how many gay and bisexual people are there

[josh gold]

I see some statistics say anything from 1-15%.I see some GAY people say 8% some think 3-6%.But i think even in the uk a lot of people are in the closet and i also think people underestimate how many bisexual there are.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

yeah I reckon that there are a lot of closeted homosexuals that aren't accounted for in the stats. Not that I think it matters how many people have a certain sexual orientation

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Discrimination plays a large role in how many people truthfully answer in these questionnaires. It also depends on how the question are asked. So taken together the numbers float around between low (3%) and high (15%).How honest these answers are we will not know for sure until discrimination against queer people is a thing of the past.

[Zav]

Monosexuals make up 20% of the population according to Kinsey (I think), equally divided between hetero- and homo-sexuals. Everyone else is some variation of bisexual. Of course there are also a dozen other broad sexual categories that fit somewhere in there.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Monosexuals make up 20% of the population according to Kinsey (I think), equally divided between hetero- and homo-sexuals. Everyone else is some variation of bisexual. Of course there are also a dozen other broad sexual categories that fit somewhere in there.

According to certain theory and pending on how one defines bisexual.

[Zav]

According to certain theory and depending on how one defines bisexual.
I wasn't aware of controversy in the definition of bisexuality.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

I wasn't aware of controversy in the definition of bisexuality.

There is a controversy when you say, "Everyone else is some variation of bisexual." Obviously you are not using standard definitions.

[GallowsBird]

Depends on how you define them, for isntance there is much evidence that man is by his nature (like other primates) bisexual and that heterosexuality and homosexuality are more cultural than not.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Depends on how you define them, for isntance there is much evidence that man is by his nature (like other primates) bisexual and that heterosexuality and homosexuality are more cultural than not.

I eagerly await your explanation on how sexual orientation is "Cultural." The labels are, of course, only labels given to us by society but the source ("nature") is most definitely not cultural as scientists have many different sources pointing to a biological narrative.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

According to certain theory and pending on how one defines bisexual.
Zav's probably referring to the Kinsey scale

[cynicles]

The last statistic I saw was 2.6%(gay/lesbian) and 8% sexually attracted to both sexes("bisexual").

[Permanent Revolutionary]

Those statistics have to be wrong. There's no chance they're that low.

[Book O'Dead]

I'd say that 50% of the people on Earth is gay and the other half is queer.

[Positivist]

I believe Freud theorized that everyone was inherently bisexual but there were typically infantile experiences which resulted in either hetero, or homosexuality. I'm not sure if I agree with this but it was certainly a stride from the prevailing theory of the era which depicted homosexuality as a "disease."

In fact I believe I read of this theory in a note from Freud to a woman who contacted him in the hope of having him "cure" her son of homosexuality.

[MuscularTophFan]

One poll put it as high as 25%. It's really hard to pin down. There are heterosexuals who engage in homosexual acts. There are many closeted gays. I was for many years in the closet about my sexuality. It's not that I was hostile towards my bisexuality it was that I thought it was a phase that I would grow out of. Oh how wrong I was. My boyfriend was another closet case who thought he could "pray the gay away" fro many years.

How much different would homosexuality be in a society without the stigma towards it?

[GallowsBird]

I believe Freud theorized that everyone was inherently bisexual but there were typically infantile experiences which resulted in either hetero, or homosexuality. I'm not sure if I agree with this but it was certainly a stride from the prevailing theory of the era which depicted homosexuality as a "disease."

Alfred Kinsey held a similar view and coined the term 'Innate Bisexuality'; there have been many tests that show man's nearest relative's, especially Bonobos, are bisexual etc.
I am not sure whether I believe in innate bisexuality, however, from experience I'd say most people do seem to exhibit some bisexual tendencies at some points om their life. I'd also note that what we'd recognise as homosexuality and heterosexuality (even though I tend to not like narrow definitions of hetero, homo and bi) have been observed amongst other animals as well.

Human sexuality is still not very understood.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

I don't think there's a way to get an accurate count. People being in the closet, people being dishonest about their feelings or not recognizing them, etc., means that there is likely a notable undercount in studies.

[Blackscare]

Monosexuals make up 20% of the population according to Kinsey (I think), equally divided between hetero- and homo-sexuals. Everyone else is some variation of bisexual. Of course there are also a dozen other broad sexual categories that fit somewhere in there.


While that's technically true according to the kinsey scale, most of those people wouldn't really fit the mold of "bisexual" that you normally think of. On the kinsey scale, merely being able to appreciate that a member of the same sex is objectively attractive counts as "bisexual".


Bisexuals, unfortunately, do not rule the world as proponents of the kinsey scale would have us believe. :P

[Neoprime]

I think Bi-Sexual's are the majority but Heteronormative thinking/worldview gets into the way.

[Jimmie Higgins]

how many gay and bisexual people are there?

767,345,321

[Igor]

767,345,321

dude it's 767,345,317

enough with your revisionist lies ok

[Ele'ill]

How are these polls even fathomed to be accurate

[GallowsBird]

dude it's 767,345,317

enough with your revisionist lies ok

No, that is too low actually, although the number has been cited as between 767,345,317 and 767,345,321 on paper, recent research shows it is actually probably closer to 767,345,333.9 with an error margin of 106% of course.

[JPSartre12]

I'm not really a fan of terms lesbian, gay, bi, or trans.
(not that the LGBT community really includes the trans often and treats them as equal members, but that's a different rant :tt2: )

It's all much more fluid and intricate than picking one of those four letters. Rather than let the system categorize us into a buch of little special-interest boxes, let's just go with the flow. We are what we are and don't need a label, definition, title, etc etc etc etc.

Just be.

[El Chuncho]

While that's technically true according to the kinsey scale, most of those people wouldn't really fit the mold of "bisexual" that you normally think of. On the kinsey scale, merely being able to appreciate that a member of the same sex is objectively attractive counts as "bisexual"

One can argue that that is due to innate bisexuality that Kinsey talks about. Some would also argue that ''prison rapes'' are not just the product of desperation (not that desperation is any real excuse. I'd never rape anyone no matter how much I missed sex), but of desperation paired with innate bisexuality. Regardless, I do think that man by his nature (as I have stated many times on this forum) is bisexual for the simply reason that almost all closely related animals to humans (and some more distant ones) are bisexual. As have already been mentioned, Bonobos and other chimps are bisexual by nature.

Of course, it doesn't really matter what sexuality one is. Bisexuality, homosexuality, asexuality and heterosexuality are just normal sexualities and all should be treated equally.

[cynicles]

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/06/the-true-north-lgbt-new-poll-reveals-landscape-of-gay-canada/

I don't know how accurate it is but there is another claim. Though it's rather haphazard and stupid to try and calculate LGBT as one unified category.

The trans community is hardly the only one ignored from the LGBT. They might aswell just drop all the other letter since they only ever care about the LG.

[Jimmie Higgins]

It's all much more fluid and intricate than picking one of those four letters. Rather than let the system categorize us into a buch of little special-interest boxes, let's just go with the flow. We are what we are and don't need a label, definition, title, etc etc etc etc.

Just be.

Yes. I was obviously being snarky in my first posts, but I think it would be impossible to actually know a number of this sort because IMO sexuality and preference are not inherent and are somewhat fluid. It would possibly be possible to estimate the number of people who identify as a particular sexual identity, but on an larger and theoretical level, I think it's only useful to describe sex acts as behaviors, not some kind of "type of person". But as long as people are discriminated against, then sexuality is an issue and people who are oppressed will want to band together for either fight-back or just defense and comfort.