“Top” or “bottom?” NIH-funded study links gay sexual preference to penis size

The National Institute of Health is fielding controversy after conducting studies regarding the link between gay male sexual behavior and penis size.

Originally published in 2009, the Institute’s findings connected gay male preference for “top,” or dominant sexual positions with “above average penises,” and linked “bottom,” or more passive sexual position preference with “below average” penis size. In addition, the study also indicated that men with average penis sizes frequently consider themselves sexually versatile when it comes to choosing a position preference.

According to Fox News, the socially conservative Traditional Values Coalition has dubbed the NIH’s allotment of government funding for such studies “institutional waste.” But despite public outcry over funding priorities, researchers involved in the study maintain that no tax-payer money was used in the data-collection process.

“NIH funds were not used to measure anyone’s penis size,” said Jeffrey Parsons, a Hunter College professor and research participant in the controversial study. He explained that the grant sum cited by the Traditional Values Coalition — $9.4 million over a ten-year span – was allotted for a broad, post-doctoral training program, of which the penis-study was only a minor facet.

“To suggest that 9.4 million dollars was spent to study penis sizes is factually inaccurate and simply designed to create news,” Parsons said in an email.

The study in question was designed to fill a gap in national research assessing “the association between penis size and socio-sexual health.”