If a child shows gender-atypical behaviors, how well does that predict that he will develop a homosexual orientation?
According to a study by Sandberg et al., 23 percent of boys and 39 percent of girls act in at least 10 different ways that are categorized as gender-atypical. Since research puts gay men at about 3 percent of the population, and lesbians at about half that, most boys and girls who at times act like members of the opposite sex will not become homosexuals.
Are gun owners mentally ill?
Some anti-gun people think owning a gun is a sign of some kind of mental abnormality. According to General Social Survey data, gun owners ...
3% is simply the number of socially admitted homosexuals. 23% of males and 39% of females could easily be the proportion of the population with homosexual or bisexual tendencies.
ReplyDeleteSociety simply stigmatizes homosexuality or bisexuality to a degree that 80-95% of people with homosexual or bisexual tendencies never acknowledge it. If you go back to civilizations without homosexual stigmatization like Ancient Rome and Greece, I think it would be quite common for 30% or more of the population to have homosexual experiences.
Additional supporting evidence is the work done by Kinsey, indicating that most females and many to most males have some level of bisexuality.
DR,
ReplyDeleteKinsey was a crackpot.
Just for clarification on the percentage, is the 3% the total percentage or the percentage of males? That is, are 6% of men homosexual and 3% of women or is it 3% of men and 1.5% of women?
ReplyDeleteIsn't the figure for gay/bisexual something like 5 percent?
ReplyDeletemengobomin: The latter.
ReplyDelete23 percent of boys and 39 percent of girls act in at least 10 different ways that are categorized as gender-atypical.
ReplyDeleteSounds like those "ways" are not really gender-atypical then, if such large percentages engaged in them.
I'd be interested in finding out what those 10 behaviors were, as described in the study. Of course it's behind a firewall.
Have you ever met a straight male who was "somewhat" attracted to good-looking women?
ReplyDeleteHave you ever met a straight male who woke up on Monday a was in a mood for women but woke up Friday in the mood for men?
And of homosexuals? Ever met one who preferred women to men?
Get real, DR.
You are talking about societies in which sexual "favors" were performed for men of status. The same thing happens in prisons today.
Society simply stigmatizes homosexuality or bisexuality to a degree that 80-95% of people with homosexual or bisexual tendencies never acknowledge it.
ReplyDeleteNonsense. The frequency of self-admitted homosexuals has remained the same in younger cohorts despite the dramatic decrease in stigmatization of homosexuality in recent decades.
Here's the General Social Survey percentages of men who have never had a male sexual partner by birth year:
ReplyDelete1900-1919 = 94.0 (6)
1920-1939 = 94.4 (5.6)
1940-1949 = 94.5 (5.5)
1950-1959 = 93.4 (6.6)
1960-1979 = 93.4 (6.6)
Jason Malloy has argued that male homosexuality has in fact somewhat decreased in the most recent cohorts: http://tinyurl.com/3nl48dd
Lesbian behavior has somewhat increased, but female sexuality is more fluid in any case.
Living in New York, I get the impression that Jews are overrepresented among homosexuals. Maybe it's just that there are a lot of both groups here. Does the GSS shed any light on whether my impression has a basis in fact?
ReplyDeleteI looked into that before but didn't find much. The main problem is very small sample size--a small minority of a small minority.
ReplyDelete"Living in New York, I get the impression that Jews are overrepresented among homosexuals. Maybe it's just that there are a lot of both groups here. Does the GSS shed any light on whether my impression has a basis in fact?"
ReplyDeleteLiving in New York, you're going to get the impression that Jews (and gays) are overrepresented everywhere. The GSS would be useful here. Mr. Guhname?
That said, both groups, with their high verbal fluency, are going to be high-profile, and with Jews (particularly those in NYC) being relatively pro-gay, the Jewish gays are going to be particularly uncloseted. So this'd be kind of interesting to explore.