Leana

Does AA and NA have a rule that a person's sponsor must be the same gender? If yes, why?

MIRecovery

There are no rules and the traditions are pretty generic.

It is suggested that sponsorship is same sex for a bunch of reasons here are few

• recovery is hard enough without throwing the possibility of romantic attachment into the equation
• the sponsee's significant other may become jealous
• the sponsors significant other maybe some jealous
• people new to sobriety are very vulnerable and can easily be taken advantage of
• people new to sobriety may substitute sexual addiction for their DOC
• people of the same sex likely will understand each other better
• gossip will be minimized

I'm sure there are others but these are ones I can think of