Question: Why are people attracted to each other including the same gender?

Tom Lister answered on 28 Jun 2012:

There’s the obvious need for sexual reproduction, plus group cohesion.

There are various theories about same sex attractions, including the ‘uncle hypothesis’ (or something like that) which demonstrates the importance of the role of non-parents in a society. This could be an evolutionary explanation for same-sex attractions.

The ancient Greeks had some very different parts to their culture to the modern west, one of which was the enjoyment of young men by more senior men. Something along the lines of ‘sex with women is for procreation, with young men is for fun’. I believe it is mostly a culture of religion combined with political encouragement to encourage people to have more children which once made same-sex relationships unacceptable.

There are very fine lines between what is sexual attraction and what is not sexual, and it is sometimes difficult to define what is a man and a woman (I’m sure you’ll hear something about this in the news with the Olympics coming up).