Both left handedness and having older brothers have been seen to correlate with male homosexuality. A forthcoming study reanalyzes previous studies to see if these are mutually existing or competing correlations.
Ex-gay Watch friend, Jim Burroway,comments brilliantly on the study. Go read his comments here. Interesting observations were:
1. Right-handed gay men were much more likely to have more older brothers and fewer older sisters than the general population.
2. Left-handed gay men were the opposite. They were much more likely to have fewer older brothers and more older sisters than the general population. Gay lefties were also more likely to have older siblings regardless of gender than anyone else, included gay men who are right handed.
While these are interesting observations, they are clearly only part of the picture. And this study, like so many others, has flaws and findings that are inconsistent with other studies.
But I can agree with Jim’s conclusion
If we are ever able to tease out all of the possible factors that influence sexuality, we will probably learn that there are many different “types” of homosexuality. For some, it may be genetic. For others, maybe their later birth order after a string of brothers. For others still, it may be the same thing that made them left-handed. For others, their left-handedness may be a red herring and the real cause was their distant father. And for others, maybe their absent father had nothing to do with it; prenatal hormones made it inevitable. And for most — maybe all — it is more likely to be the unique combination of any and all of these factors (and others that we haven’t discovered yet) which forms the basis for who we are.
What a coincidence. I wrote about a different study that looked at the interrelationship between older brothers, left-handedness, and homosexuality.
https://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2006/12/13/156
Great minds think alike 😉
Or it could just be the soy.
It could be that it is nearly always genetic for gay men; and here I envision the expresssion of genes from the X-chromosome in the first tri-mester. What we may be observing outwardly, that is handedness, finger-length ratios, birth-order, gay men whose mothers are from families with excess female over male children (gay men with more maternal aunts than uncles), the twin effect, etc… are traits which might point towards the cause of or avenues/modes by which activation of gene expression from the X-chromosome. Or they may point to a degree to which that expession took place. Alternatively, one or more may be associated with a hormonal effect. Whether genetic (gene expression of the X-chromosome) or hormonal the result may be that the brain is effected in some same way during fetal development.
I find it interesting that the second trend noted:
Follows closely that other observation that “gay men whose mothers are from families with excess female over male children (gay men with more maternal aunts than uncles).” Except that the excess females are in that gay man’s own family. I wonder what the results would have been if they had known about the siblings of their gay men’s mothers.
Interesting. I’m a lefty with one older brother, no other siblings. I throw a wrench into the study! But it is fascinating. All I know is, from childhood (and before I knew what sexuality was), I had no interest in “boy” things, only marginal interest in anything that might be considered “girly” and never felt attracted to girls.
Yup. Definitely all that soy.
Speaking as someone who believes “gay” is a socially constructed identity and that biologically it is a phenomena very much like left-handedness (not directly genetic but developmentally traceable as early as the 2nd trimester) I think this study is fascinating. We have spent too much time trying to tie homosexuality to a single ‘gay’ gene and we have spent too little time looking at the incredible diversity of creation.
The brain is an awesome and complex organ that has zillions of individual subtleties we can only observe and report. Explaining homosexuality in a complete scientific manner is at best a difficult task, one LGBT people should not count on to hide from religionist gaybashers.
I believe we must reach a point in rational discourse where we, as LGBT people, are able to say even if it was (on some subconscious level) a choice, that does not make it immoral. In short, the creative process of life (aka God) channels some smaller portion of the population into gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identities, and this has always been so with homo sapiens.
Count me as a gay leftie who is the older of my siblings. I have one younger sister. Hmmm..
right handed, two older brothers, no sisters
I guess that makes me a “Type 1” gay man
My partner and I are both the fourth of sixth children. My older siblings consist of one brother, two sisters; all three of his are brothers. And we’re both gay! So I guess that proves the birth order theory.
But wait: his oldest brother, the first child in the family, is also gay. So I guess that disproves the birth order theory.
My head hurts.
emma said
and redheads are agents of satan
Hey! Wait a minute! I’m a redhead! My momma didn’t raise no agent of Satan!
I’ve been known to cause a little hellfire here on earth but I’m the Lords! *thumbsup*
Sorry Ken, Your momma done raise a good boy
This may be a fluke, but I am the eldest of three – I have one brother two years younger and a sister four years younger. I am gay and they are straight. WE ARE ALL LEFT-HANDED! Our father was left-handed as pre-schooler, but in the 1930’s and 1940’s the nuns made him change – as a result (I think) he was seriously dyslexic. Mom is right-handed, as is her entire family. Go figure!
Just to add to the study, my partner and I are both right-handed and are both the oldest in our families.