Indeed, this explanation of straight-up correlation seems way more plausible to me personally. I’d imagine that boys from supportive, well-educated, open-minded families are more likely to both openly identify as gay, and achieve academic success.

But this is just a gut feeling of course. I guess it’s equally plausible that boys from less accepting backgrounds are more likely to see college or university as an escape from that environment.

Likewise, that explanation would fail to explain the opposite outcome for girls - but of course they face an entirely different set of cultural challenges.

It seems quite hard to draw any interesting conclusions without more extensive controls.