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Are Most People a Little Bit Gay?

Most estimates assume that around 10% of the population is exclusively homosexual. Doesn’t this logically mean that 10% of the population would be exclusively heterosexual and that everyone in the middle is a bit of both?

All the Yes points:

  1. Very few people are completely gay or completely straight
  2. Society has a very narrow view of gay and straight
  3. Most animals do not identify themselves as exclusively gay or straight
  4. Gay – Nature or Nurture?
  5. Bisexual
  6. Sexual anatomy
  7. Historical Homosexuality

All the No points:

  1. The simple continuation of mankind proves the heterosexuality is predominant
  2. Where are all the gay shops, gay TV programmes?
  3. Gay people are going to hell.

Very few people are completely gay or completely straight

Yes because…

Dr Alfred Kinsey reported that 37% of men had experienced sex with other men to the point of orgasm and that half had experienced mental attraction or arousal towards other men. Anthropologists have found tribes where all young men engage in a homosexual relationship for a certain period of time before becoming heterosexual again. Boys in boarding school and men in prison turn gay for a while. All this evidence points to the fact that sexuality is fluid; that most of us could be attracted to members of the same sex and that the only things which stop us are cultural conditioning, opportunity or need.

counter: None of these statistics mean anything since they represent sample data and the sample size has not been revealed. obviously n>50 but how much greater; surely everyone wasn’t asked about her/his sexual leanings/preferences.

The other problem is; most people lie about these things ; choosing not to be-judged/come-out-of-the-closet.

Using confidence intervals; it would be erroneous to claim one out of every ten people has had a homosexual experience. You can only say with a fraction of confidence(depending on the interval taken) that the claim is not false.

Not that the idea is 100% fact.

No because…

The statistic we should be looking at is the one that suggests around 10% of people have had a sexual experience with a member of their own sex. This means that 90% of people haven’t. If only a tenth of people engage in an activity which nine tenths of people don’t then clearly not ‘everyone’ is gay.

Society has a very narrow view of gay and straight

Yes because…

We tend to assume that gay people are the ones who sleep with members of their own sex exclusively. We make no account for people who fantasise about gay sex, have one gay experience, or who enter into a short-term relationship with a member of the same sex. If we broaden the definition to include them then we can see that a great many people, maybe even most, flirt with the idea of same-sex sex even if they subsequently return to sleeping with the opposite sex.

No because…

One gay experience does not a gay person make. The media portrays images of gay people so often it is natural for people to wonder what gay sex is like. They may even experiment with gay sex, but if they ultimately return to straight sex then they must be straight, not gay.

If you broaden the definition of gay, then of course you can included within it whatever you want.

It is all about identity. If you decide to take into account the “not practicing gays” then you’ve got to take into account the men and women who take part in homosexual activity, but don’t consider themselves gay.

Most animals do not identify themselves as exclusively gay or straight

Yes because…

Anyone who has had a dog will recognise its lack of shame in mounting other dogs. Homosexual behaviour has been identified in all species where people have bothered to look. The only animal where there seems to be a problem with this is mankind. We feel the need to label people one way or another when the truth is such labels are constricting and inaccurate.

No because…

Dogs mount other dogs for reasons of dominance, not sex. We can hardly assume to understand the reasons of any other gay sexual behaviour/behavior witnessed in the animal kingdom.

We also don’t know the response of other animals to homosexual behaviour.

We don’t know if they are shunned by the pack or not chosen to mate with. We enter into a strange world when we project our behaviour onto animals.

Most animals do not identify themselves, full stop.

animals prance about naked; don’t walk erectly, do not get married(though there much confusion over this; certain animals spend their entire lives with their mate), the black-widow spider eats any male who impregnates her, dolphins reportedly gang rape their women; are you saying that all these things should be made acceptable in human society??

Gay – Nature or Nurture?

Yes because…

This statement give augurs the debate as to whether being gay is a social construct or someone innate. I personally believe that it is predominantly a natural thing, which is part of our DNA (research done into the matter and glands etc in the brain support this). However, I believe adolescence is a part of any young person’s life to which anything can have a massive influence. Research has shown that children with gay or bi-sexual parents have a higher percentage of being gay or bi-sexual. However, whether this be due to the fact that they feel more free to explore their sexual prowace is another argument.

It may be that we live in a predominantly staright society and that we all have the capacity to be bisexual, however the society we live in has shaped our sexuality….

I personally believe that being gay is unchanging. You are what you are, and you have no choice in the matter. Same as the colour of your skin or your gender.

No because…

I think you have made a mistake. Many Adolescent Psychological and Psychiatric Organisations have come to the conclusion are NOT more likely to be gay than children with heterosexual parents. Science is yet to find a gay gene. That being said, science is yet to find a STRAIGHT gene either. It can therefore be speculated that the environment one grows up in can have an affect on one’s sexuality. PS: I’m a different person to the other person rebutting (s/he’s a bigoted idiot)

Bisexual

Yes because…

Yes, because we’re born to be bisexual, it’s normally. All the women as well as men could have relationships with the same sex people. What’s really important is that you do love. Doesn’t matter whom.

No because…

Where did you get that idea; Freud?

I can tell you very honestly that everybody is not having sex with everybody; please.

love need not be perverted by nor intermingled with lust.

Sexual anatomy

Yes because…

Anal sex in a man stimulates the area around the prostrate, which creates sexual pleasure only achievable through sex with another man (or simulation of such). The most sensitive part of the female genitalia is the clitoris, which is not directly stimulated through vaginal intercourse with a man. Sex with another woman is more likely to stimulate the clitoris, and create sexual pleasure. Our human biology is designed for sex between people of both sexes. We are made to be bisexual.

No because…

Historical Homosexuality

Yes because…

In Ancient Civilizations such as Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt, there were no such terms as homosexuality, heterosexuality and bisexuality. Indeed, based upon primary and secondary sources, it seems that it was normal and accepted in such civilizations to be bisexual. As Abrahamic (and even some Eastern) religions became more prevalent in Europe, preaching only opposite-sex intercourse, bisexuality was socially repressed. Indeed, now that religion is slowly dying in the Western world, we are beginning to return to our natural feelings and more and more of society is acknowledging bisexuality of varying degrees.

No because…

The simple continuation of mankind proves the heterosexuality is predominant

No because…

If people were predominantly gay then there would be no procreation and mankind would die out. The evidence to the contrary – in face the ever expanding number of people on the planet – proves most people are straight.

Yes because…

People can have homosexual and heterosexual relationships, if not at the same time then one after the other. Clearly the drive to reproduce is one of the strongest drives we possess. But to suggest this drive can only exist to the exclusion of homosexuality is absurd. This again is a product of the thinking that people are either one way or the other. They are either gay or straight. When the truth is they can be both. People can have sex for pleasure and non-reproductive purposes. The debate is not saying “most people are gay”. It is saying “most people are bisexual”, meaning they can have sex with people of the same sex while still procreating with the opposite sex. Please read the topic properly. In fact bisexuality, especially between women, makes people more fertile, therefore helping continuation of mankind MORE than just heterosexuality.

Where are all the gay shops, gay TV programmes?

No because…

If most people are gay surely capitalism would have developed mechanisms to meet their needs. We know there’s a whole gay subculture so why aren’t the supposed majority of people who are gay catered for too? In fact, the lack of such provision and the fact that gay television and gay shops attract small audiences and much criticism proves that society rejects behaviour it does not identify with.

Yes because…

Many people may be in denial about their gay status, society also strongly rewards anti-gay behaviour. Therefore, it is hard for people to overtly support any gay ventures.

Having said that the viewing figures for such programmes as “Will and Grace”, the following that openly gay television presenters attract and the ever-growing influence of gay culture indicates that people are increasingly willing to accept the gay within. To put it bluntly, society is still “coming out of the closet”.

Gay people are going to hell.

No because…

it says that if a man beds a man they are both damned.

Yes because…

In that exact same section of the Bible, it says that having a round haircut, eating ham, wearing jewellery, women speaking in church and eating lobster also send you to hell. The Bible must evolve over time. The New Testament redefined how people should treat homosexuals, when Jesus told us to love and accept everybody. Besides, not everyone believes in the Bible/Q’uran!

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Ajqtrz
6 years ago

First, the statistic that 10% of the US population is gay is mistaken.

“The American public estimates on average that 23% of Americans are gay or lesbian, little changed from Americans’ 25% estimate in 2011, and only slightly higher than separate 2002 estimates of the gay and lesbian population. These estimates are many times higher than the 3.8% of the adult population who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in Gallup Daily tracking in the first four months of this year.”

http://news.gallup.com/poll/183383/americans-greatly-overestimate-percent-gay-lesbian.aspx

The “10%” statistic, btw, comes from a 1975 (about) study of the California State Prison population, not a representative sample in the first place.

Second, if, as many people wish, you want to make sexuality a “continuum” with only the far extremes being “purely one way or the other” (as necessary if you make anything a continuum), then of course you can claim that all but the extremes have ‘little” of the opposite end in them. So do gays have a little hetero-sexuality in them too?

Just a thought.

AJ

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