Groundbreaking Study: 19 Percent of Americans Don't Consider Themselves Heterosexual

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/sex-amp-relationships/19-percent-americans-dont-consider-themselves-heterosexual

Since the classification of modern homosexuality in the 19th century (PDF), society’s perception and acceptance of people who have sex with others of their own gender has grown considerably. One continued argument against the widespread acceptance of individuals who belong to that group, though, has to do with its relative size.

At The Atlantic Garance Franke-Ruta wrote that Americans seem to think there are a lot more gay people in the world than there actually are. As she explained last year, “surveys show a shockingly high fraction think a quarter of the country is gay or lesbian, when the reality is that it's probably less than 2 percent.” Anthropologists, a notably tolerant group, often consider homosexuality, due to its rarity, an aberrant behavior, like alcoholism or drug abuse, promiscuity or violence.

But new research indicates that the real prevalence of homosexuality might be a lot higher than previously thought.

The most-cited guess as to what percentage of individuals are homosexual is around 10. Some LGBTQ college groups have even named their clubs things like The 10% Society, despite the fact that, at some schools (e.g. Bob Jones University), the percentage of past and present homosexual students is likely much lower, and at some others (Sarah Lawrence or Smith) it might be a considerably higher.


***i thought we were less than 10% -- but it's fun to think we might be a lot more in numbers.

[LuvNewcastle]

1. I've always thought there were more than 10%, especially

when you count all of the bisexual people and the people who are closeted. In some big cities, GLBT people are one of the biggest minorities. One thing I'll say about this survey, though; I'm sure that at least a few percent of the people surveyed didn't know what a heterosexual was.

[Victor_c3]

2. I could believe that number

if you count people who don't consider themselves "purely" heterosexual, the group that considers themselves A-sexual, and so on. I think a lot more people out there are bi-curious than most believe. The only reason I don't think you see more people open about it is due to the social stigma which is rapidly deteriorating.

[fasttense]

3. I think it is probably in the 20s.

Among domesticated sheep, about 15% of the rams are not interested in female sheep. They go through their rutting but prefer male sheep as sex partners. Homosexuality is NOT that rare among animals despite what the anthropologist think. I've seen it in chickens and other domesticated animals. Considering the fact that domesticated animals that do not reproduce are more likely to go to the slaughterhouse, it's surprising how common homosexuality is among farm animals.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Note that the study group was not representative of the general population

So the headline "19% of Americans" may be misleading. The purpose of the study was to compare results of direct and indirect questioning. It says:

The research was not an attempt to measure the actual size of the country’s gay and lesbian population. And the researchers are careful to temper their findings by cautioning that the survey respondents did not represent a random sample of the adult population. In fact, they note that their study group was younger, more educated, more politically liberal, and less likely to identify as Republican or to describe themselves as being at least “moderately religious” than the rest of the country.

http://www.alternet.org/sex-amp-relationships/19-percent-americans-dont-consider-themselves-heterosexual?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Their conclusion is not about the overall numbers, but about surveys:

The results show non-heterosexuality and anti-gay sentiment are substantially underestimated in existing surveys, and the privacy afforded by current best practices is not always sufficient to eliminate bias. Finally, our results identify two social norms: it is perceived as socially undesirable both to be open about being gay, and to be unaccepting of gay individuals.

http://www.nber.org/papers/w19508

So, if a representative sample is asked a direct question about sexuality, it's likely that the figure for 'homosexual' should be increased. Whether by more than that 65% from this study, or less, I can't tell - perhaps a more 'Republican' test group would be hiding things more - or perhaps they'd be more adamant about being heterosexual, however the questions are asked. They'd need to repeat this with a representative sample.