Gay population? 1%? 10% ? somewhere in the middle?

[jessejames]

how does one really know what the gay population is? I have heard gay “apologists” claim that the populatuion(gay) is 10%. Many conservative (catholic answer tracts) claim it is one percent. given the fact that are many in the “gay community” that are “in the closet” how can we get an accurate assesment? (i understand numbers do not affect the morality of th gay lifestyle and church teaching) or is it fair to say it is between 3% and 7%?

 

[RyanL]

This seems interesting…

Excerpt:

One stumbling block for demographers is establishing who is “gay”. In other words, labels. From the heady days of Kinsey, the “10 per cent is homosexual” label has been toned down lately. Even though The Social Organization of Sex: Sexual Practices in the United States (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, and Michaels, 1994) study cites that 7.7 percent of men and 7.5 of women have strong same-sex attractions, ony 2.8 percent of men and 1.4 of women consider themselves homosexuals.

   The IGLSS again puts its two cents here, citing factors that make many          gay people reluctant to identify themselves as gay, even though they would          be considered as such by the "mainstream" G/L/B/T Community.

   So, for the total number of homosexuals, whether self-proclaimed or otherwise,          you don't need the Census. Just multiply the Population by the percentage          you like the most (10, 7.6 or 2.1), and voilá, you get a figure.

God Bless,
RyanL

 

[Timidity]

jessejames:

how does one really know what the gay population is??

One must first define the term. Is a person who experimented once in their youth considered gay? What if it was twice? What about the person who is attracted to the same sex but doesn’t indulge? What about the person attracted to both, but only indulges in “straight” sex?

I don’t have any answers for you. I’m just pointing out that no one seems to know what gay is, and until someone defines it better, there can be no meaningful statistic.

 

[Philthy]

jessejames:

how does one really know what the gay population is? I have heard gay “apologists” claim that the populatuion(gay) is 10%. Many conservative (catholic answer tracts) claim it is one percent. given the fact that are many in the “gay community” that are “in the closet” how can we get an accurate assesment? (i understand numbers do not affect the morality of th gay lifestyle and church teaching) or is it fair to say it is between 3% and 7%?

Suffice it say that it is less than 10%, and given that Kinsey reported it as 10% probably means it is closer to 5%. Either way, it is a small percentage of people and in no way represents a “norm”.

 

[Ianjo99]

Philthy:

Suffice it say that it is less than 10%, and given that Kinsey reported it as 10% probably means it is closer to 5%. Either way, it is a small percentage of people and in no way represents a “norm”.

Yeah, I think most could agree to about that.

Regardless of the exact number, even 1 percent is 600 000 000 people worldwide. That is hardly an inconsequential group.

Even though I find their practices personally atrocious, I think a lot of care and understanding needs to occur on both sides of the whole “gay” issue. Having known many gay people (as I’m sure most all of us do), it’s becoming increasingly harder for me to immediately put them off as disordered. While I understand that we shouldn’t judge, I think many people are (incorrectly) taught that this type of sin is worse and that these people should be ostracized.