The original news article is at the bottom of this page. Researchers want to know why 3/4 of lesbians are fat and gay males are not. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) are awarding $1.5 million for an answer to this question. They also want to know why heterosexual males have nearly double the risk of obesity compared to gay males.

The short answer: evolution directs men (both gay and straight) to desire looks (a healthy body) to be their mate, and evolution directs women (both gay and straight) to desire status—a form of [dominance].

Since gay men desire healthy bodies, a gay man must possess a healthy body to attract a mate—which is another gay man. Therefore, gay men try to stay healthy.

Straight men don't necessarily have to have a healthy body to attract women because women desire status more than looks. Therefore, straight men focus more on improving their dominance than their weight.

Gay women can let themselves go (get fat) and still attract a female partner because status is more important than looks for women—both gay and straight.

And finally, straight fat women who cannot attract a man, can pretend to be gay and couple up with a dominant gay woman, because women prefer dominance. Also, these same straight women elevate their status further by sending a non-verbal message to men: "I'm not interested in you anyway!"

Of course, the belief "she's not interested in men anyway!" is self-deception, which is a behavioral trait produced by evolution to help individuals and groups cope with inconvenient truths and compete for scarce resources.

Do you think the government needs to spend $1.5 million to answer these questions?