How Many People are Homosexuals?

Brian Clowes
April 24, 2020
Reproduced with Permission
Human Life International

Homosexuality is one in 10. It's one in 10 on the football team. It's one in 10 on the baseball team. It's one in 10 on the softball team. It's one in 10 on the basketball team. Those are facts. - Homosexual activist Pat Griffin. 1


One of the most persuasive arguments that homosexual activists use to support their agenda is the assertion that 10% of all people are "gay." If homosexuals can convince people that they make up a much larger portion of the population than they actually represent, they are much more likely to garner support for their agenda. Even many ostensibly objective media will parrot this number. The homosexual movement has even named some of their organizations "The Ten Percent Foundation," "Project Ten," and the "One in Ten Club."

The relentless media-boosted hoopla by the special rights movement has accomplished its intended purpose. Two recent Gallup polls found that Americans believe that an incredible 25% of people are homosexuals. Only four percent believed that 5% or less are homosexuals. Not surprisingly, the least educated Americans ― those who tend to take their lead from the media ― made the highest estimates. 2

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force founder Bruce Voeller said:

After years of our educating those who inform the public and make its laws, the concept that 10 percent of the population is gay has become a generally accepted "fact." While some reminding always seems necessary, the 10 percent figure is regularly utilized by scholars, by the press, and in government statistics. As with so many pieces of knowledge and myth, repeated telling made it so. 3

The Source of the "10%" Claim

The original source of the "ten percent" statistic is Alfred Kinsey, perhaps the world's best-known sex researcher. His most famous claim held that 10% of the male population is "more or less exclusively homosexual for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55." Kinsey also claimed that 4% of all males are exclusively homosexual throughout their entire lives, and alleged that an incredible 37% of men have had homosexual experiences during their lives. 4 These results are not only the basis of the homosexual-rights "ten percent" myth, but also serve as a cornerstone of the sex education classes taught in the Western world today. 5

Bearing its founder's name, the Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender, and Reproduction produces volumes of information that forms the basis for much of the world's sex education industry. However, much of the information and research generated by the Kinsey Institute is of dubious quality at best, as it has at times refused to reveal its sources and study methods.

Some researchers have reported that Kinsey was so fanatical about secrecy that he told his staff photographer William Dellenback that he would destroy all his files and risk imprisonment rather than let authorities see them. 6

Conclusions Drawn before the Data

Kinsey's research represents a classic example of looking for data to support a preordained set of desired conclusions. Gershon Legman, the original compiler for Kinsey's pornography collection, revealed:

Kinsey's not-very-secret intention was to "respectabilize" homosexuality and certain sexual perversions….He did not hesitate to extrapolate his utterly inadequate and inconclusive samplings to the whole population of the United States, not to say the world….This is pure propaganda, and is ridiculously far from the mathematical or statistical science pretended. 7

After his desired conclusions were drawn, all Kinsey had to do was ensure that the study process supported them, regardless of what data was gathered and analyzed. The best way to do this, of course, was to hire biased researchers. Kinsey only accepted applicants to do his research if they agreed with him that homosexuality was healthy and normal.

Biased Data

Next, to achieve the desired results, Kinsey focused only on groups that had a very high percentage of homosexuals relative to the general population.

Kinsey's Male Report was based upon the detailed analysis of the backgrounds and sexual practices of more than 5,000 men. At least one-fourth of Kinsey's sample population were prison inmates and convicted sex offenders, which represent about 1% of the general population. 8 According to Male Report coauthor Wardell Pomeroy, "We went to the [prison] records and got lists of the inmates who were in for various kinds of sex offenses." 9 44% of all of the prisoners in the Kinsey male sample had had a homosexual experience in prison, according to John Gagnon, a Kinsey researcher. 10

Kinsey himself concluded that members of the prison population were more than four times more likely to be homosexuals than the general population. 11 Since studies show that the actual percentage of homosexuals in the general population is 1 – 2% (see below), this factor alone was enough to guarantee that Kinsey would get the "ten percent" figure he desired.

According to page 216 of the Male Report , Kinsey's second sample population consisted of "…several hundred male prostitutes [who] contributed their histories." Most male prostitutes are by definition homosexuals. So if 300 male prostitutes were interviewed for the Kinsey study, this factor alone would add about a (300/5,000) = 6% rate of homosexuality to the final conclusion.

Most of the remainder of Kinsey's sample population consisted of volunteers, many of whom were clients from his private practice actively seeking advice on their sexual dysfunctions. 12 As any researcher knows, the "volunteer bias" principle holds that volunteers for any type of study in any field will invariably skew the study results because they are always unrepresentative of the general population. A random sampling is invariably more accurate.

Even the use of three biased populations was not enough for Kinsey. He wanted to make absolutely certain that his study results were "satisfactory," so he deliberately asked his volunteers biased questions. The Male Report admits, "We always assume that everyone has engaged in every type of [homosexual] activity. Consequently, we always begin by asking when they first engaged in such activity." 13

Despite the shoddiness of the research that backed up Kinsey's studies, it has had a profound impact upon our society, because sex revolutionaries seized upon his tattered results in the same way the population controllers pounced on Paul Ehrlich's ridiculous book The Population Bomb .

Finally: The Truth

In 1990, researchers Dr. Judith Reisman and Edward W. Eichel wrote Kinsey, Sex, and Fraud , in which they characterize Kinsey's most famous works, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female as "… the most egregious example of scientific deception in this [twentieth] century." 14

Reisman and Eichel concluded that the actual percentage of male homosexuals in the United States is 1 – 2%.

The percentage of lifelong or exclusive homosexuality would of course be much lower. A study completed by Alfred Spira of the Bicetre Hospital of Paris in June 1992 showed that only 1.1% of men and 0.3% of women had had a homosexual experience in the last twelve months. 15 A 2003 survey by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that only 2.3% of men and 1.3% of women referred to themselves as homosexuals. 16 And a large 2003 Statistics Canada survey of 135,000 people found that only 1.3% of men and 0.7% of women identified themselves as homosexual. 17 Finally, in 2014, the United States Census Bureau reported that the number of Americans who identify as homosexual in the American population is about 1.7% for men (one out of 60) and 1.1% for women (one out of 90). 18

Final Thoughts

Even some leaders of the special rights movement are becoming weary of the charade. Gareth Kirkby, Managing Editor of the Vancouver‑based homosexual newspaper Xtra West , asked in 1998:

Why is it that some of us continue to bend and twist and otherwise play loose with often out‑dated so‑called facts? Why, for example, do we continue to insist that 10 per cent of the overall population is gay or lesbian?… Yes, claiming we're 10 per cent of the population makes us sound Impressive, a big vote for the wooing and an interest group that can't be offended without serious consequences. 19

There is a pressing need to jettison the lies that prop up the special rights movement, and the "ten percent" myth should be the first one that gets thrown into the dustbin.


Endnotes

1  Homosexual activist Pat Griffin, quoted in Coaching Women's Basketball , September/October 1996. "Coaches Magazine Spreads 10% Homosexual Myth as Fact." American Family Association Journal , January 1997, page 9. [ Back ]

2  Lymari Morales. "U.S. Adults Estimate That 25% of Americans Are Gay or Lesbian: Those with Lower Incomes, the Less Educated, Women, and Young People Give the Highest Estimates." Gallup , May 27, 2011. http://www.gallup.com/poll/147824/adults-estimate-americans-gay-lesbian.aspx , April 24, 2015. [ Back ]

3  Bruce Voeller. "Some Uses and Abuses of the Kinsey Scale." In Homosexuality, Heterosexuality: Concepts of Sexual Orientation . The Kinsey Institute Series, June Machover Reinisch (general editor), Oxford University Press, 1990, pages 35 and 36. [ Back ]

4  Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy and Clyde E. Martin. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male . Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1948. A summary of Kinsey's findings on homosexuality may be found on pages 650 and 651. [ Back ]

5  Kinsey's conclusions on sexuality were contained in the famous studies he co-authored with Wardell B. Pomeroy, C.E. Martin, and Paul H. Gebhard. These were entitled Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female , published by the W.B. Saunders Company of Philadelphia in 1948 and 1953 respectively. [ Back ]

6  E. Michael Jones. "The Case against Kinsey." Fidelity Magazine, April 1989, pages 22 to 35. [ Back ]

7  Gershon Legman. The Horn Book: Studies in Erotic Folklore and Bibliography . New Hyde Park, New York: University Books, 1964. [ Back ]

8  Judith A. Reisman and Edward W. Eichel. Kinsey, Sex and Fraud: The Indoctrination of a People. Lafayette, Louisiana: Huntington House Publishers, 1990, pages 20 to 23 and 40; E. Michael Jones. "The Case against Kinsey." Fidelity Magazine, April 1989, pages 22 to 35. [ Back ]

9  Wardell Pomeroy. Dr. Kinsey and the Institute for Sex Research . New York City: Harper& Row, 1972. [ Back ]

10  Judith A. Reisman and Edward W. Eichel. Kinsey, Sex and Fraud: The Indoctrination of a People . Lafayette, Louisiana: Huntington House Publishers, 1990, pages 20 to 23 and 40. [ Back ]

11  P.H. Gebhard, J.H. Gagnon, W.B. Pomeroy, and C.V. Christenson. Sex Offenders: An Analysis of Types . New York City: Harper& Row, 1965. [ Back ]

12  Judith A. Reisman and Edward W. Eichel. Kinsey, Sex and Fraud: The Indoctrination of a People [Lafayette, Louisiana: Huntington House Publishers], 1990, pages 20 to 23 and 40. [ Back ]

13  Page 53 of The Male Report (emphasis in the original). [ Back ]

14  Judith A. Reisman and Edward W. Eichel. Kinsey, Sex and Fraud: The Indoctrination of a People . Lafayette, Louisiana: Huntington House Publishers, 1990, pages 20 to 23 and 40. [ Back ]

15  Peter Aldhous. "Sexual Behavior: French Venture Where U.S. Fears to Tread." Science Magazine, July 3, 1992, page 25. [ Back ]

16  William D. Mosher, Ph.D., Anjani Chandra, Ph.D., and Jo Jones, Ph.D., Division of Vital Statistics, Centers for Disease Control. "Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures: Men and Women 15-44 Years of Age, United States, 2002." Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics, Number 362 [September 15, 2005], pages 1 and 3. Centers for Disease Control website at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad362.pdf , downloaded on February 5, 2007. This survey was based on in‑person interviews conducted between March 2002 and March 2003 in the homes of 12,571 people (4,928 men and 7,643 women) 15 to 44 years of age. [ Back ]

17  "Canadian Community Health Survey." The Daily , June 15, 2004. See the section entitled "First Information on Sexual Orientation." [ Back ]

18  ProQuest LLC. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2015 (3rd Edition, Bethesda, Maryland, 2014). Table 107, "Sexual Identity among Men and Women: 2006 to 2008." [ Back ]

19  Gareth Kirkby, Managing Editor of the Vancouver‑based homosexual newspaper Xtra West , acknowledged this in an editorial entitled, "No Need to Lie," published in the August 20, 1998 issue. [ Back ]

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