is it true that 10% of the population is LGBT, or is that a myth? what proves it?

Question

I heard and have been hearing that 1 in every 10 people are LGBT.. is this true? it seems so hard to believe. I sort of hope it is lol.

Why does everyone think it's more then 10%? I hear it is WAY less, like 1%.. Anyways, Kensey was wrong.. like half the people he interviewed were prostitues and sef offenders or something.. Basically, he interviewed like only certain groups, and dind't just independently call people and ask. Not to mention that in a survey, they need to itnerview thousands, like 100,00 to be for sure.. lol, I want to do a survey. Plus, Kenseys thing was in the freaking 1940's.. Yeah, I didn't think sex was huge back then lol.

oh, and if it was more than 10%, then why do I never see same sex couples at the grocery stores, and malls holding hands? why would ppl be so homophobic when really one of their best friends is LGBT?

Answer 1

1. The arguments against Kinsey are bogus. Created by religious extremists, they are based around questions that, if they had been valid would have been raised in peer reviewed in the 1950s. That is what peer review is for, and trust me, when your colleagues in a given academic discipline are against your research to start with (which they were) it is vicious

2. There are two methods of looking at the idea of preference.

a. Statistically. The easiest and hugest sample taken in recent times would be the political stats in 2000. LGB (not T) persons who would admit to pollsters in many different locations that they were LGB were noted as such so that they could track our voting patterns. 5% of voters said that they were LGB to the pollsters. Presuming average or even 10% above average turnout among homosexuals -- the idea of less than 1% is obviously laughable. A created statistic from places like the Family Research Council and such I suppose.

So, is it 10%? Well, we can prove 5% pretty reliably above. Do you honestly think, for an instant, that half of gays and lesbians in the US aren't hidden? I don't. I know far more closeted gays than I do out-gays. With that in mind, is it at least 10%? -- Well, from a purely rational perspective, yes.

b. Anecdotal -- in all groups I have ever been involved in (my grade in my school, the two following grades, hobby organizations and, yes, faith groups) it has always been about 10%, sometimes a little less (it was only about 8% in my graduating class from H/S); sometimes a little more (it was 14% in the class after mine) -- but always around 10%.

Note: And those two routes don't mention the over 30 supporting studies done over 30 years -- that support a 10% average. (if you want exact citations, send me email, and I'll get you a list from a colleague who is actually in the field -- I'm not in the field, I've just read some of it over the years.)

In fact, only 1 study of which I am aware has ever demonstrated a number under 5%, and that study was funded entirely out of the Christian Right -- additionally, remember me mentioning peer review? Well one of the things that came out in peer review was that the study authors were told in advance what their conclusions should be -- the epitome of what NOT to do in scholarly work.

It would be convenient for the extremists on the Right of the faith community if they could legitimately claim that only 1% of people were gay; and so they will fund bogus research and make outrageous claims and accusations against Kinsey and Hite and Masters and Johnson and so forth in an ongoing attempt to create a false paradigm that will be accepted by the public. If they could get that accepted it would be easier for them to marginalize that supposed 1%, even if it was 20%. Reality does not matter, only perception -- and they fully understand that. How else push as divinely inspired truth a book that says the earth has corners, sits on pillars and has, among its creatures, beetles and grasshoppers with 4 legs? How else to push the myth of the "born again" movement, which is based on scriptures, which even within Judaism, have other, clear meanings -- but meanings that no one who doesn't bother to go through and study the ancient theology are likely to figure out?

If you have not read Kinsey for yourself, do so. Read the supporting studies -- if you are not in an Institution with a large and varied library, contact me at my email address below, I may be able to get you copies of at least some of the studies -- and I am happy to work with you to help you further your understanding.

Have a wonderful day.

Regards,

Reynolds Jones
Schenectady, NY
http://www.rebuff.org
[e-mail]

PS Several notations on your post statements.

1. A well constructed survey does NOT require hundreds of thousands of participants, the 18000 participants engaged by the Kinsey study are far more than most studies of any kind ever use.

2. Jonathan and I have been together almost 15 years and we do NOT hold hands in the grocery store or the mall. We love each other very much -- but getting ourselves attacked does not strike us as productive. Open your eyes and watch for the couples, we've gotten quite adept at picking them out in public places -- you are far underestimating the number of them that you are seeing.

3. I don' t have any homophobic friends -- however, I certainly have known people who remained homophobic and stopped being my friend. And, I've seen more families throw their own kids out on the street -- and I mean that literally -- when they figured out they were gay than you would believe. We have helped several teenagers over the years who were outed and then thrown out by their own parents, in some cases, specifically the mothers -- so don't make an assumption that homosexual members of a family disarms homophobia. Homophobia has been created, strengthened and used by religious groups from PARTS of the Abrahamic faiths since at least 1300 -- the type of psychological dynamics setup by such entrenched and institutionalized prejudice are very very difficult to overcome.

Answer 2

The figures are about 10-12% of any population is LGBT. Research conducted since the 50's has indicated that this number seems to hold true...if you count the married guys who play on the side, you would probably add another 2% to the figure. Every sex survey has confirmed these numbers. There are times when you would swear that everyone was Gay, and others when you would think you are the only Gay person in the world..somehow, it balances out, doesn't it?

Answer 3

I think that figure is wrong, the figures I remember for men say that 25% of a rather large sample of men admitted to having a homosexual exerience. But when I did some research this one study estimated that for men it was between 2-8%, however stressed that this was a very conservative estimate. For women the figure they gave was surprisingly lower 1-6%. The link to the bottom will take you to the full article.

The reason so many of us say it could be more than 10% but you don't see lots of same sex couples in PDAs could for starters have a lot to do with your geopgraphic location (gays in really conservative areas tend to stay in the closet or at least try to fly under the radar in public) and because of the negative stigma and persecution that gay people have to endure. I don't openly engage in PDA in public because I don't feel like putting up with all the crap its likely to generate and I'm sure there are plenty of people in the closet either because they don't want others to know or they don't want to admit it themselves.

Answer 4

I also do believe that it is higher. I have been hearing about that 10% thing too. But they fail to count me in. How would they know that I was gay if I was still hiding in the closet? And those who doesn't realize it yet?

Probably, they made a survey in a place that would misrepresent the LGBT count on the population. We are talking the WHOLE population, why didn't I recieve a survey? It is just impossible to prove it. Or probably they are basing it on Hinley's theory which represent mostly college students...

Answer 5

The famous figure of 10% of a population being gay comes from a misreading and misunderstanding of the work by Dr. Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948.) In this book, Kinsey summed up his research of the previous 15 years. Using direct interview questioning, he tried to develop a data pool that would give him a "naturalists" perspective on human sexual activity. Although he never used the term gay (it was not in general usage then,) and he only asked about "experiences" and not identity, we can still see the problems of determining anything with validity from such data. None-the-less, the 10% figure was arrived at in the following way. Kinsey found that 46% of all males had at least one homosexual experience sometime in his life (as this included everything from puberty to old age, we can see how far this would be from a gay identity.) Out of this group, approximately 1/3 said they were "3" on the Kinsey scale ( 1= only attracted to the opposite sex to 6= only attracted to the same sex.) Based on these figures and the other data, Kinsey projected that at any given time roughly 10% of a random male population will have a homosexual relationship as their primary sexual outlet for about 3 years of their life between the ages of 16 and 55. In other words, according to Kinsey 10% of the population is not gay, but 10% of the male population is involved in a homosexual relationship. For fuller information on the statistics and methods of the Kinsey report, try this site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinsey_Reports
What is interesting is the the figure that Kinsey came up with for exclusive homosexual behavior 4-5% is the same that Master and Johnson came up with in the 1970's. Though once again, this figure cannot really represent the percentage of a population who, for a variety of reasons, identify themselves as LGBT. To look further into the issue of sexual identity versus activity try this site for a start:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_identity

Answer 6

Absolutely not true! First of all, you would have to get all the closeted people to agree to your survey which is next to impossible. If you are only accounting for those who are out, then it is an inaccurate count.
I think there are a lot of LGBT people that are not out to the public and besides I think there are far more than 10% of the population.

Answer 7

That is what some people say to avoid the truth that's it more than that.

It's the fear that it's more than 10% that drives the constant hatred, oppression and deaths of LGBT.

I all LGBT people came out at once it would be more than 50% of the world's population.

Answer 8

If asked to take a guess, I would guess that approx 2-5% of the population are homosexual and that 10-20% are bisexual. A bisexual who is in a straight relationship tends to identify as straight, and is always assumed by a two-tier society to be straight.

Answer 9

No, it's higher than that - 10% is just the ones that are out. There are a lot more in the closet not being counted.

Answer 10

who knows , you need to thin of the people in the closet that a snot counted + the ones that where not there for the census can be way more