFERENT.”
You are who you are because of your DNA and the way your brain has developed.
As a gay man and an academic, I find nothing offensive about the assertion that sexual attraction is determined/regulated by the brain ( after all, that’s what your brain is there for).
RT
I don’t get this. So did this man become a homosexual? or is it saying that this man became queer?
What is it???
missanthrope
@Anthony:
I’ll bet haven’t heard of Dr. J. Michael Bailey, who has stated that “”Male homosexuality is evolutionarily maladaptive,” in the New York Times or that plausibly allowing parents to choose their childern’s sexual orientation, should the technology become available, would be “morally acceptable”.
Maybe some people are “born this way”, maybe some are influenced by environment. But historically over the last 100 years being really obsessive with etiology in the sexual behavior of human beings has led us to some very, very bad places and has been carried out by those who want to eliminate us. That’s why people are suspicious of these kinds of things for understandable reasons.
Steve
That seems plausable. There is a condition called “foreign accent syndrome” (conveniently with a wiki page for those of you without acces to psychology or neurology textbooks) in which as a result of coma or brain trauma, an individuals accent suddenly changes, and they are unable to speak with their original accent sometimes permanantly. Changing an accent may seem slightly more simple than a change in sexual orientation, but it must be remembered that the brain is both incredibly complex, and not at all well understood. Certainly there are more odd documented psychological occurances than this.
Twill
She’s a hair dresser? What happened to hers?
Cam
Or he almost died and got a perspective on his life that he shouldn’t waste all of it hiding in the closet.
scribe31
ok quick I need to figure out how to give brad pit, the guys on supernatural, and the cut guy with the large tattoo on his side that works out at my gym a stroke… second thought I’m not a 19 yr old twink… think a heart attack would make them like black bears?
Dan
My gay uncle had a stroke, and “forgot” he was gay. This is at least how we explained it. He even started dating a woman that he met in physical therapy. Eventually he regained partial mobility on his left side, and his homosexuality.
shannon
BITCH PLEASE!!!!!!! YOU WERE A QUEEN BEFORE….AND YOU ARE A BIGGER QUEEN NOW……
Kieran
This has been some week. First we had a “policy advisor” to the US Catholic bishops theorize that homosexuality is caused by Satanic possession of pregnant mothers and now a British tabloid is reporting that brain damage from stroke causes homosexuality. We sure do live in “enlightened” times don’t we?
Riker
This does indeed seem plausible. Traumatic brain injuries can cause wild personality shifts. Take as an example the textbook (I say textbooks because a huge number of medical and neurological textbooks use it) case of Phineas Gage. He was a 19th century railroad worker, who had a railroad spike driven through his brain. Despite his miraculous survival, he experienced a complete change in personality. His friends and family said that he was a completely different person.
Kevin
So strange to me that so many are attacking this idea. Isn’t the main thrust of the pro-LGBT argument that we’re “wired this way?” So here’s this guy, minding his own business, being straight like 90+% of the population, when suddenly his brain is physically, medically “re-wired.” And due to this change in brain structure and chemistry, he suddenly feels gay. If anything, isn’t this evidence FOR the idea that sexuality is innate? Our opponents often say that homosexuality is caused by sexual abuse, or bad parenting, or “recruitment” of youth, or whatever other BS is en vogue at the moment. I would think a case like this would be a solid argument that, no, it is actually in our physical makeup.
Phil
Okay, time to introduce a shot of shallow into your rather charged discussion. That hair. Is. Terrible.
And he’s a hairdresser now!
Also, was his hair a nexus of evil? Because it’s black now. And he bleached it.
MikeE
The problem with this whole story is that there is NO substantiating evidence to back that he actually WAS heterosexual before the stroke, and not simply closeted.
Wow, he played rugby. So does my niece. Doesn’t mean she likes chicks.
He watched rugby on TV with his buds… and that made him heterosexual?
Now he’s stopped watching rugby on TV with his buds. Well, I’m a leg man, so I just can’t imagine stopping watching those sex-on-legs players.. but that’s his choice.
And he suddenly developed an innate skill for hairdressing???????
This whole story has a stench of manure so thick about it…
blatherer
Classic British tabloid hoaxe.
Caliban
Either this is an old story or another British paper did a story about this guy a month or so back. There were “before” pictures and, IIRC, some statements from his parents.
Though I accept that “a brain injury turned him gay” story MIGHT be true, what seems more likely to me is that nearly dying made him re-think how he really wanted to live. A convenient excuse, if you will.
But personality changes due to brain injury are well documented. This story isn’t necessarily homophobic though, since it’s about (supposedly) brain wiring, new neural pathways created in response to injury. It’s not saying that ALL homosexuality is created by “damaged” brains, but that wiring=personality, which seems to be true. Though with the Daily Mail’s readership, god only knows what they’ll get from it.
Hyhybt
If it were the other way, a report of a gay man turning straight from brain injury, how would the “gay is a defect” crowd respond?
Little Kiwi
the stroke didn’t make him gay. the health-scare caused him to rethink his priorities in life and the stroke gave him an “out” (pun intended) to admit to being gay all the while offering him a ‘cover excuse’ to absolve himself of any lying or complicity or responsibility.
it’s textbook, actually.
his story will only ring true to those with only the vaguest idea of what “gay” means – as evidenced by his inability to reconcile football, hairdressing, and all that jazz. his ideas of “gay” are as nonsensical as his ideas of “straight”.
Michael
The guy was already gay just repressing it.A person can not just become gay you either are or you are not gay period.This accident had nothing to do with the sexuality that was already inherent within him.
Kev C
I agree with Cam and Michael. Whether consciously or unconsciously, his true self emerged from the hollow, empty shell of his imposed heterosexual life.
ChrisC
I would be more inclinded to believe this if only a stoke could give you a serious case of Gayface. He must have been in the closet or just in denial.
Matthew
I guess the theme is, “who knows why”. There’s no point in trying to figure it out.
Alfonzo
This story is circulating again?