Based on a sample of 2000+ college students and people found in internet chat rooms, the authors of this paper found that gay men and lesbians exhibited low and high incidences, respectively, of A blood type compared to heterosexuals (p < 0.05). Additionally, they found that a unusually high proportion of homosexuals of both sexes were Rh- (i.e. had no Rhesus D antigen on their red cells) compared to heterosexuals (p < 0.06). Blood type and Rh factor were self-reported, and the internet chat room sampling sounds sort of sketchy. If the stats hold, since blood type and Rh factor are genetically determined, there might be some kind of genetic linkage thing going on with sexual orientation. Zip zap.
Comments
Interesting, but there are a lot of other possible explanations. For example, blood-types vary to some extent by racial/ethnic groups. If certain groups are more willing to accept homosexuals then more people of those groups might be willing to identify as homosexual. I can think of at least two or three other hypotheses that might explain this data.
Posted by: Joshua Zelinsky | March 23, 2008 3:22 PM
So does that mean that AB people are bi? It's true in my case. :)
Posted by: Libertarianchick | March 23, 2008 7:16 PM
I'm a lesbian and I have been very curious about the genetic end of it. I'm B with RH- blood.
But, like the above poster said...homosexuality isn't widely accepted yet, so there is probably a very large group of closeted homosexuals that haven't been accounted for yet.
Posted by: holycrap08 | March 25, 2008 11:24 AM