How common is homosexuality?

[SanDiegoMom]

7 hours ago, maize said:

LGBTQ+ identities are currently popular, loudly supported and lauded in many spheres.

Of course people--especially young people who seem to be profoundly influenced by social trends among their peers and are at a life stage where they are exploring identitity--are latching on to such labels in unprecedented droves. Human perception of identity doesn't exist in a vacuum. Never has. Never will. 

We are profoundly social creatures and pretending culture doesn't influence all kinds of identities is a denial of the communal nature of human experience.

I find such denial dishonest and unlikely to contribute to a world on which all humans are treated with decency.

This is what I am seeing as my two teenagers and recent college grad navigate their social circles.  LGBT representation is high among gen z because right now there is such a drive to be anything but "cishet".  I have heard this from both my daughters.  My youngest listened to me talk about how there used to be punk, goth, emo, etc -- you found your group according to the music you enjoyed or the hobbies you had.  Increasingly, she says, it is down to either being rainbow adjacent or an oppressing cishet.  

 

[KSera]

8 hours ago, SeaConquest said:

with a mix of hetero tears

This isn't helpful. It has exactly the same tone as those who love to talk about "liberal tears." It contributes to this impression:

32 minutes ago, SanDiegoMom said:

right now there is such a drive to be anything but "cishet"

 

 

[Terabith]

I've always kinda wondered what percentage of people were asexual.  

[KSera]

6 minutes ago, Terabith said:

I've always kinda wondered what percentage of people were asexual.  

I don't think it's all that low, honestly. (I mean, I'm certain it's a minority, but I could certainly imagine it might be double digits if it were able to be assessed in some objective way (I don't know what that would be. I supposed it's a bit like bisexuality in that way--where's the line on the spectrum?).

[Terabith]

16 minutes ago, KSera said:

I don't think it's all that low, honestly. (I mean, I'm certain it's a minority, but I could certainly imagine it might be double digits if it were able to be assessed in some objective way (I don't know what that would be. I supposed it's a bit like bisexuality in that way--where's the line on the spectrum?).

25 years ago, multiple doctors and counselors, including a couple sexologists, swore up and down it didn't exist, so I honestly have no idea.....

Edited February 23, 2022 by Terabith

[Frances]

8 hours ago, SeaConquest said:

…with a mix of hetero tears re how being LGBTQ is now being used as affirmative action. 

I normally agree with you on lots of things, but I think this is a bit unfair. The complaint seemed to me to be about people purposefully claiming to be LGBTQ only when they thought it would give them an advantage (e.g. for medical school admissions). And it wasn’t just straight people complaining. How would you have felt when you were at the big law firm, helping to recruit LGBTQ individuals, if you found out later that one of the few successful recruits had purposely lied about being bi? As in, you overheard them bragging to a friend that they had played the system? 
 

We know for a fact this kind of thing happens with other categories, so of course it’s going to happen with LGBTQ, now that it is being asked about on some applications. And it’s ripe for happening because as virtually everyone here has agreed, you can’t prove it one way or another and shouldn’t even question it. Here’s a recent story, although not about LGBTQ.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2022/01/19/student-loses-rhodes-scholarship-lying-past/6570699001/

And disadvantaged background is an actual question in the main med school application. Students can choose to be classified as a disadvantaged applicant and write an additional essay about it.

[KSera]

20 minutes ago, Terabith said:

25 years ago, multiple doctors and counselors, including a couple sexologists, swore up and down it didn't exist, so I honestly have no idea.....

Wow. That just seems crazy to me. Of course it’s a thing! I think it’s like a lot of things, where doctors often can’t help but have their own life experiences influence their beliefs (I expect it’s rare for an asexual person to choose to be a sexologist for example). 

[Frances]

Here’s some data from Denmark which has generally been ahead of the US on LGTBQ rights and freedoms.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1092457/sexual-identities-in-denmark-by-gender/

90% of women and 93% of men said they were heterosexual. 0.2% were asexual. Largest share of bisexuals was among women (2.6%) and largest share of homosexuals (1.5%) was among men.

[Melissa Louise]

That tracks. 

My understanding is that the rates of L & G are consistent over time, with Gen Z growth due to increasing identifications with B, T and Q. 

It makes sense that L & G would be a stable minority, given we are a sexually reproducing species. 

[Katy]

Interesting.  I remember a social studies class in middle school that discussed 1% and 5% and said the current number (in maybe 1992) was thought to be more like 10%, or 2-3 people in that class of 31. If we were given the source of that I don't recall it, but the 2-3 people figure was accurate.