Comments on: Older Brothers, Left-Handedness, and Gay Men

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:38:37 +0000

Exactly – or the idea that one will get hairy palms if one…

By: John

John — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:45:20 +0000

“Left-Handedness, and Gay Men”.
It makes me think of the silly belief that existed for some time on some regions. It was believed red-haired people were conceived when their moms were menstruated. Or some other silly things like trying to guess the size of the penis trough the size of other bodily parts. Talk about science of the middle ages!

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:19:52 +0000

My point exactly. Wondering what “causes” homosexuality really implies another question: “How then do we cure/prevent it?” Otherwise why should anyone worry about this sort of thing?

By: Ostelek

Ostelek — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:26:46 +0000

Isn’t this sort of research kind of heteronormative? It just seems to me that it is treating homosexuality as a pathology.

Instead of asking the question: “What causes different sexual orientations?”, it assumes that heterosexuality is the correct orientation and attempts to answer the question “What causes people to deviate from heterosexuality?”

By: John

John — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:47:48 +0000

what about people who can use both hands equally? are they supposed to be bisexual?

By: David

David — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:34:52 +0000

Good way of looking it. But then again, as we well know, one does not need heterosexuals to breed homosexuals or heterosexuals! Homosexuals can do that too! Homosexuality seems to have the best of both worlds:)

By: William

William — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:04:37 +0000

Well, David, we still don’t know, but my guess would be that heterosexuality and homosexuality are caused by variations of the same process – whatever that process may be – just as right- and left-handedness presumably are.

All we can say for certain is that, just as heterosexuality continues to breed more heterosexuals, it also continues to breed homosexuals. Vive l’hétérosexualité!

By: David

David — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:33:19 +0000

What I want to know is, what causes HETEROsexuality?

By: quo

quo — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 06:58:17 +0000

But the fact that there are gay men and women who do not report a smothering mother/distant father is evidence that this can’t explain homosexuality for everyone either.’

What a way to point out the obvious. At least you’re not claiming that this shows that the above scenario cannot have anything to do with causing homosexuality in any case – this is a common argument, albeit a total non-sequitur.

By: Ray Foster

Ray Foster — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 21:37:41 +0000

This is all very interesting but I don’t know what to make of it other than that the association between having an older male sibling and being left handed seems to be what’s going on in my experience. I’m dominant left-hander for fine motor skills like writing and controlling a screwdriver, but a right-handed athlete (basketball and baseball) and need the strength of my right hand to push a screwdriver. I have to use both and when I’m using a screwdriver. Also, I’m deaf and I tend to switch dominant hands when I’m signing. I have an older sister and I have a brother that is almost exactly one year older than I. My father was stern but I would never call him distant. And my mother was loving but had too many kids to be smothering. I was undoubtedly a gender non-conforming child, so all this research on birth order and handiness seems to apply to me. I certainly didn’t choose homosexuality and was pretty distressed by it when I realized that was what I was dealing with. I’m the only gay one in my family, but I have a two cousins, both on my mother’s side, that are gay. I’ve never met either of them.