In his 1948 book, Sexual Behavr the Human Male, Aled Ksey shocked the world by announcg that 10% of the male populatn is gay. A 1993 Jan Report timated that ne percent of men and five percent of women had more than "ocsnal" homosexual relatnships. To some people, homosexualy is a matter of perceptn and fn. Furthermore, many people have trouble admtg their homosexualy to themselv, much ls to a rearcher. But when Gallup asked Amerins for their bt timate of the Amerin gay and lbian populatn, the rults ma all the figur mentned look nservative.
Contents:
- IS 10% OF THE POPULATN REALLY GAY?
- WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY?
- THE 10 GAYEST STAT IN AMERI FOR 2020
IS 10% OF THE POPULATN REALLY GAY?
* gay 10 percent *
Back 1977, the US Natnal Gay Task Force (NGTF) was ved to the Whe Hoe to meet Print Jimmy Carter’s reprentativ – a first for gay and lbian groups. The NGTF’s most proment mpaigng slogan was “we are everywhere”, backed up by the memorable statistil claim that one 10 of the US populatn was gay – this figure was eply and passnately where did Bce Voeller, a scientist who was a founr and first director of the NGTF, get this nice round 10% om? To fd out, we have to lve back to Aled Ksey’s surveys 1940s Ameri, which were groundbreakg at the time but are now seen as archaic their methods: he sought out rponnts prisons and the gay unrworld, ma iends wh them and, over a cigarette, noted down their behavurs g an obscure .
Ksey did not believe that sexual inty was fixed and simply tegorised, and perhaps his most lastg ntributn was his sle, still ed today, which dividuals are rated om exclively heterosexual to exclively homosexual on a sle of 0 to ’s headle fdg was that “at least 37% of the male populatn has some homosexual experience between the begng of adolcence and old age”, meang physil ntact to the pot of asm. He claimed that 13% of mal were predomately homosexual for at least three years between the ag of 16 and 55 (srg at least 4) and that 4% of mal were exclively homosexual all their liv (srg 6). In unmarried femal between the ag of 20 and 35, he claimed there was at least some homosexual experience 11%-20%, and 1%-3% were exclively Ksey terviews a woman for one of his sexual behavur surveys.
Photograph: Bill Dellenback/APSo, 1973, when Voeller was puttg together the NGTF mpaign, he went back to Ksey’s timat for those wh predomantly homosexual experience (4 to 6 on his sle) for at least three years. But even cleaned-up data gave siar answers, and Voeller stuck to the 10%, statg 1990 that “the ncept that 10% of the populatn is gay has bee a generally accepted ‘fact’… As wh so many piec of knowledge (and myths), repeated tellg ma so. 1% said they had been exclively homosexual.
WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY?
Statistics had bee part of a polil battleground, wh heated arguments back and forth, but unfortunately whout any agreed fn: what was meant by “homosexual”? It was clear that jt askg people their sexualy uld give wildly differg answers pendg on how people terpreted terms such as “homosexual”, and so a more nuanced approach was adopted. Natsal-3, om around 2010, asked which “bt scrib how you thk of yourself”: a) heterosexual/straight; b) gay/lbian; c) bisexual, d) other?
5% of men nsir themselv gay/lbian, and 1.
1% reported their inty as gay or lbian – roughly the same as Natsal. I am cled to go wh Natsal, and my judgment would be that roughly one 80 adults unr 75 would nsir themselv gay/lbian and one 80 bisexual, but wh the balance towards bisexual women. Photograph: Le MacGregor/RtersThere are around 9 ln LGBT (lbian, gay bisexual and transgenr) Amerins, roughly equivalent to the populatn of New Jersey, acrdg to a recent US review.
THE 10 GAYEST STAT IN AMERI FOR 2020
But, jt as the UK, the route US Natnal Health Interview Survey (NHIS) up wh a lower figure for bisexualy than the dited sex surveys: seems plsible that there is ls willgns to acknowledge bisexual inty route surveys, whereas those who clearly intify themselv as gay or lbian are willg to be more upont sexual behavur n e all gre of tensy.