I think there's a sort of epistemological or at least methodological question here. The article states a top-level finding (gay men get degrees more often), and

I think there's a sort of epistemological or at least methodological question here. The article states a top-level finding (gay men get degrees more often), and brings up a hypothesis rooted in individual experience (a memoir where academic achievement is way to compensate for difficulties in measuring up to standards of masculinity or parental expectations). But how do we ever validate that such a subjective individual-oriented hypothesis is explanatory for the group trend as a whole? Though the "best little boy in the world" hypothesis sounds plausible and aligns with some anecdotes, it's probably not alone. E.g. different individualized explanations might be: - college is a socially valuable ticket towards mobility that lets gay men find their communities, possibly relocating. - the particular othering experienced by gender non-conforming boys encourages introspective habits of mind which are later useful. It's not the kind of thing where one could feasibly use experiments to validate or refute a hypothesis ("we raised group A in an environment of homophobia and toxic masculinity ..."). And even in terms of data collection, it seems impossible to meaningfully dial in to a finer grained level of detail on a broad population. It would seem a bit preposterous and even callous to put on a survey "on a scale of 1 to 7, do you agree with the statement 'As a child I felt that masculinity was inaccessible'?"