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[iNvid02]

hairdresser

A 19st rugby player suffered a stroke while training - and discovered when he woke up that he was gay.
Chris Birch, 26, had proposed to his girlfriend and worked in a bank when he suffered a freak accident in the gym.
The rugby-loving Welshman was trying to impress his friends with a back flip but broke his neck and suffered a stroke.

He was taken to the Royal Gwent hospital where his girlfriend and family waited for news - but said: 'I was gay when I woke up and I still am.'
His friends were stunned by the dramatic changes to his personality, especially his change in sexuality.

Chris said: 'It sounds strange but when I came round I immediately felt different.
'I wasn't interested in women any more. I was definitely gay.
'I had never been attracted to a man before - I'd never even had any gay friends. But I didn't care about who I was before, I had to be true to my feelings.'

He said his family struggled to come to terms with his sudden change of identity so he decided to move out of home.
Chris retrained as a hairdresser and now lives with his partner Jack Powell, 19, above the salon in which he works.

He 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.'

this is crazy
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...hris-Birch-stroke-gym-accident-wakes-gay.html

 

[Bluth]

wtf

 

[Count Dookkake]

Talk about different strokes.

 

[Shortt Sirket]

Talk about different strokes.

Goddamit!

 

[Mortrialus]

Is such a thing even possible?

 

[Marleyman]

I thought you are born a certain way? Weird.

 

[Stinkles]

Scrum-ptious.

 

[Al-ibn Kermit]

I'm going to send this to my friend who broke his back twice, he loves to kancho other male friends although he's really popular with girls since he can "understand them".

 

[Trojita]

Reminds me of stories about women getting hit in the head, and waking up as nymphos.

 

[Kapura]

Is such a thing even possible?

Are you implying the stroke may have been caused by aliens shooting gay-beams at his hair?

 

[tapedeck]

Talk about different strokes.

fuck...I lol'd

 

[Ferrio]

Reminds me of stories about women getting hit in the head, and waking up as nymphos.

Time to invest in some rubber mallets.

 

[Shafto]

I'm wondering if he was actually gay beforehand, but was thoroughly in the closet and seen this as a perfect opportunity to come out.

 

[Escape Goat]

Gays and British people are stroke victims.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=429424

Is such a thing even possible?

Yes, it is. /bighairguy.gif

 

[- J - D -]

I want to be a musical genius. A stroke seems like a mildly risky price to pay, but I really want to be a musical genius.

 

[Deleted member 81567]

Talk about different strokes.

 

[Clegg]

I was sure this was going to be a story about Gavin Henson.

 

[echoshifting]

Is such a thing even possible?

Yes.

The human brain is a hell of a thing. Fascinating stuff.

 

[gofreak]

I thought you are born a certain way? Weird.

Seems irrelevant here whether you're 'born a certain way' or not.

Tinker with the brain and I've little doubt you change all kinds of things that one would be considered 'born with'. I remember reading about a guy who developed a brain tumour that impacted on part of his brain - it went undetected, until he turned into a raging sex maniac who IIRC sexually assaulted someone, started looking at child porno etc. etc. When the tumour was removed he went right back to his previous self.

 

[Hot Coldman]

I guessed ballerina. Don't ask.

 

[Princess Carl]

I want to be a musical genius. A stroke seems like a mildly risky price to pay, but I really want to be a musical genius.

Hey you could come out a regular genius too! (Or dead)

 

[Chris R]

Is there scientific basis in this or was he just in the closet before the stroke and felt like he could really be himself because of it?

 

[zero_suit]

Talk about different strokes.

Master at work

 

[Marleyman]

Seems irrelevant here whether you're 'born a certain way' or not.

Tinker with the brain and I've little doubt you change all kinds of things that one would be considered 'born with'. I remember reading about a guy who developed a brain tumour that impacted on part of his brain - it went undetected, until he turned into a raging sex maniac who IIRC sexually assaulted someone, started looking at child porno etc. etc. When the tumour was removed he went right back to his previous self.

Yeah, that is wild how the brain can work.

 

[JGS]

What is a 19st?

 

[Get'sMad]

how many fathers ashamed of their gay sons are going to try to give them strokes now?

 

[Mortrialus]

Yes.

The human brain is a hell of a thing.

In all seriousness, is there previous precedent for such a thing? I realize brain injuries can radically change a person, to the point where you can say the person before the injury died, and now it's a new person, but I've never heard of such a thing specifically affecting someone's sexual preference.

 

[joelseph]

when dookie gets it right its a homerun for sure

 

[bengraven]

Guess he had a breakdown.

 

[chronos4590]

Talk about different strokes.

 

[ultron87]

Maybe he always was and just used the stroke as a perfect opportunity to come out with fewer ramifications.

 

[echoshifting]

I want to be a musical genius. A stroke seems like a mildly risky price to pay, but I really want to be a musical genius.

This would be like trying to win a jackpot by slamming your head into a slot machine until it pays out.

In all seriousness, is there previous precedent for such a thing? I realize brain injuries can radically change a person, to the point where you can say the person before the injury died, and now it's a new person, but I've never heard of such a thing specifically affecting someone's sexual preference.

I've never heard of a change in sexual preference, no, but it would not surprise me to learn that they're out there. I say it's possible because of the wide variety of bizarre changes that have occurred to people with brain injuries. Virtually any kind of personality/identity change you can conjure up is feasible through brain injury.

The reverse happened too

Happily Gay Man Has Stroke, Turns Straight

There you go.

 

[Eric C]

The reverse happened too

Happily Gay Man Has Stroke, Turns Straight

 

[Speevy]

Talk about different strokes.

When someone tells you something in real life and it's totally inappropriate to make a pun out of it, does your face twitch?

 

[Emerson]

Jesus Christ what a perfect pun.

edit:

from that link about the reverse situation:

There are probably all kinds of anti-gays foaming at the mouth over this, but here’s the thing: Heterosexuality was produced as a result of brain damage, not the other way around. Not one of the better selling points for the superiority of straightness.

Hopefully this is a (bad) joke or it's the worst point I've ever seen someone attempt to make.

 

[SpectreFire]

What is this.

EDIT: Oh. Dailymail. So this is probably faker than Janet Jackson's face.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

All the puns have been made, I'm out.

 

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

 

[LOCK]

Maybe he always was and just used the stroke as a perfect opportunity to come out with fewer ramifications.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[lexi]

I actually knew a girl in highschool was extremely shy and quiet, definitely one of the 'nerds'. She was in an accident in her early 20s and was in a coma for a few months. When she woke up, was a completely different person, partied every night, sleeping with whoever she liked and as often as she liked.

Amazing.

 

[ciD_Vain]

This happened to my bf but without the stroke. He was straight his whole life (girlfriends his whole life) until he moved to america, then a year later he went to new york and some random guy that walked passed him caught his eye. he went up to talk to the guy because it was the first time he found a guy to be sexually attractive and from that point on he felt he was gay and no longer felt sexually attracted to women. it's been 3 years since he turned gay. i don't quite understand, but it's a curious thing indeed.

 

[bengraven]

I think it's simply someone waking up and realizing that's what they want to do with their life. They probably had those thoughts before, maybe subconciously.

 

[Escape Goat]

Maybe he always was and just used the stroke as a perfect opportunity to come out with fewer ramifications.

seems like the simplest explanation but when you are turning portions of the brain off i can only imagine what happens as a result. So as incredible as it it may be I can see stroke making all kinds of changes in people.

 

[- J - D -]

The stroke was his fugue state.

 

[planar1280]

i have heard women starting to speak in a british accent but this is way beyond. The brain is such a complex creature

 

[Kurtofan]

The brain is such an amazing thing.

 

[AndyD]

I thought you are born a certain way? Weird.

Your brain is wired a certain way at birth. But a stroke can affect your brain I guess to this extent? No one knows.

We need the magnets gif, but with brain subtitle.

 

[TheKaeptain]

I thought he was going to be a republican.

 

[Crumpet Trumpet]

He becomes a hairdresser. Really now.

 

[echoshifting]

This happened to my bf but without the stroke. He was straight his whole life (girlfriends his whole life) until he moved to america, then a year later he went to new york and some random guy that walked passed him caught his eye. he went up to talk to the guy because it was the first time he found a guy to be sexually attractive and from that point on he felt he was gay and no longer felt sexually attracted to women. it's been 3 years since he turned gay. i don't quite understand, but it's a curious thing indeed.

That sounds like a much more normal case of self-discovery and sexual exploration. Not quite the same thing as your brain rewiring itself. Your boyfriend likely felt more comfortable free of certain societal pressures in his home country, and this allowed him to explore a latent interest in men.

I don't know him, and I won't pretend to...I'm just saying there's an important distinction between a pattern of normal exploration and a spontaneous change brought on by trauma. Lots of homosexuals start out believing they are heterosexual or bisexual.