By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Even though homosexual activists like to say their population amounts to as much as five percent of the population, a recent study finds the number to be closer to just 1.7 percent.
The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that Gary Gates, a demographer at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, a think tank based at the University of California in Los Angeles, estimated that about four million adults (1.7%) over the age of 18 currently identify themselves as being gay or lesbian.
This number is much lower than the three to five percent figure customarily bantered about, and the 10 percent figure published in the 1940’s by Indiana University’s discredited sex researcher, Alfred Kinsey.
Gates’ numbers were derived from five separate studies in which subjects were asked about their sexual orientation. One reason why his numbers are so different from previous high estimates is because until recently, few surveys differentiated between respondents who identified themselves as gay or lesbian, and those who said they sometimes engaged in homosexual activity. In the past, these two groups were all lumped into the same category.
“One of the major questions, when you think about how many (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people are there, is what do you mean by LGBT?” Gates told the AP. “This shows there are pretty big differences between people who use the terms to label themselves versus sexual behavior or attraction.”
For example, Gates found that another 1.8 percent of the adult population, a little more than 4 million Americans, say they’re bisexual. Another 19 million (8.2%) say they have engaged in sex with a partner of the same sex. This includes all groups – gay, bisexual and heterosexual – who say they have experimented with same-sex behavior.
Gates also analyzed two other studies conducted by state agencies in California and Massachusetts which he believes arrived at the first credible estimate of the nation’s transgender population – which he puts at .03 percent of the population, or 700,000 adults.
The researcher admits his figures are imprecise, only because problems with the consistency of past surveys means the data on which to base a firm conclusion does not exist.
“Yes, this is a credible estimate, but I’m fine to have a debate with someone about whether I’m right or wrong,” he said. “The academic side of me says everything comes with caveats. But there is a level of power associated with having a number that can move dialogues along and hopefully move things forward.”
Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies with the Family Research Center, told the AP that he welcomes Gates’ findings as further repudiation of Kinsey’s 1-in-10 estimate.
Sprigg also was intrigued by the relatively high portion of bisexual people tallied by Gates.
“I see this as somewhat of a problem for the gay political movement,” Sprigg said. “It undermines the idea that being born homosexual is an immutable characteristic that can’t be changed.”
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