Job Discussion Forums

[grahamb]

My mother's left-handed, despite schoolteachers trying to physically beat it out of her when she was young.
Ah, the benefits of a liberal Scottish education!

[VanKen]

Another sinister lefty

[grahamb]

Groan!

[Celeste]

I was ambidextrous as a young child, and my teachers encouraged me towards right handedness. I was generally right handed for office tasks until all of my computer use gave me carpal tunnels syndrome in my right wrist (damned mouse!). I had to wear a very restrictive wrist/ hand brace for 2 months. I am ambidextrous again. (It is really hard to get dressed or do personal grooming with one hand, I discovered. I had to get my hair cut rather short, because hairbrushing and styling is a 2 handed activity- who knew?! Fortunately it has since grown out.)

[Belmont]

80% of all lesbians is left handed. Of course there is a margin of error-- maybe it's more like 73%, but there is data to support this. A very interesting piece of information. Hercule Perot would know this bit of trivia, of course.

[johnslat]

Dear Belmont,
My God - then, the odds are that I'm a lesbian. Yikes! On the other hand (so to speak), the study was a bit flawed.

The main caution, however, must be about the significance of the findings. Neither the authors nor I can quantify its error, because it was done using a meta-analysis. A known epidemiological rule of thumb for individual surveys states that, in a test-population, a prevalence of twice that in the control group is intriguing but inconclusive, and a prevalence of three is probably significant. This means that if this were an individual survey, the result of 31% above normal would be insignificant, and that of 91% above normal (about twice the control group) would be considered intriguing, but not decisive. This rule-of-thumb applies to individual surveys, but it is unknown if the rule should apply in the same manner to a meta-analysis.

Using their results, it is possible to derive a number, which shows the extent of any link there may be between homosexuality and left-handedness. Here's how it's done. Given that 2.7% of adult Western males are homosexuals and 1.7% of adult Western women female homosexuals (both figures including bisexuals, and defined as activity in the last 12 months [4]) we can calculate by standard methods that only 3.9% of left-handed males are homosexual, and only 3.3% of left-handed females are lesbian (5).

In other words, the overwhelming majority of those who are left-handed, do not become homosexual. The strength of any underlying factor producing both is weak. Something unusual appears to happen to a small number of left-handed people, and their sexual-orientation development is atypical. Conversely, however, and very importantly, most homosexual people are not left-handed.

The latest study is intriguing. Nevertheless, the main routes to homosexuality would not likely be through the route that has caused some people to be left-handed.

Regards,
Lefty but straight John

[Belmont]

John, left-handedness is not a "route" to homosexuality!... or makes you a better lesbian. lol! And I somehow can't see you aspiring to being a better lesbian. Your statistics are highly amusing, especially since most of those in the know, know that about 10% of the world population is homosexual. My comments were about lesbians and left handedness, for which there is some very well-documented evidence to support the theory.

[johnslat]

Dear Belmont,
Hmm - guess these people aren't "in the know":

http://www.familyresearchinst.org/FRI_AIM_Talk.html

http://www.leaderu.com/marco/special/spc11b.html

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/opinion/3458973.htm

http://tko.kenyon.edu/index.php?action=view_article&article=69

http://www.gaydemographics.org/USA/2000_Census_Total.htm

I doubt that any census, survey, poll or whatever can, with any degree of accuracy, determine the percentage of the worldwide population that's gay. One big problem is that most of the counters - whether homophobes homophiles or "objective scientists" - tend to have their own agendas, consciously or not. Statistics, yikes - as Mark Twain said:

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

Regards,
John

[Belmont]

Some of those "in the know" you listed are pretty suspect, especially the first one. I'll bet they think Pat Robertson is the bees knees.

You are right about the statistics. They aren't always accurate, especially from the US Census Bureau! omg

And it does depend on where you live. If you're in a repressive/conservative environment you hide; you're not counted. On the other hand, you come forward and don't mind being counted if you have the good fortune to live in an atmosphere that tolerates diversity.

[Lanza-Armonia]

Righty, but do EVERYTHING else left. Including certain natural pleasures...

LA