Adding to the great scientific history of measuring brain size, ear sensitivity and hypothalamus glands, the research world has discovered yet another potential difference between lesbians and gays and the heterosexual world.
The material was at least great for gay and lesbian comics, as both nationally known comic Kate Clinton, and Chicago comic Jessica Halem, quickly integrated the news into their April Fools weekend routines.
"If ever I found out I was heterosexual by looking at my finger, I would chop off my finger," Village Voice gay columnist Michael Musto told The New York Post.
Most gays would probably not react so severely, but nonetheless there was a lot of finger checking going on last week.
The bottom line: gay men and lesbians may have shorter index fingers than heterosexual men and women. Does that make gay men more macho than straight men? Does it make lesbians more like men? Where do bisexuals and trans people fit in?
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley reported in last week's Nature ( yes, that was Nature, not Nurture ) , that higher levels of male hormones, or androgens, in the womb can increase the chances of both males and females developing homosexual tendencies.
Berkeley Psychology Professor Marc Breedlove and his colleagues measured finger length on the right hand to determine how much of the male hormones participants were exposed to in the womb. Finger lengths, particularly on the right hand, are sensitive to androgen levels. The difference is accentuated by higher levels of androgens during the development of the fetus. Women's index and ring fingers are usually the same length, but in men the index finger tends to be shorter than the other, Reuters reported. Researchers measured 720 men and women at San Francisco street fairs.
The research showed that lesbians tended to have a much shorter index finger than ring finger on the right hand. Researchers said this may be because at least some lesbians were exposed to greater levels of fetal androgen than other women.
"There was not much difference in the finger ratios between straight and gay men," Reuters reported. "But the researchers said finger lengths did seem to indicate that gay men were exposed to higher levels of androgens which contradicts the assumption that gay men are feminine.
The research also reinforced findings from an earlier study which showed that men with several older brothers are more likely to be gay than other men. The gay men who took part in the Berkeley study had a ratio of 140 brothers to 100 sisters among older siblings, compared to a ratio of 106 brothers to 100 sisters in the general population. Men with older brothers also had a more masculine finger length pattern than those without older brothers."
"This means that somehow the mother's body remembers how many sons she has had and exposes successive male fetus to more androgen," said Breedlove.
"It is mindboggling to think that some men are gay because of the number of boys their mothers had before their own birth. These events must register in the woman's body before an individual is even conceived," he said.
While this may not be a test for determining "is my child gay?" since the differences are not found in all gays and lesbians, and because those differences are in many cases also quite small, some may use this as another sign of biology influencing destiny.
"I believe there are many social and psychological, as well as biological, factors that make up sexual preference," Breedlove said.