GAY MEN 2-4% GAY WOMEN HALF THAT
<A href="../99/11/gaypop.txt">gaypop.txt</a>


Date sent:      	Thu, 29 Jul 1999 08:34:03 -0400
From:           	Ray Blanchard <blanchardr@cs.clarke-inst.on.ca>


Divers Persons:


> >> 89 would be heterosexual
> >> 11 would be homosexual


The notion that 11% of the population is homosexual is a preposterous myth
that persists primarily in the popular media. It probably came from the
work of Alfred Kinsey, who had no concept of sampling, and who included
large portions of prison inmates, who had sex with other males for lack of
access to females, in his samples. Kinsey's successor at what became the
Kinsey Institute, Paul Gebhard, reanalysed the original data, omitting
atypical samples. His estimate of homosexuality in males was 4%, which is
close to what almost all other sexologists, beginning with Magnus
Hirschfeld, circa 1920, have concluded. Recent surveys conducted in the
wake of the AIDS epidemic have focused on sexual behavior rather than
sexual preference, but their results also suggest that 4% is a much better
estimate than 11%, and even 4% may be on the high side.


The figures currently accepted among researchers in human sexuality (i.e.,
researchers with no axes to grind) is that the prevalence of homosexuality
in adult men is about 2-4%, and the prevalence among adult women is
perhaps half that.


Ray Blanchard


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Ray Blanchard, Ph.D.
Head, Clinical Sexology Program
CAMH--Clarke Division
250 College Street
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R8
Canada


Phone: (416) 979 4747, Extension 2436, or
       (416) 979 2221, Extension 2436
Fax:   (416) 979 6965