How many people experience same-sex attraction?

by Jason Park

Pro-gay advocates claim that 10% of the population is homosexual. More conservative estimates place the figure at 1–3%. However, estimates are problematic not only because it is hard to get accurate information, but also because it is difficult to define what homosexuality is. Do you include in the numbers everyone who has had a homosexual thought, or just those who have had a homosexual experience? How many experiences or thoughts qualify? Some people are reluctant to admit homosexual experiences, while others exaggerate the numbers. Further, since it is to the political advantage of those who seek to normalize homosexuality to establish the practice as widespread, you must be cautious about the studies that are reported.

Alfred C. Kinsey conducted research on human sexuality in the late 1940s and early 1950s and published his findings in Sexual Behavior in the Human Male¹¹ and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.¹² Kinsey ranked his findings on a seven-point scale with exclusive heterosexuality at zero and exclusive homosexuality at six.¹³ Among twenty-five–year-old males in the United States, he claimed that 79% were at zero (exclusively heterosexual) and 2.9% were at six (exclusively homo-sexual).¹⁴ He claimed the following about white American males between the ages of sixteen and fifty-five:¹⁵

• 10% were "more or less exclusively homosexual (i.e., rate 5 or 6) for at least three years."
• 8% were "exclusively homosexual (i.e., rate 6) for at least three years."
• 4% were "exclusively homosexual throughout their lives, after the onset of adolescence."

His findings showed that 10% of the males had seven or more homosexual experiences. Further, he claimed that as many as 37% had some kind of homosexual experience after adolescence.

Kinsey’s research methodologies have been questioned. Although he used a large number of subjects—they took sex histories on more than 18,000 people and used data from 5,000 men and 6,000 women—he did not use methods of random sampling that scientists commonly use today. His subjects came from boarding houses, college fraternities, prisons, mental wards, and wherever else he could get them. As many as 20–25% had prison experience and 5% may have been male prostitutes. Since one would expect that this group would have higher than average homosexual experiences, the findings of Kinsey’s studies may not be representative of the population as a whole.¹⁶

There has been significant research since the 1950s to indicate that the occurrence of homosexuality in America and in other countries is much lower than the Kinsey statistics would indicate.¹⁷ Milton Diamond of the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii analyzed studies of populations in the United States, Scandinavia, Asia, and Europe, and found that including all individuals who have ever engaged in any kind of same-sex behavior, the numbers would be "5–6 percent for males and 2–3 percent for females."¹⁸

A large study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute reported in 1993 that of sexually-active men aged 20–39, only 2.3% had any same-gender sexual activity and only 1.1% reported exclusive homosexual contact during the last ten years.¹⁹

Perhaps the largest and most scientifically-based modern survey was concluded in 1994 by academics at the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center.²⁰ They asked 210 pages of questions of 3,432 Americans, ages eighteen to fifty-nine, and published their findings in The Social Organization of Sexuality.²¹ On the subject of homosexuality, this survey found the following:

Have you had sex with someone of your gender?

• 2.7% of men (and 1.3% of women) had sex in the past year
• 7.1% of men (and 3.8% of women) had sex since puberty

Are you sexually attracted to people of the same gender?

• 6.2% of men (and 4.4% of women) said yes

The survey also showed larger percentages in urban areas. The twelve largest cities in the United States showed more than 9% of men identifying themselves as homosexual, as opposed to only 1% in rural areas. Since homosexual people tend to migrate from the rural areas and suburbs to larger cities, these larger urban groups feed the percept-ion that a larger percentage of the total population is homosexual.  Click here for even more modern studies.

Different studies show different findings. Kinsey claimed that 4–10% of the male population was more or less exclusively homosexual for at least three years. Other research since that time shows the figure to be a more conservative 1–3%. However, if you consider everyone who has had homosexual contact since puberty, the numbers are more in the neighborhood of 5–10%.

Whatever the numbers, homosexual problems are significant and touch the lives of many people. If we use the conservative figure of 5%, of the ten million members of the Church there are 500,000 who have some degree of homosexual problems. And if you count their parents, spouses, brothers and sisters, it could add up to nearly three million members of the Church directly affected.²² Add to that grandparents, uncles, aunts, and concerned Church leaders, and you can see that many more people are affected.

Endnotes:

11. Alfred C. Kinsey, et. al., Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1948.

12. Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, 1953.

13. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Alfred C. Kinsey, et. al., W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1948, p. 638.

14. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Alfred C. Kinsey, et. al., W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1948, p. 651.

15. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Alfred C. Kinsey, et. al., W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1948, p. 651

16. Homosexuality in America: Exposing the Myths, American Family Association, Tupelo, MS, 1994, pp. 9–10.

17. See Setting the Record Straight: What Research Really Says About the Social Consequences of Homosexuality, Larry Burtoft, Ph.D., Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1995, p. 23.

18. See “Homosexuality and Bisexuality in Different Populations,” Milton Diamond, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1993, vol. 22, no. 4, p. 303.

19. “The Sexual Behavior of Men in the United States,” John O. G. Billy et. al., Family Planning Perspectives, March/April 1993, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 52–60.

20. See “Sex in America,” U.S. News & World Report, Oct. 17, 1994, pp. 74–81, and “Now for the Truth About Americans and Sex,” Time, 17 Oct. 1994, pp. 62–71.

21. The Social Organization of Sexuality, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1994. A smaller companion volume is published as Sex in America: A Definitive Survey, Gina Kolata, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, MA, 1994.

22. Figures used in this estimate: 5% of 10 million members of the Church equals 500,000 who struggle with homosexual problems; 200,000 spouses (about 40% are or have been married according to NARTH survey results); 1,000,000 parents; 1,150,000 siblings (average 2.3 siblings per family in the Church according to a 1981 survey by the Church’s Correlation Research Division); giving a total of 2.85 million. The figures for the United States would be 5% of 270 million equals 13.5 million; 5.4 million spouses; 27 million parents; 14.85 million siblings (average 1.1 per family according to “Family Life: Holding Together Better Than Most,” The Economist, vol. 22, Feb. 97, pp. 28–29.); giving a total of 60.75 million in the USA.