Host Michel Mart and Judy Bradford of the Center for Populatn Rearch LGBT Health discs the Instute Of Medice's report fdgs, as well as the LGBT muny's most prevalent health issu. Demographer Gary Gat also jos the nversatn. He is bunkg famo sex rearcher Aled Ksey's claim that 10% of mal the U.S. are gay. He talks about this percentage, the real number of Ameri's LGBT people, and challeng to gatherg accurate data.
Contents:
- IS 10% OF THE POPULATN REALLY GAY?
- AMERINS STILL GREATLY OVERTIMATE U.S. GAY POPULATN
- WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY?
- THE 10 GAYEST STAT IN AMERI FOR 2020
- WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY [UPDATED MAY 2023]
- FIRST-PERSON: THE 10 PERCENT GAY MYTH
IS 10% OF THE POPULATN REALLY GAY?
* 10 percent gay *
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 .
AMERINS STILL GREATLY OVERTIMATE U.S. GAY POPULATN
U.S. adults timate that nearly one four Amerins (23.6%) are gay or lbian. Gallup has prevly found that Amerins have greatly overtimated the U.S. gay populatn. * 10 percent gay *
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.
WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY?
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. * 10 percent gay *
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.
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.
THE 10 GAYEST STAT IN AMERI FOR 2020
Gallup timat that 7.2% of the U.S. adult populatn is lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr. * 10 percent gay *
Natsal-3, om around 2010, asked which “bt scrib how you thk of yourself”: a) heterosexual/straight; b) gay/lbian; c) bisexual, d) other? 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.
WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY [UPDATED MAY 2023]
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. History might provi some explanatn: men now aged around 60 were teenagers the liberatg 60s, when homosexualy was legalised, while men who are now around 70 grew up when same-sex male behavur men was illegal and equently prosecuted. Overall the proportn of people wh same-sex experience is far higher than the proportn who intify themselv as gay and bisexual.
This mt mean that many same-sex ntacts are by people who do not nsir themselv gay or bisexual. That’s jt what we fd reputable surveys: the last big US survey, 10% of women and 3% of men who intified themselv as “heterosexual” also reported a same‑sex the public health world the rather clumsy phrase “men who have sex wh men” (MSM) rather than “homosexual” or “gay” there is one characteristic that un female and male same-sex experience: the rat are two to three tim higher among those wh further tn than those wh no wh chang behavur, there’s been a nsistent shift attus to same-sex partnerships. Back 1948 sex rearcher Aled Ksey famoly suggted that 10 percent of the mal he'd studied were, quote, "more or ls exclively homosexual, " unquote.
Also, the Ksey Instute has - which is the legacy of Ksey - has stated very clearly that their view is that this was a kd of a polil cisn of gay activists the '70s.
FIRST-PERSON: THE 10 PERCENT GAY MYTH
They need at that time to nvce people that the gay people actually existed and fact that they were kd of everywhere. And they took that rather obscure passage om a Ksey book, which was never tend to be an timate of the number of gay people the Uned Stat and kd of adopted for polil purpos. So qutns like, do you nsir yourself to be - and then, you know, you n choose gay, lbian, bisexual, heterosexual.