About left- or right-handedness and affectional (sexual) orientation.

[Bertha Venation]

Bobthedrummer's thread about left-handedness is what made me think about posting this poll.

Research has indicated that gay folk tend to be left-handed more frequently than straight folk. So I'm curious.

Also: if you're ambidextrous, do weigh in! I'm sorry there wasn't room in the poll for all the choices.

If you care to, please vote in this poll, and offer your opinions & experiences. If you vote "I differ from or disagree with your categories," please elaborate. Thanks!

[5thGenDemocrat]

1. Straight and left handed

Except that I shoot a rifle righthanded and can swing a golf club either way.
John
Mom was truly ambidextrous -- she'd write notes with whichever hand she picked the pen up with. She was also a MENSA member (not that I know if one is related to the other).

[MercutioATC]

2. I'm the same except I shoot a gun lefthanded and a bow righthanded.

I play baseball and golf righthanded, but I eat lefthanded.

It's a strenth/dexterity thing for me. My right arm is stronger, but my left hand has better fine motor control.

I also have an eye dominance issue. My right eye does much of the focusing for my left, to the point that although I have different degrees of nearsightedness in both eyes, I use the same prescription for both.

[camero]

3. same here

I write and eat with my left hand but do pretty much everything else with my right for the same reason. I'm a straight guy too.

[5thGenDemocrat]

30. Eye dominance

I'm right-eyed. This is good as a lefty when hitting a baseball (for example). It might be why I shoot a rifle righthanded, too.
John
I kick with my right foot, FWIW.

[Cuban_Liberal]

4. Gay southpaw here.

So is Paddy. :hi:

[arwalden]

5. Same here.

[Cuban_Liberal]

6. That's 3 of us.

:)

[Bertha Venation]

7. Six.

Me, Mrs. V., and my best friend Dale. :hi:

I also know a bunch of other gay lefties back home.

[arwalden]

10. My Partner Is Left Handed... My Ex Is Left Handed

[varun]

12. me too...

me and my partner (we are gay) are both lefties...

[Virginian]

8. My spouse is straight and left handed.

As I, a right handed strait woman, sit here trying to use a computer with a left handed mouse, I think about all the people I have known of the minority dexterity. There have been times when all of my closest friends both male and female have been "right brained" and therefore left handed. Most of the men I dated and the one to which I am married are left handed.

As left handed dexterity is not the more common dexterity, I wonder what this says about me.

What percentage of the American population is left handed?



PS: Add my nephew to the right handed gay column.

[undergroundpanther]

9. I'm an ambidextrous bisexual and transgender...feline

[teach1st]

11. Five to thirty percent are lefties

According to Scientific American:

http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=00063C8D-61EF-1C72-9EB7809EC588F2D7

In the 160 years in which "handedness" has been studied we have learned quite a lot, but we still cannot precisely describe what causes humans preferentially to use one hand over the other, or why human populations are biased toward right-hand use rather than left-hand use.

Scientists disagree over what percentage of human populations are "right-handed" or "left-handed" because there is no standard, empirical definition for measuring "handedness"; our criteria vary, and are based on various theoretical explanations because we are still trying to understand the mechanisms involved. But I can describe in general terms what we do know.

Most humans (say 70 percent to 95 percent) are right-handed, a minority (say 5 percent to 30 percent) are left-handed, and an indeterminate number of people are probably best described as ambidextrous. This appears to be universally true for all human populations anywhere in the world. There is evidence for genetic influence for handedness; however, it is non-Mendelian and geneticists cannot agree on the exact process. There is evidence that handedness can be influenced (and changed) by social and cultural mechanisms. For instance, teachers have been known to force children to switch from using their left hand to using their right hand for writing. Also, some more restrictive societies show less left-handedness in their populations than other more permissive societies.

[SOteric]

13. I'm an ambidexter, and I'm a hetero female.

:hi:

[Bertha Venation]

14. more votes?

:kick:

[DS1]

15. I was born with penises for hands, and I'm a lesbian

God frowned upon me that day.

[Padraig18]

16. Gay lefty here!

Although I bat and throw right-handed in baseball.

[bobthedrummer]

17. You've got an interesting poll here Bertha Venation

BTW, I'm a monogamous hetero and a southpaw.
But the right side of the bed is my "territory", I always occupy the right side when sleeping.
I forgot to mention that our daughter is a total leftie.
I have noticed that many creative people like artists and writers as well a fair amount of musicians are lefties, but that is more than likely selective perception on my part.
I don't know about left/right and sexuality, that's why this is an interesting poll.

[Bertha Venation]

18. I like discussing "handedness" when debating anti-gay-rights folks.

I like to point out the history of thought that being left-handed was unnatural, and that scores of cultures over the centures forced (and some still do) all children by various means to eat and write with their right hands only.

Very useful when the specious "homosexuality is unnatural, therefore there's no reason you should have special rights" line is brought up.

Also very useful as comparison: I didn't choose to be gay any more than I chose to be left-handed.

I have always just LOVED it that I am left-handed. I love discussing handedness under any circumstances, I guess. I suppose it's queer, but hey... look at me. ;)

[southerngirlwriter]

23. I didn't choose to be right-handed...it was chosen for me.

That "unnatural" thing isn't over yet, BerthaV. It was just 19 1/2 years ago that I entered the first grade and was forced into right-handedness. The teacher (at a fascist fundy school) put a rubber band on my left wrist and if she caught me using it to write or pick things up one-handed, would snap it.

My mother had no problem with this, as she'd heard that left-handed people tended to be "weird."

Today, I'm right-handed. But I'm also right-brained, and that's not supposed to be possible. I guess it's because the right-handedness was artificially imposed. :shrug:

[Bertha Venation]

26. How's your handwriting?

Legible? Barely legible? Completely illegible? For I've heard that people forced to be right-handed have lousy handwriting. IMWTK!

[southerngirlwriter]

28. My handwriting depends on speed.

If I'm writing at an average pace (taking notes at a moderately-paced lecture, say) it's atrocious.

If I'm writing fast (a speedwriting exercise in workshop or something), it's worse than atrocious.

If I'm writing something I need other people to be able to read, I CAN do it -- I *can* write very neatly -- but it takes me, like, an hour to do one page. Neat handwriting for me is a painstaking, god-awful chore that takes FOREVER.

This may explain why I taught myself to type before I was 8 and now type in the neighborhood of 130 wpm. :-)

[Bertha Venation]

29. 130 wpm?

:wtf:
bitch
:hi:

[St. Jarvitude]

19. Straight and right-handed

Though I do some things with my left hand :evilgrin:

[Edge]

20. Straight and right-handed...

except I cut stuff with my left hand.

[MrSlayer]

21. Straight and ambidextrous, left hand dominant.

I can do just about everything with both hands but favor my left.

[terrya]

22. Gay right hander here. And so is my partner Doug.

I really don't know any gay men or women who are left handed.

Terry

[Bertha Venation]

24. "I really don't know any...."

You do now, Cutie Pie. :hi: Mrs. V. & me! Allen, Paddy & Tony, too.

[terrya]

25. Oooooops!

That teaches me to always read every post!

My goodness...I now realize I have some very nice friends who are gay and left handed.

:-)

And love,
Terry

[Bertha Venation]

27. *smooch*

:loveya: :pals:

[stromboli]

31. both hands

i'm asexual and switch off with both hands to keep it interesting

[Spirochete]

32. Left and straight-handed

or something like that, anyhow. I do swing a baseball bat and golf club right-handed, like Bill Clinton and Poppy Bush. If I shoot a rifle it's left-handed, mostly because i don't see very well with my right eye.

[jmags]

33. I'm a straight left hander,

but I can golf, play hockey, lacrosse, baseball, and masturbate right handed.

But if left-handedness means there is a higher disposition to being gay, why is the right ear piercing a sign of homosexuality?

That's kind of like parking on a driveway and driving on a parkway. Well it's actually nothing like that. But maybe someone catches my drift.

[JohnKleeb]

34. Lefty Straight

[snobird]

35. Lesbian Righties

gator & I are right handed.I have a lesbian sister who is a lefty, & 3 straight brothers & 1 straight sister who are lefties.