Swishing hips set
off gaydar in study

The way gay folks strut is a giveaway to their sexuality, reports a somewhat unsurprising study by the University of California, Los Angeles.

Sensors were attached to four men and four women--half of whom were gay--so that students could observe the way each study participant walked on a treadmill. The students were accurate in assessing the men's sexuality 60% of the time, reports MSNBC.com. The gay men slightly swayed their hips more than their straight counterparts, the study found.

The students' accuracy was weaker when guessing the women's orientations. A pattern was found, though--the lesbians seemed to move their shoulders more when they walked than did heterosexual women.

"There's reason to think that gay people can't conceal their homosexuality," Michael Bailey, a psychology professor at Northwestern University told MSNBC.com. "I don't think it's a performance that gay people enact. I think it's something that either is inborn, or it's acquired very early, perhaps by watching members of the other sex."

The study seemed to give more credence to the existence of "gaydar," suggesting that people can really tell someone's sexual orientation from visual clues. (The Advocate)