How Many People are Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr? - Williams Instute

Contents:

• WHAT PERCENT OF THE POPULATN IS GAY? MORE THAN YOU THK
• HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?
• DIFFERENC DIG RATS BETWEEN GAY MEN WHO PREFER RECEPTIVE VERS SERTIVE SEX ROL DITE A ROLE FOR PRENATAL ANDROGEN
• KEV SPACEY DEFENDS COMG OUT AS GAY AFTER BEG ACCED OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT: ‘I WAS UNR A LOT OF PRSURE’
• IS 10% OF THE POPULATN REALLY GAY?
• STUDY HIGHLIGHTS DIFFERENC BETWEEN GAY, STRAIGHT SUICIS

WHAT PERCENT OF THE POPULATN IS GAY? MORE THAN YOU THK

The most important takeaway isn’t a fal tally of the gay people society, but, rather, an unrstandg of the ways which surveys and other existg attempts to measure such thgs might be slightly misleadg. “The rults show non-heterosexualy and anti-gay sentiment are substantially unrtimated existg surveys, and the privacy afford by current bt practic is not always sufficient to elimate bias, ” note the rearchers, who were jt lookg at the way surveys might unr-unt both homosexualy and attus toward homosexualy.

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?

Increasg numbers of populatn-based surveys the Uned Stat and across the world clu qutns that allow for an timate of the size of the lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) populatn. Unrstandg the size of the lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) populatn is a cril first step to rmg a host of public policy and rearch topics.

In measurg sexual orientatn, lbian, gay, and bisexual dividuals may be intified strictly based on their self-inty or may be possible to nsir same-sex sexual behavr or sexual attractn.

Fdgs shown Figure 1 nsir timat of the percentage of adults who self-intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual across ne surveys nducted wh the past seven years. While the surveys show a fairly wi variatn the overall percentage of adults who intify as LGB, the proportn who intify as lbian/gay vers bisexual is somewhat more nsistent (see Figure 2). The Natnal Survey of Fay Growth found rults that were sentially the oppose of the UK survey wh only 38% intifyg as lbian or gay pared to 62% intifyg as bisexual.

DIFFERENC DIG RATS BETWEEN GAY MEN WHO PREFER RECEPTIVE VERS SERTIVE SEX ROL DITE A ROLE FOR PRENATAL ANDROGEN

The Natnal Survey of Sexual Health and Behavr and the Atralian Longudal Study of Health and Relatnships both found a majory of rponnts (55% and 59%, rpectively) intifyg as surveys show even greater nsistency differenc between men and women associated wh lbian/gay vers bisexual inty.

At a time when Amerins are creasgly supportive of equal rights for gay, lbian and transgenr people, a growg percentage of Amerins intify themselv as LGBT.

KEV SPACEY DEFENDS COMG OUT AS GAY AFTER BEG ACCED OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT: ‘I WAS UNR A LOT OF PRSURE’

Usg phallometric tt sensivi to lculate the proportn of te pedophil among var groups of sex offenrs agast children, and takg to nsiratn prevly reported mean numbers of victims per offenr group, the rat of heterosexual to homosexual pedophil was lculated to be approximately 11:1. This suggts that the rultg proportn of te pedophil among persons wh a homosexual erotic velopment is greater than that persons who velop heterosexually.

AbstractThe creasg visibily of homosexualy society, bed wh the lbian and gay muny's nsirable buyg power, has triggered marketers and rearchers' tert unrstandg homosexual nsumers' nsumptn patterns. Prr rearch on whether homosexual nsumers behave differently om heterosexual nsumers has yield mixed rults, and rearchers and practners still do not know whether any substantial differenc exist, what the differenc look like, and how they n be explaed. Fdgs om a morator analysis ntradict nventnal wisdom and lay theori, while partly supportg assumptns that are rooted evolutnary and blogil theori that show nsumptn differenc crease wh age; they crease when parg homosexuals and heterosexuals of the same genr.

In ntrast, the data do not support a role for prenatal androgens the velopment of differenc sexual orientatn among men, as nclud by the same two meta-analys4, the associatn wh 2D:4D and genr rol among female sexual orientatn, we hypothized that a subset of gay men who are more genr nonnformg may show a larger, ls male-typil, 2D:4D than more genr nformg gay men. A growg body of work dit that anal sex role (ASR) preferenc may serve as a proxy for subgroups of gay men who differ velopment and genr nformy6, 7, 8, 9. We hypothized that gay men wh a Bottom ASR (receptive), who tend to be more genr nonnformg (GNC), would have a higher (more female-typil) average dig rat than ASR Tops (sertive), who tend to be more genr nformg.

IS 10% OF THE POPULATN REALLY GAY?

E., (1) dited that they were assigned male at birth, (2) intify wh male genr, (3) intify as gay and 4) report an exclive attractn to mal the last year], 125 of which dited their ASR preferenc, and 122 dited their ASR behavr.

098) rats rrelate wh GNCAmong the entire sample of gay men, right-hand dig rats signifintly rrelated wh both Relled Childhood GNC (Pearson’s R =  − 0. For nsistency across measur, sre on the Relled Childhood GNC sle were subtracted by 5 and multiplied by negative 1 for graphil pictn of rults; Th, a higher sre on both the Childhood and Adulthood GNC graphs dit more genr size imageNon-exclive same-sex attractn, GNC and dig ratsThe prcipal analys above asssed ASR differenc GNC and dig rats among gay men, whereas other non-heterosexual men were exclud om the analys as we hypothized that there may be more variabily velopmental procs fluencg sexual orientatn of men who display variatn same and oppose sex attractn and/or behavr. Here, we report analys on the fol measur cludg all non-heterosexual men: self-intified gay men (n = 149), self-intified bisexual men (n = 24), and men who self-intified as “other” (n = 18; self-labels clud: pansexual, asexual, nonbary, genrqueer, queer, heteroflexible, qutng, trans, and var forms of “I don’t label myself”).

05), wh bisexual men reportg the lowt childhood GNC followed by gay men, and the “other” group reported the hight differenc were also found on the adulthood GNC measure, F(2, 192) = 10. DiscsnWe replited the fdg that ASR groups differ both relled childhood GNC and adulthood GNC, as gay men wh an sertive ASR preference (self-intified Tops) were more genr nformg than men wh a receptive ASR preference (self-intified Bottoms).

STUDY HIGHLIGHTS DIFFERENC BETWEEN GAY, STRAIGHT SUICIS

Fally, we found that across the entire sample of gay men, 2D:4D rats rrelated wh both relled childhood and adulthood measur of GNC, such that a more male-typil (lower) 2D:4D was associated wh more genr nformy. Altogether, the fdgs support a role for prenatal androgens fluencg ASR preference and genr nformy of gay fdg that 2D:4D rats differ a subset of gay men based on ASR and GNC rrponds well to the lerature on 2D:4D rats sexual orientatn women: self-intified “femme” and “butch” lbians differ their average dig rats such that the more genr nformg group (“femm”) had more female-typil (higher) 2D:4D rats3. Alternatively (although not mutually exclively), prenatal androgens may mediate a third variable such as sexual orientatn and/or body type which may fluence genr prent fdgs are nsistent wh prev lerature showg that gay men wh an sertive ASR preference display other ditors of high androgen exposure, cludg an earlier pubertal onset, creased height and body hair pared to both heterosexual men and other gay men19.

The fdgs together wh the current study suggt that gay men wh an sertive ASR may be exposed to higher levels of androgens throughout their lifpan, rather than, or addn to, receptive ASR gay men beg exposed to lower androgens prenatally.

While there is generally high nrdance between preference and behavr, is likely that preference/fantasi rrpond more to ternal factors, whereas behavr is more nstraed by external nsiratns, such as the preferenc of sexual partners, and/or soc-cultural factors associated wh masculy and sex primary analys the prent study evaluated ASR group differenc GNC and dig rats among gay men, whereas other non-heterosexual men were exclud om the analys. For stance, the three groups of non-heterosexual men differ GNC: both self-intified bisexual and gay men report lower relled childhood and adulthood GNC pared to the “other” group of non-heterosexual men, and bisexual men report lower childhood GNC pared to gay men. Th, while is possible that prenatal androgens ntribute to the sexual orientatn of some non-exclive same-sex oriented men, this prr work together wh the prent study suggts that the velopment of same-sex attractn among bisexual and other non-heterosexual men likely differs and/or may be more variable than gay is important to note the limatns of the prent study that should be taken to nsiratn.