Profile
Photos
Comments
Nongay men, if you aren't secure in your sexuality don't read the paragraph I highlighted in red!! LOL
What does gay look like? Science keeps trying to figure that out
David Furst AFP / Getty Images
With
body paint, Israeli men made their sexual orientation easy to see at
the Gay Pride Paradeon June 6 in Tel Aviv. But what about innate traits
that might correlate with homosexuality? Finding and solidifying such
links isn’t easy. Studies contradict each other, and some promising
paths don’t pan out. But the result could be insight into biological
origins of homosexuality.
body paint, Israeli men made their sexual orientation easy to see at
the Gay Pride Paradeon June 6 in Tel Aviv. But what about innate traits
that might correlate with homosexuality? Finding and solidifying such
links isn’t easy. Studies contradict each other, and some promising
paths don’t pan out. But the result could be insight into biological
origins of homosexuality.
Sorry but as a gay man I have to laugh at some of these studies--as I said my brother is left handed and nongay and I am right handed and gay so it must be that because he is older that made me gay!! :O)
Finding
common biological traits -- things like hair growth patterns, penis
size, family makeup -- might one day shed light on the origins of
sexual orientation.
common biological traits -- things like hair growth patterns, penis
size, family makeup -- might one day shed light on the origins of
sexual orientation.
Last month, Sen. John McCain dropped by “Saturday Night Live,” drawing laughs from his promise, if elected president, to fight
expensive federal projects -- such as, he spoofed, a Department of
Defense device to "jam gaydar."
That was a joke. But some scientists are, in a way, working on gaydar,
the supposed ability to discern whether a person is homosexual by
reading subtle cues from their appearance. Just don't refer to it that
way. The preferred term is "sexual orientation correlates."
These scientists are searching for innate traits that might not
appear to be related to sexual orientation or even to standard clichés.
So measuring a subject's shoe size is permissible; asking about
ownership of Barbra Streisand albums would be cheating. Some inborn
traits might be expected if homosexuality is -- as most scientists
believe -- rooted in biology, and they might provide clues about the
biological origins of sexual orientation.
Finding and solidifying these links isn't easy. Studies contradict each other, and some promising paths don't pan out. (A link between male homosexuality and finger lengths isn't holding up, and a claim that gays have distinctive fingerprint ridge patterns is largely discredited.) Scientists don't always agree on how to
interpret the results, and more progress has been made with regard to
men than to women.
* Big brothers. Study after study -- including one of 87,000 British men published last year -- has found that gay men have more older brothers than straight men do. Only big brothers count. Lesbians don't show such patterns.
The numbers: Each older brother will increase a man's chances of
being gay by 33%, says Ray Blanchard of the University of Toronto, an
expert on the "big-brother effect." That's not as dramatic as it might
sound. A man's chance of being gay is pretty low to begin with --
perhaps as low as 2% (lowered from 10% by researchers in the early
1990s). So having one older brother ups the chance to only about 2.6%.
What it might mean: Psychological influences are probably not at work, because the pattern holds even for gay men who weren’t raised with their older brothers.
Instead, the mother's womb might be key. After giving birth to a boy,
her immune system might create antibodies to foreign, male proteins in
her bloodstream. Subsequent sons in the womb could be exposed to these
"anti-boy" antibodies, which might affect sexual development in the
brain.
Accordingly, you'd expect the percentage of gay men in a society to
vary depending on demographic differences in family size: One study
calculated that a one-child-per-family law would reduce male
homosexuality by about 29% from current levels.
* Left hand vs. right hand. The hand you use to sign your name might have something to do with what gender you are drawn to.
The numbers: More lefties -- or at least more
somewhat-ambidextrous folks -- crop up in the gay population than among
straight people, several studies have shown. An analysis of more than 23,000 men and women from North America and Europe in 2000
found that being non-right-handed seems to increase a man's chances of
being gay by about 34%, and a woman's by about 90%.
What it might mean: One guess is that different-than-normal
levels of testosterone in the womb -- widely theorized to play a role
in determining eventual sexual orientation -- could nudge a fetus
toward brain organization that favors left-handedness as well as
same-sex attraction.
Another theory is that development of a fetus might be disturbed by
factors such as a mother's illness, steering the fetus into being less
than strictly right-handed -- and, in some cases, less than strictly
heterosexual.
It's a politically sticky idea, says Qazi Rahman of Queen
Mary-University of London. "It's essentially saying that homosexual
preference . . . is some kind of biological error," he says. (It might
tick off the left-handed folks too.)
* Hair whorl. How does your hair grow? This might reflect your sexual orientation.
The numbers: A 2004 study of nearly 500 men -- 272 on Delaware's Rehoboth Beach, popular with gay
men, 200 on a beach without that reputation -- found that hair on the
heads of men on the gay beach was 3.5 times more likely to grow in a
counterclockwise direction. (Scalp hair typically resembles a
clockwise-rotating typhoon.)
What it might mean: One theory is that a single gene might
influence hair-whorl direction, left-right brain organization and,
somehow, sexual orientation. Exactly how it would do all this, however,
is anyone's guess.
The study, although intriguing, suffers from a lack of scientific
rigor. The author walked around while on vacation, collecting
hair-whorl observations on men from a discreet distance. He didn't know
anyone's sexual orientation for sure, and didn't objectively examine
any scalps up close. Rahman's group is attempting to replicate the
results in the lab.
* Penis size. If exposure to testosterone in the womb
influences sexual orientation, scientists reckon that straight and gay
people would differ in body parts strongly affected by testosterone,
such as the penis.
The numbers: Anthony Bogaert of Brock University in Ontario and
his colleagues re-analyzed data on 5,000 gay and straight men from
sexologist Alfred Kinsey's famous files, collected from the 1930s to
the 1960s. The results, published in 1999, showed that gay men had longer, thicker penises than did straight men:
on average, about 6.5 inches long and 4.95 inches around when erect,
versus 6.1 inches long and 4.8 inches around for straight men.
What it might mean: Scientists don't really know. One guess is
that gay men could have been exposed to an odd mix of hormones in the
womb. Testosterone levels might peak early, causing enhanced penis
growth, then drop off later in pregnancy -- leading to some feminine
characteristics.
There's one catch: Kinsey asked his subjects to measure themselves at
home and mail a postcard recording their dimensions. It is within the
realm of imagination that not every man reported the perfect truth. If
everyone lied, the essence of the results wouldn't change. It's a
problem only if gay men were more factually creative than straight men.
Bogaert says that all the measures -- length and circumference, erect
and flaccid -- seem to plausibly line up, which probably wouldn't be
the case if the men had tacked on a vanity half-inch or so. Also, a
smaller, 1960s study (in which a physician did the measuring) backs up
the findings. As to whether gay or straight men are more likely to
exaggerate about penis size, "It would be an interesting master's
thesis project," Bogaert muses.
However, the next frontier in this kind of research seems to lie
elsewhere -- with subtle differences in how gay and straight brains navigate new cities, respond to erotic movies and react to the scent of sweat and urine.
expensive federal projects -- such as, he spoofed, a Department of
Defense device to "jam gaydar."
That was a joke. But some scientists are, in a way, working on gaydar,
the supposed ability to discern whether a person is homosexual by
reading subtle cues from their appearance. Just don't refer to it that
way. The preferred term is "sexual orientation correlates."
These scientists are searching for innate traits that might not
appear to be related to sexual orientation or even to standard clichés.
So measuring a subject's shoe size is permissible; asking about
ownership of Barbra Streisand albums would be cheating. Some inborn
traits might be expected if homosexuality is -- as most scientists
believe -- rooted in biology, and they might provide clues about the
biological origins of sexual orientation.
Finding and solidifying these links isn't easy. Studies contradict each other, and some promising paths don't pan out. (A link between male homosexuality and finger lengths isn't holding up, and a claim that gays have distinctive fingerprint ridge patterns is largely discredited.) Scientists don't always agree on how to
interpret the results, and more progress has been made with regard to
men than to women.
* Big brothers. Study after study -- including one of 87,000 British men published last year -- has found that gay men have more older brothers than straight men do. Only big brothers count. Lesbians don't show such patterns.
The numbers: Each older brother will increase a man's chances of
being gay by 33%, says Ray Blanchard of the University of Toronto, an
expert on the "big-brother effect." That's not as dramatic as it might
sound. A man's chance of being gay is pretty low to begin with --
perhaps as low as 2% (lowered from 10% by researchers in the early
1990s). So having one older brother ups the chance to only about 2.6%.
What it might mean: Psychological influences are probably not at work, because the pattern holds even for gay men who weren’t raised with their older brothers.
Instead, the mother's womb might be key. After giving birth to a boy,
her immune system might create antibodies to foreign, male proteins in
her bloodstream. Subsequent sons in the womb could be exposed to these
"anti-boy" antibodies, which might affect sexual development in the
brain.
Accordingly, you'd expect the percentage of gay men in a society to
vary depending on demographic differences in family size: One study
calculated that a one-child-per-family law would reduce male
homosexuality by about 29% from current levels.
* Left hand vs. right hand. The hand you use to sign your name might have something to do with what gender you are drawn to.
The numbers: More lefties -- or at least more
somewhat-ambidextrous folks -- crop up in the gay population than among
straight people, several studies have shown. An analysis of more than 23,000 men and women from North America and Europe in 2000
found that being non-right-handed seems to increase a man's chances of
being gay by about 34%, and a woman's by about 90%.
What it might mean: One guess is that different-than-normal
levels of testosterone in the womb -- widely theorized to play a role
in determining eventual sexual orientation -- could nudge a fetus
toward brain organization that favors left-handedness as well as
same-sex attraction.
Another theory is that development of a fetus might be disturbed by
factors such as a mother's illness, steering the fetus into being less
than strictly right-handed -- and, in some cases, less than strictly
heterosexual.
It's a politically sticky idea, says Qazi Rahman of Queen
Mary-University of London. "It's essentially saying that homosexual
preference . . . is some kind of biological error," he says. (It might
tick off the left-handed folks too.)
* Hair whorl. How does your hair grow? This might reflect your sexual orientation.
The numbers: A 2004 study of nearly 500 men -- 272 on Delaware's Rehoboth Beach, popular with gay
men, 200 on a beach without that reputation -- found that hair on the
heads of men on the gay beach was 3.5 times more likely to grow in a
counterclockwise direction. (Scalp hair typically resembles a
clockwise-rotating typhoon.)
What it might mean: One theory is that a single gene might
influence hair-whorl direction, left-right brain organization and,
somehow, sexual orientation. Exactly how it would do all this, however,
is anyone's guess.
The study, although intriguing, suffers from a lack of scientific
rigor. The author walked around while on vacation, collecting
hair-whorl observations on men from a discreet distance. He didn't know
anyone's sexual orientation for sure, and didn't objectively examine
any scalps up close. Rahman's group is attempting to replicate the
results in the lab.
* Penis size. If exposure to testosterone in the womb
influences sexual orientation, scientists reckon that straight and gay
people would differ in body parts strongly affected by testosterone,
such as the penis.
The numbers: Anthony Bogaert of Brock University in Ontario and
his colleagues re-analyzed data on 5,000 gay and straight men from
sexologist Alfred Kinsey's famous files, collected from the 1930s to
the 1960s. The results, published in 1999, showed that gay men had longer, thicker penises than did straight men:
on average, about 6.5 inches long and 4.95 inches around when erect,
versus 6.1 inches long and 4.8 inches around for straight men.
What it might mean: Scientists don't really know. One guess is
that gay men could have been exposed to an odd mix of hormones in the
womb. Testosterone levels might peak early, causing enhanced penis
growth, then drop off later in pregnancy -- leading to some feminine
characteristics.
There's one catch: Kinsey asked his subjects to measure themselves at
home and mail a postcard recording their dimensions. It is within the
realm of imagination that not every man reported the perfect truth. If
everyone lied, the essence of the results wouldn't change. It's a
problem only if gay men were more factually creative than straight men.
Bogaert says that all the measures -- length and circumference, erect
and flaccid -- seem to plausibly line up, which probably wouldn't be
the case if the men had tacked on a vanity half-inch or so. Also, a
smaller, 1960s study (in which a physician did the measuring) backs up
the findings. As to whether gay or straight men are more likely to
exaggerate about penis size, "It would be an interesting master's
thesis project," Bogaert muses.
However, the next frontier in this kind of research seems to lie
elsewhere -- with subtle differences in how gay and straight brains navigate new cities, respond to erotic movies and react to the scent of sweat and urine.
Well, I don't get much out of this post, me being a lesbian and all, because they say having an older brother doesn't seem to be a "key" for lesbians (I don't have an older brother) and I certainly don't have a penis to measure for comparison purposes! 
