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The Science of Gaydar
New York Magazine ^ | July? 2007 | David France

Posted on 06/19/2007 12:18:57 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Richard Lippa, a psychologist from California State University at Fullerton, is one of the leading cataloguers of the many ways in which gay people are different. I caught up with him a few weeks ago at a booth at the Long Beach Pride Festival in Southern California, where he was researching another hypothesis -- that the hair-whorl patterns on gay heads are more likely to go counterclockwise. If true, it will be one more clue to our biological uniqueness... "We assume that whatever causes people to be right-handed or left-handed is also causing hair whorl. The theory we're testing is that there's a common gene responsible for both." And that gene might be a marker for sexual orientation. So, as part of his study, he has swabbed the inside cheek of his subjects. It will be months before that DNA testing is complete... "If I could tell my mother it's a gene, she would be so happy," said one, Scott Quesada, 42, who sat in a chair for Lippa's inspection... By the end of the two-day festival, Lippa had gathered survey data from more than 50 short-haired men and photographed their pates (women were excluded because their hairstyles, even at the pride festival, were too long for simple determination; crewcuts are the ideal Rorschach, he explains). About 23 percent had counterclockwise hair whorls. In the general population, that figure is 8 percent.

(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: gaydar; libertarians; logcabinrepublicans
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To: TexasCajun

[rimshot!]

:’D


21 posted on 06/19/2007 9:28:01 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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To: SIDENET

dammit, you know I can’t resist a dare.


22 posted on 06/19/2007 9:28:23 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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To: martin_fierro

[rimshot!]

:’D

Of course, that was a wig...


23 posted on 06/19/2007 9:29:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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To: Sax

Great! At last a scientific approach to the problem.


24 posted on 06/19/2007 9:30:09 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Completely untrue. I just found the story while...

...yes, you guessed it...

combing the web.


25 posted on 06/19/2007 9:31:22 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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To: Yaelle

I just figured his stagename was based on his real name, perhaps Ryan C. Crest, heir to a huge toothpaste fortune.


26 posted on 06/19/2007 9:32:14 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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To: doorgunner69
Well, don't read the rest of it, because it also has...

EXAMPLE B: Thumbprint Density (Male)
Gay men and straight women have an increased density of fingerprint ridges on the thumb and pinkie of the left hand.
Photographs by Mark Mahaney


The Science of Gaydar

27 posted on 06/19/2007 9:35:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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EXAMPLE C: Digit Proportions (Female)
The index fingers of most straight men are shorter than their ring fingers, and for most women they are the same length or longer. Gay men and lesbians tend to have reversed ratios.
Photographs by Mark Mahaney


The Science of Gaydar

28 posted on 06/19/2007 9:38:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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EXAMPLE D: Hand Dexterity (Male)
Gay men and lesbians have a 50 percent greater chance of being left-handed or ambidextrous than their straight counterparts.
Photographs by Mark Mahaney


The Science of Gaydar

29 posted on 06/19/2007 9:38:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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To: martin_fierro
RE: post #10
Have her blood work ups come back yet?
I’d certainly invite her out.
30 posted on 06/19/2007 9:39:24 PM PDT by investigateworld (The meanest lousiest SOB Jap POW camp commander was paroled in 1958, compare this to the BP guys)
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To: SunkenCiv
W00t! I'm straight.

Now will you believe me when I tell you I only saw Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert fifteen times for the cinematography?

31 posted on 06/19/2007 9:41:43 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: SunkenCiv

Oh, wait a minute. Your post 28. I, uh...say, do you like gladiator movies?


32 posted on 06/19/2007 9:44:07 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: SunkenCiv

You won’t brush me off that easily.


33 posted on 06/19/2007 9:55:08 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (Gaza: Your one-stop schadenfreude entertainment center.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

I think the author of the article messed up “follicle” with some other word starting with f and containing a couple of L’s...


34 posted on 06/19/2007 10:27:57 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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To: Billthedrill

Suuuure, of courrrrse I believe you. ;’) Obviously your, uh, handle, refers to dentistry...


35 posted on 06/19/2007 10:29:12 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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To: SunkenCiv
I think the author of the article messed up “follicle” with some other word starting with f and containing a couple of L’s...

That sucks.

36 posted on 06/19/2007 10:59:06 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (Gaza: Your one-stop schadenfreude entertainment center.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

[rimshot!]

OOOOOOH, a double-entredre...


37 posted on 06/20/2007 8:42:46 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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To: SunkenCiv
Meet Yossarian's Gayness test:

EXAMPLE Z: Erection (Men)
Gay men are more likely to have an erection at the sight of a fit, active man. Straight men are more likely to have an erection at the sight of a fit, active woman.

OK, where's my taxpayer-supplied grant money?

38 posted on 06/20/2007 9:06:11 AM PDT by Yossarian (Everyday, somewhere on the globe, somebody is pushing the frontier of stupidity...)
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To: Yossarian

Wow, look at the boner on the Statue of LIberty!


39 posted on 06/20/2007 10:37:27 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 15, 2007.)
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To: SunkenCiv

ping


40 posted on 07/10/2007 6:04:32 AM PDT by thehumanlynx (Duncan Hunter - Duncan Hunter - Duncan Hunter - vote the primary)
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