"Ten Percent"....

Honestly that's too high, also with so many kids being forcibly transitioned...who knows.

It's closer to 5%, turn out.

I was always happy with 10%, so I've kept it.

10% includes lesian in the 'gay'. If you remove the lesbians then it's 5% gay men.

Yeah, I always heard that: "One in ten people are gay". Then I guess you have roughly 50/50 lesbians/gay men? So 5% of the pop. is gay men. But is that psychologically gay (i.e. closeted Priests, married men, "confirmed bachelors", etc.)? Or out gay men?

And in the "out gay males" category you have so many types (twinks, bottoms, leather, drag/trans, S&M, bear, chubs, Guppies, eldergays, fetishists...) that I always imagined maybe 0.05 % of the gay males in my city might be my "type". Not good odds.

I always included lesbians in my computation.

When they say 10% is gay they include everyone, lesbian, gay, closeted, married, single, in denial, everyone.

10% only makes sense if it includes everyone whose ever dabbled in the homosex. Ration of committed gay men seems more like 5%. May be lower for lesbians?

5% about.

R1, no one is being "forcibly" transitioned and the number of people who identify as trans is small

OP, do a search of the countless big threads on lgbt surveys and polls we have on this site instead of making yet another thread

^ typo. Don’t have a cow.

At r9's link, it says the biggest increase in LGBT identification is among bisexual females (not among trans people as some people here would have you believe)

My 10% includes just L & G.

R11 apologies. I tried but the search function has become messed up somehow.

Iconic statistic?

I always thought that 10% of the population means 1/10 of any group because lesbians and gays exist at equal probability.

Therefore, 10% of men are gay and 10% of women too.

I like it better the way r17 says it. It makes more sense. And I like it better.

How can a statistic be “iconic”? What does that even mean?

Thank God R17 came along and explained how percentages work. I mean, this is sixth grade level math.

Within the past decade or so, it "seems" as if there are a helluva lot more gay men around than there used to be, don't you think?

It's always been a guess and it probably still is.

It’s not a guess.

It's more like 5% but that number holds up in culture after culture and in time period after time period.

The Masters and Johnson 10% estimate has always been a false reading of what they actually said. They concluded that of all adults that about 10% would for a period of up to three years primarily would engage in homosexual sex.

It's a rolling average. As some enter the lifestyle others would leave and never look back. They estimated the lifetime homosexuals were 4 or 5%. I think later studies have it closer to 3%.

R25 is confusing Kinsey with Masters and Johnson and also thinks being gay is a "lifestyle"

The numbers are always iffy because of closet cases.

Kinsey? As I said, it's nothing more than a guess because any stats are dependent on too many factors which can't be verified. It's pretty much all self reporting. I would think that more recent decades would get more honest answers but it's still all iffy.

Interestingly, consistently around 89-92% of men and women identify as something other than heterosexual/cisgender across many studies cited, although within that 10% is “other” which is annoying when you refuse to choose one of the given options for sexual orientation/gender (but it still puts you in the LGBTQ category, so we’ll take it). A full 20% of millennials self-identified as sexual/gender minorities compared to the older generation (5%) which tells me that social acceptance is encouraging more honesty. So that 10% is probably closer to the truth than a tiny 1-5% cited in some of the studies.

I still suspect that the overall LGBTQ percentage is higher than 10% due to stigma of identifying oneself in a marginalized and stigmatized population, but in coming decades I think we’ll see the numbers increase as we did with the study with millennials. I believe that probably fully 25% are LGBTQIQ (includes those who are at least bicurious/questioning and intersex), regardless of how they identify themselves. This still doesn’t quite pin down gay percentage, but is certainly helpful in understanding the overall picture.

20% guaranteed

I used to love playing that game when I went to my Man Challenge Meetings (Church's all-male prayer group). Our group was primary 21-35-year-old guys that like to work out, play the family man card and be "good Christians". After spending some time with them and learning some of their secrets, I mean confessions, the 10% statistics was right on the money. This was only 2 years ago, so rather recent anecdotal evidence.

Why do you do that, r31?

Are y’all unaware of recent surveys showing much Higher lgb identity among millennials, especially bi identity? That’s huge

[quote] [R25] is confusing Kinsey with Masters and Johnson

Correct I mixed the two sources. Nonetheless it remains a rolling number.

"the 10% figure (men who were "more or less exclusively homosexual for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55"), with prison inmates excluded, came to 9.9% for white, college-educated males and 12.7% for those with less education

There's no uptick in gay men, it's just that younger people are more comfortable being honest and those survery rely on self identification.

R35 Sure, the increase in millennials self-identifying as LGBTQ is due to increased comfort with the labels now and less stigmatization, not an actual increase in LGBTQ people. Which is why I think the numbers are currently higher than what is reported and will continue to rise. Less stigma = more honesty = higher percentages of self-identified LGBTQ people.

Phone surveys tend to get lower numbers of LGBTQ than online/anonymous surveys for that exact reason. Having to say it aloud to a real person makes a difference.

Kinsey’s 10 percent was an overestimate. Studies of internet searches (you can lie to a human being but not to Google) consistently put the number of gay men in the US at 5 or 6 percent.

^10% includes lesbian, 5% for gay men alone.

I always thought the 10% stat included bisexuals. In my college psych class we were taught 2-4% of people were exclusively homosexual. There are claims it's even lower than that.

R38, that’s not how percentages work! Jesus Christ some of you people are dumb.

It's higher than 10%. There is still so much homophobia and false 'evidence' in our society that it hampers the actual percentage from being known. We're all over the place!

r41 among Gen Z it' s supposedly more than 50%. Me? I think this is a social fad that might not be so good for gay people in the end. Or, it could be a sign of mass acceptance.

The growth of male bisexuality and “mostly straight” identity is the biggest story in sexuality today

"We are all a little bit gay".

Mikey likes it.

Let's be friends.

[quote] A full 20% of millennials self-identified as sexual/gender minorities compared to the older generation (5%) which tells me that social acceptance is encouraging more honesty.

And Generation Z 50%? LMAO!

They probably also self-identify as graduates of Hogwarts. Idiots. Aren't they just special.

Shut up r47. Go sit in a rocking chair

I'm sure a lot of it has to do with increased acceptance, but I honestly wonder how many of those millennials are just attention seekers. The straight women who identify as lesbians because their partners transitioned, those who turn their poor taste in fashion into an identity, the butch trans lesbians.........

R42, most of those people identify as "mostly straight" - people who check the "mostly straight" box on an anonymous survey usually publicly identify as just plain old straight.

According to Pornhub, 5% of its video views are of gay male videos. In another large-scale survey of gay men’s porn habits, 50% of gay men primarily watch straight porn.

[quote] but I honestly wonder how many of those millennials are just attention seekers

BINGO!

Poor R48 - just lost all his money on some pyramidi scheme.

R52, these are anonymous surveys, so your "attention seeking" comment doesn't quite make sense

And 1/5 of straight men report watching male porn

R54, in what universe?

As some have pointed out; it’s 10% who have engaged in homosexual acts, not who are homosexual. This includes bi identifying men and men who have dabbled. Actual gay men tend to be around 3-4%.

Take the increases in younger generations with a grain of salt. It’s mostly an increase in bisexual identifying women; most of whom never date a female. On top of that there is still debate about the general makeup of female sexuality. There is evidence that they essentially don’t have a static heterosexuality and it can be more malleable depending on social forces. The number of gay males in these surveys haven’t changed much over the years.

Also we need new sex research stat. The fact we still trot out the heavily flawed Kinsey (who himself was at the very least a gay leaning bisexual) ‘research’ all this time later is a joke

[quote] these are anonymous surveys, so your "attention seeking" comment doesn't quite make sense

Try telling them that.

R57 it’s true, I’m 25 and I know several ‘bi’ girls, all of who only date men. The most basic, boring and fugly men you can think of and have no interest in dating women. But they are super ‘queer’, apparentl 🙄. I just don’t say anything. Seriously know about 8 of them and only one has dated a chick. And now she is pregnant to her new bf......

R57, read the study again. They were asked to rate their sexuality on the Kinsey scale, not whether they publicly identify as gay, straight, whatever. Most Kinsey 1 types do not publicly identify as anything other than straight. No scientific study shows a huge number of people calling themselves gay (or bi, trans, or anything else)

R19 The Millennials are killing our language

R59 I’m sure a lot of men who are 100% gay would have probably put themselves as a 5 or even a 4 despite not having had sex with a woman. People don’t really understand the Kinsey scale; they think they do, but they don’t. And even if the do, they tend to not want to put themselves on the ‘extreme’ ends etc. so it’s not a remotely good tool to use IMO.

R61 I mean we have James Charles calling himself a Kinsey 5 for fucks sake.....

R60, eldergays who look for any excuse to bash millennials are ruining the language and ruining this board. They also confuse Gen Z with millennials

I'm going with 3-5% who self-identify as gay. Another 5% or so who are either bisexual or who have dabbled in the gay as the poster above said. We could probably add almost another 10% or more, if we include everyone who has ever had even a single gay experience.

But even 3% is a pretty large figure. Out of 320,000,000 Americans, that would mean that 10,000,000 or so are gay. That means that there are more gay people in the US than there are Jews in the US. Let that sink in. (Especially as you think about how many Jewish people are in Congress). More gay people than there are Muslims in the US. In fact, more gays than there are Jews + Muslims in the US. As many gay people in the US as there are redheads. As many gay people in the US as there are green-eyed people in the US. If there are as many as 5% gay people in the US, that would mean closer to 16,000,000 gay people in the US.

Now if we are limiting our numbers to gay people who look like those we see showing off their bodies on instagram, that number quickly drops to about 500,000.

[quote] have no interest in dating women. But they are super ‘queer’, apparently

What does that mean? I don't mean you, R58. I mean the women who say this. What does queer mean to them? If they aren't really interested in men then are they in reality sorta hookers because dating guys and living a "conventional" life gives you more in life (status, money, acceptance)?

Does anyone think this makes any sense? No matter what your age?

R65 no, they are interested in men. They aren’t really into women.

The number of men who are willing to fucked up the ass exclusively is always going to remain very small

R65 Often, people are poly or kinky or some flavor of asexual and therefore queer and not straight. (I'm also starting to think that they just think women are pretty but maybe I'm wrong.)

Probably the same women who whine about how LGBT spaces won't include their male partners and who are responsible for posting memes about how great dick is on the Chicago Dyke March Instagram.

R55, keep up with the studies and surveys. It’s been posted here and had a big thread

R69, why not link to the study then? Is it a legit study or a bogus unscientific study?

Only 5% are gay men? The pool is limited. I better stop being so fussy of my requirements.

^I rather be alone than lower my standards.

OK.

I go with 40%. That's the percentage what's comfortable admitting they've had same sex sex. I expect it will rise in the next generation. I'd say that's the % that's gay. Otherwise most any men will have sex with other men given the right social condition.

It's 40%.

R74, nowhere near 40% admit same-sex sexual activity. It’s barely ten percent in most studies

I agree with R76, might be even lower. 40% is ludicrous.

As others have said, the number of gay and lesbian people is pretty small according to research. I'd believe in the number of not straight people being quite high, but that would mostly consist of people who are bisexual, queer, and heteroflexible. These people sometimes end up with members of the same sex but are more likely to partner with opposite sex partners.

"Heteroflexible" - what the hell does that mean?

Straight bro who likes to dabble with specific type of men, usually other straight bros.

Is being a bro a requirement for being "heteroflexible"?

Does it fall under the 'queer' umbrella?

I dont see those masculine gym bros who usually have girlfriends but like to engage in same sex activity with other bros suddenly callig themselves queer, I doubt. Some outsiders might want to lump them under queer but I (openly gay man) wouldn't do it.

But everyone I know is gay.

Yeah, few masculine guys of any sexual orientation want to be called “queer.”’

I dont, same sex attraction is not homophobic, I used to identify as gay before transitioning, I have close gay friends and admire some openly gay and lesbian people, if a straight guy who flirts with me doesnt want to date me or fuck me me because I have a dick right now I understand, it hurts and may make me a bit dysphoric but I accept my current reality, I dont think of them as bigots unless they insult me or try to hurt me (thankfully has never happened). I usually end up sucking their cock or let them play with my tits but I dont try to make them learn to like dick, it doesnt make any sense. Stop dehumanizing us and treating us like villains, we have complex and often not so easy lives. Sincerely