What Percentage of Men and Women are Actually Homosexual?

Question

AND PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me where you're actually getting your info from.

Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

. Mythic Status of the 10% Figure
A. Until very recently, 10% figure has been accepted lore within media and academic circles

1. Newsweek, 2/15/93, p. 46: "For years, the gay-rights movement has sought safety in numbers. Its leaders have long claimed that homosexuals constitute 10 percent of the American population. They cited Alfred Kinsey, who interviewed thousands of men and women for landmark studies on human sexuality in the 1940s and 1950s. Activists seized on the double digits to strengthen their political message–that millions of citizens are excluded from the mainstream by anti-gay discrimination. Policymakers and the press (including NEWSWEEK) adopted the estimate–despite protests from skeptical conservatives–citing it time and again.

2. Fortune, 1991, p. 42: "Kinsey’s classic 1948 studies suggest that about 10% of American adults are homosexual, a figure that more recent surveys support."

3. Washington Times, 11/19/91, p. A3: "10 percent of American men are homosexual and 5 percent of women are lesbian."

4. Professional journals like the Family Therapy Networker, 1991: "from Kinsey’s historic study in the 1940s to the present, surveys consistently show that 10 percent of the population is either gay or lesbian–that’s 25 million people."

5. Even the head of the American Psychological Association, Bryant Welch, testified on 2/6/89 that the APA had found "in fact all the research supported the conclusion that homosexuality... is a sexual orientation found consistently in about ten percent of the male population and approximately 5 percent of the female population.... research showed that across different historical eras and in totally different cultures the incidence of homosexuality remained the same irrespective of public attitudes and prohibitions."

B. Figure is embodied in names of homosexual groups such as "1 in 10" and the adolescent support project for homosexual adolescents called "Project 10," which started in the L.A. public school system but has now spread to San Francisco and Minnesota also.

C. Proof of the pudding: so many "shocked" by much lower recent numbers reported in Alan Guttmacher-sponsored study of men aged 20-39, which estimated that only 1.1% of men had had only male homosexual partners within the last 10 years.

1. Washington Times, 4/16: "‘If everyone examines their own conscience, they know that more than one in 100 people is gay.... Common sense tells you this survey is nonsense,’ said Gregory King, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the nation’s largest homosexual rights group. ‘I feel the 10 percent figure is probably about right’ because many homosexuals fear to admit their sexual orientation, said Cathy Renna, co-chairwoman of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Againse Defamation."

NY Times, 4/16: "Yesterday, gay groups scoffed at the 1 percent figure, saying that even though the researchers promised respondents anonymity, many homosexuals were afraid to disclose their sexual orientation."

2. NY Times editorial from 4/17 called the new survey results a "surprise"

3. Letter to the Washington Blade entitled "Out in America": "Up until now, we have always based our estimates of the size of our community on the Kinsey studies of the late 1940s. Researchers revisiting the question in the 1970s reaffirmed that ‘one in ten’ view. Until now. A sociological study published by the progressive Alan Guttmacher Institute, that interviewed over 3,300 men throughout the country in 1991, found that only 2.3 percent of those interviewed admit to a same sex experience in the last ten years; only 1.1 percent say they have been exclusively Gay. Although most of believe in our heart of hearts that these are gross underestimates, the controversy will continue to be fueled by experts and homophobes from everywhere."

4. NY Times election poll buried: A journalism seminar reviewing 1992 nominated the NY Times for one of the most significant "buried" stories of the year. The Times own presidential election exit polls asked about voters’ sexual orientation and found less than 3% claimed to be gay. Times staffers couldn’t believe the results, being so much lower than the standard 10%, and so they did not report the story.

D. More revealing: gay leaders now admit to abusing the 10% figure for their own gain

1. NY Times 4/16: "Gay leaders have contended that the number of gay and lesbian Americans was around 10 percent, a figure that many of them suspected to be inflated. But they repeated the number often, they said, as a way of encouraging the nation’s large population of closeted homosexuals to be open about their sexual identity."

Newsweek, 2/15: "Some gay activists now concede that they exploited the Kinsey estimate for its tactical value, not its accuracy. ‘We used that figure when most gay people were entirely hidden to try to create an impression of our numerousness,’ says Tom Stoddard, former head of the Lambda Legal Defense Fund."

Answer 2

A 1993 study (The Janus Report on Sexual Behavior) stated 9% of males and 5% of females being homosexual.

A 1990 study (Homosexuality/Heterosexuality by McWhirter, Sanders, and Reinisch) stated 13.95% of males and 4.25% of females being homosexual.

The Indiana University Kinsey Reports of 1948 and 1953 stated 10% of males and 2% to 6% of females being homosexual.

Answer 3

Roughly 2 to 6% of the population. Not 10%, however in some areas, it is close to 10%. It really depends on where you live. However, about 2 to 6% as a whole. Some areas, such as Seattle, have the gay ratio up to as high as 12.6%.

The numbers tend to vary from source to source, this is a site that I came across that defines its percentages, I hope this helps.

http://www.gaydemographics.org/USA/2000_Census_Total.htm

And, your welcome.

Answer 4

The Kinsey study is the study that originally placed it at 10%. Some more recent studies have placed it at 4% with another 1.5% or so bisexual -- BUT those studies are based on self-identification. The idea that men who are asked by anonymous researchers will answer truthfully on, say the street corner. The largest studies that come up with the 4% figure have counted on voter self-identification as voters left the polls in 04 and 06. Studies have previously showed that gays do not participate in disproportionate numbers (don't ask me, I'm not going to discuss that disgusting fact) - so it seemed reasonable.

Now of course, these studies cannot count those gay men who say they are straight, but the assertion was that there was no reason for them to lie anymore, so they wouldn't. Now as someone who knows a lot of deeply closeted gay men, I thought this was suspect from the beginning.

Lo and behold, enter the mix Preeti Pathela, DrPH and colleagues with their study, titled: "Discordance between Sexual Behavior and Self-Reported Sexual Identity: A Population-Based Survey of New York City Men" in which they randomly interviewed over 4000 men.

This study, the most comprehensive of its kind, found that while only about 4% of men self identified as gay. Nearly 10% of men who self identified as straight, had sex with other men, often EXCLUSIVELY -- having no sexual contact with women at all, but still calling themselves straight.

I've linked to a short article on the study below. The actual publication of the full results was in Annals of Internal Medicine for September 2006. I've also linked to their web version.

The reality is that about 12.8% of men identified behavior patterns that are consistent with a homosexual preference; but only about 4% self-identified as gay, while the rest, almost without exception, self identified as straight, even if they had no sexual contact with women.

Based on this (which reinforces several smaller studies over the past 10 years). I am going to stick to the original conclusion of the Kinsey study -- that 10% of males are or should be exclusively homosexual.

I'm afraid I don't have the expertise on women -- but from what I've read, it is a smaller percentage, perhaps REALLY only about 4%, I also accept the argument that women's sexuality is more fluid -- but again I AM NOT in any way really knowledgeable about women's sexuality.

Hope that helped,

Reyn
[e-mail]

PS Note the right winger above, attempting to reduce the number of gays using newer studies (some of them funded by those on the Right) in a somewhat perverse belief that if there are less of us, we are less human and deserve less rights. I am not sure how many, but at least some of the studies showing lower numbers appear to me to be deliberate -- as an effort to reduce our rights.

Answer 5

It varies. Obviously you will find a lot more homosexual activity in prisons or similar same-sex institutions. Also, when tolerance and acceptance for homosexuality become prevalent in a society, homosexuality increases.

It is sort of like asking what percentage of the population do alcoholics or drug addicts comprise? In some areas, the addiction is quite prevalent, in others, it is virtually non-existent.

The numbers demonstrate that homosexuality is not congenital, as many homosexuals contend. Also, homosexuals, like alcoholics and drug addicts have reformed.

Answer 6

I read somewhere that like...15% of americans say they are Gay/Lesbian when really only about 8-10% truely are. I wish I could remember the website..it was a good read.

Answer 7

Actually? NONE Because we were created in the image of Truth, not sexuality. Sexuality is a choice because it is not necessary. It certainly is not who anybody is. You may be a human that has had mental fanticies of having sex with someone of the same sex, or even feel you desire that, but that still does not make you a sexual anything. Those are titles that define a feeling. Aren't you glad that every feeling that you ever had, or have, doesn't light up in neon in your name? Where does this kind of identity end?

Answer 8

acourding to a statistical survey done by the british government it is 6%. of men that are gay, as far as i know no studies have been performed on lesbians.

Answer 9

1 out of every 10th person is openly gay. 2-4 of the remaining 9 are secretly gay.

Answer 10

This is a controversial topic. it depends on who you speak to who will give you the figures. i think there are not as many truly gay people out there as people think. i think there is probably a large number of bisexual people out there.