Say Anything Blog

”How many people are homosexual?” is widely disputed.

The Washington Times says “10 percent of American men are homosexual and 5 percent of women are lesbian (Nov. 19, 1991). USA Today refers to 25 million gay men and lesbians (Nov, 13, 1991), based on 250 million population in the United States. The American Psychological Association claims that homosexuality is “an orientation found consistently in about 10 percent of the male population and approximately 5 percent of the female population.“17 The famous figure of 10 percent is often cited when referring to numbers of homosexuals in the United States. Where does this figure originate?

The figure comes from a study conducted in the 1940s. In 1948 Dr. Alfred Kinsey and others published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, in which they cited the 10 percent figure based on their findings. What is not generally acknowledged, however, is that their study was seriously flawed.

* Approximately 25 percent of the 5,300 individuals in the study were prison inmates who by the nature of their confinement couldn’t have heterosexual sexual relations. Moreover, 44 percent of these inmates had had homosexual experiences while in prison.18

* Kinsey admitted that “several hundred male prostitutes” were used in his sample.19

* Because people responded to an ad to take part in the study, a “volunteer bias” was evident. “Research has shown that those responding to a study as intimate as the one Kinsey was doing would not be representative of the general population. In fact, the widely renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow pointed this out to Kinsey before his findings were published, but he refused to listen.“20

In addition, contrary to what is often reported, the study did not contend that 10 percent of the U.S. population was homosexual. Rather, Kinsey’s conclusion was that “10 percent of White American males were ‘more or less’ exclusively homosexual for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 65.

The statistic for females was 5 percent. The actual percentage of those thought to be exclusively homosexual for their entire lives was only 4 percent of men and 2 or 3 percent of women.“21 This was all based on his allegedly representative sample of the population.

Other studies have been recently conducted with different results. One study conducted between 1984 and 1987 by David Forman, senior staff scientist at the Radcliffe Infirmary (Oxford. England), found that only 1.7 percent of men in the sample had ever had homosexual intercourse.22 And a 1989 study conducted at the University of Chicago resulted in a figure “less than 1 percent exclusively homosexual.“23

http://www.glow.cc/lead/blake.htm

1. “Study suggests some gays can go straight,” CNN.com news, 2001-MAY-9, at: http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/05/09/sexual

2. Malcolm Ritter, “Some gays can turn straight, controversial study suggests,” Associated Press, 2001-MAY-8.

3. A list of web sites in the GayChange Webring is at: http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=gaychange;list

4. Charles Socarides, et al., “Don’t forsake homosexuals who want help,” Letter to the Editor, The Wall Street Journal, 1997-JAN-9. See: http://www.narth.com/docs/wsjletter01.html

5. A statement by the National Association of Social Workers which condemns reparative therapy, along with a rebuttal by Exodus International, is available at: http://www.exodusnorthamerica.org/

6. Sandra G. Boodman, “Vowing to Set the World Straight: Proponents of Reparative Therapy Say They Can Help Gay Patients Become Heterosexual. Experts Call That a Prescription for Harm,” Washington Post, 2005-AUG-16, at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/

http://forums.contracostatimes.com/topic/true-example-of-homosexuality

NARTH
http://narth.com/docs/phelanreport.html

Anglican Mainstream
http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/category/naturenurture/