Lefties

No one knows why people are left handed, there are theories but no one has said “Eureka!”

What we do know is that worldwide ten percent of the population is left handed, it doesn’t matter what your race, sex, if you are rich or poor, or ethnicity it is still 10%. However, there is one group of people that are significantly more likely to be left handed! Do you know what that group of peoples?

One time at the True Colors conference which is a conference for LGBT youth I was collecting signatures for a petition for the gender inclusive non-discrimination bill and I noticed something, a good number of the people in the registration line were taking my pen in their left hand… Hmm?

I was at a meeting with gays, lesbians, and trans people and when I looked around the table about half were left handed! I remembered back to the conference and I made a note in my notebook, “search the internet on gays and left handedness.”

What I found was that for some unknown reason we have a significate higher percentage of lefties.

Canadian Scientists Find More Homosexuals Left-Handed
Science Daily
By Drs. Martin L. Lalumière, Ray Blanchard, and Kenneth J. Zucker, of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the University of Toronto [Yes I know who they are.]
Date: July 10, 2000
Source: University Of Toronto
Summary: Three Canadian researchers have shown that left-handedness is more common in gay men and in lesbian women than in comparable heterosexual persons.

The study, published in the July issue of Psychological Bulletin, combined the results from 23,410 heterosexual and homosexual men and women. The results for both sexes were statistically significant; however, the tendency toward increased levels of left-handedness was markedly greater for lesbian women than for gay men.

The importance of these results lies in their theoretical implications. Handedness is determined early in development -- probably before birth. Therefore, the correlation of handedness and sexual orientation demonstrates that at least some influences on adult sexual orientation operate quite early, maybe even before an individual is born. The results also suggest that there may be at least one cause of homosexuality that is common to both gay men and lesbian women. This is in contrast to much other biological research on sexual orientation, which has usually suggested that sexual orientation in men is influenced by different factors than sexual orientation in women.

Although the findings of increased left-handedness in homosexual persons are quite reliable, they are small in absolute magnitude, and they have no application besides providing clues to the origins of sexual orientation. Handedness could not be used to decide whether someone else (or oneself) is gay, lesbian, or heterosexual.

In Bilerico there also was an article about this study,

Putting together the results of 20 previous studies that involved more than 23,000 men and women, the scientists concluded that the odds of being left-handed are 39 per cent higher in homosexuals than in heterosexuals. Broken down by gender, they found that gay men are 34% more likely to be left-handed and lesbians are 91% more likely to be left-handed.

Whoa! Stop right their “lesbians are 91% more likely to be left-handed!” and that correlates with my observations.

The Bilerico article goes on to say,

In 1993, researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario found that 69% of lesbians and 45% of gay men interviewed were left-handed in "at least one of 12 simple manual tasks." Sandra Witelson, a co-author of the McMaster study, speculated that the higher incidence of left-handedness may be because "brain organization may be different than in others" resulting from differing hormonal levels while in the mother's womb.

So let’s review, 10% of the general population is left handed, almost 70% of the lesbians are left handed, and 45% of the gays are left handed and no one knows why people are left handed. Hmm.

When I was researching this I came across something else that was interesting.

SOME DISORDERS APPEAR TO BE LINKED TO BEING LEFT-HANDED
New York Times: Science
By Jane E. Brody
Published: April 19, 1983

LEFT— HANDED people, already burdened by minor inconveniences in a right-handed world and by a language full of such ego-deflating figures of speech as two left feet, out in left field and left-handed compliment, also seem to face an increased risk of certain disorders that can further impair the quality of their lives.

A series of new studies show that left-handed people are more likely to suffer from learning disabilities, stuttering, migraine headaches and, according to the latest findings, autoimmune diseases, like ulcerative colitis, myasthenia gravis and celiac disease, in which the body attacks its own tissues.
[…]
Although left-handedness had previously been associated with learning disorders and certain other problems, the possible biological significance of the connections had been unappreciated. In fact, the high incidence of the learning disability dyslexia among left-handed people had often been attributed to attempts by parents and teachers to force them to use their right hands. For example, the late Nelson Rockefeller, a dyslexic who tended to read and write words backwards, was a lefty whose father had tried unrelentingly but unsuccessfully to convert him to a righty.

I haven’t been formally diagnosed with dyslexia but one of my professors in grad school who is a LCSW specializing in learning disorders thought I might be dyslexic and gave me a website to visit to test for dyslexia and I failed the test miserably.

The New York Times article goes on to say,

Left-handedness, learning disabilities, autism and stuttering are all found more frequently among boys than girls, Dr. Geschwind noted. This suggests that a sex-related factor is involved. According to the scientist, animal studies have shown an effect of testosterone on other brain regions. Dr. Geschwind hypothesizes that testosterone may also be the determining factor in delaying growth of the left planum. Testosterone is produced in large quantities by the male fetus, but the female fetus is exposed to only small amounts of this hormone.

There is that ugly word, testosterone. So maybe it all has something to do with the fetus development, when, how much, and how long the brain was exposed to hormones.

So what does this all have to do with being trans?

Well I am trans, I am left handed, and I am probably dyslexic and no knows why anyone is anyone is any of them.

I leave you with this video…