More Americans Are Admitting to Having Same-Sex Sexual Encounters

I have always believed that the number of gays - or at least sexually fluid individuals - in the general population is far higher than what many would argue is the case, especially Christofascists and those in the parasitic professional Christian class who always seek to minimize the prevalence of homosexuality.  Now, a new study has found that the number of people who are LGBT - or at least admitting to same-sex relationships - is closer to the 10% or more of the population that I believe is accurate than the 3% or less that the modern day Pharisee set likes to cite.  No doubt the anti-LGBT hate merchants at The Family Foundation, the National Organization for Marriage, and Family Research Council, among others, will be shrieking and acting as if someone defecated in their bowl of Cheerios.   Huffington Post looks at the study findings.  Here are highlights:

It appears giving queer sex a whirl is becoming more popular — or at the very least, more people are now willing to admit they’ve had a same-sex sexual encounter.

According to a study published Wednesday in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, the number of American adults who say they’ve had a same-sex experience has doubled over the last two and a half decades.

A press release sent to The Huffington Post by San Diego State University reveals that Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at SDSU, and colleagues Ryne Sherman of Florida Atlantic University and Brooke Wells of Widener University, found that “between 1990 and 2014, the percentage of men who reported having had sex with at least one man increased from 4.5 percent to 8.2 percent, and the number of women reporting having had sex with at least one woman increased from 3.6 percent to 8.7 percent.” Twenge, Sherman and Wells also noted that “the percentage of adults reporting having had sex with both men and women rose from 3.1 percent to 7.7 percent.”

The study was conducted by combing through the General Social Survey, which is a nationally representative survey that includes over 30,000 adults who’ve agreed to discuss their thoughts about a variety of topics including same-sex behavior, which the survey began recording in 1978, and sexual partners, which the survey has been documenting since 1989.

The press release also notes that the survey includes respondents’ attitudes about same-sex relations. Twenge, Sherman and Wells found that “between 1973 and 1990, the percentage of adults who believed ‘sexual relations between two adults of the same sex [was] not wrong at all’ hardly budged, rising from 11 percent to 13 percent.” However, since 1990, they found that acceptance has skyrocketed to “49 percent of all adults and 63 percent of Millennials in 2014.” 

This new study falls in line with other recent polls and surveys about sexual identity and experiences. In August 2015, a YouGov poll conducted in The UK found that nearly one in two young people do not identify as exclusively heterosexual. Similarly, another study conducted by the trend forecasting agency J. Walter Thompson Innovation Group and released earlier this year found that 52 percent of Gen Zs do not identify as exclusively heterosexual.

Victoria Cobb, enjoy your Cheerios!!

Tom Daley - Bisexuals Versus Gays

Personally, I was please when Tom Daley came out as apparently a bisexual.  His announcement that he was dating a guy but that he still liked girls wasn't so well received by some in the LGBT community who thought that Daley was copping out and avoiding using the gay word.  I think sexuality is fluid and differs from person to person.  True, there are gay men who will use the bisexual label until they can get comfortable with saying they are gay.  But that doesn't apply to all.  Thus, in answer to the question, are there really bisexuals, I would say yes since attraction is a complicated thing.  There are many straights - especially among the homophobes - who think gays are ready to jump in bed with any other male.  That is clearly not so - there are many men I find decidedly NOT attractive - and each of us has their own particular "type" that they find attractive.  And beyond the physical attributes one finds attractive, there is the essential element of personality and "chemistry."  A piece in the New York Times that I bookmarked some days ago looks at the issue Daley ignited:

“Of course I still fancy girls.”

Those six little words, tossed off like a request to please hold the mustard, were among the most deconstructed in Tom Daley’s YouTube video last month, in which the 19-year-old British Olympic diver announced that he was dating a man. 

Leaning against Union Jack pillows, he continued, “But, I mean, right now I’m dating a guy, and I couldn’t be happier.” Mr. Daley’s message was sweet and simple, and gay rights advocates seemed thrilled to welcome an out-and-proud athlete into their ranks. (The cattier comments came later, when the “guy” was reported by numerous tabloids and blogs to be the screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who is two decades his senior.) 

But the cheers were premature, or at least qualified. Despite the trending Twitter hashtag #TomGayley, Mr. Daley never used the word “gay,” and there was the matter of his still fancying girls. While many commenters embraced the ambiguity (“I don’t care if Tom Daley’s gay or bi or whatever ... He’s still fit,” one tweeted), others raised eyebrows. 

Was it a disclaimer? A cop-out? A ploy to hold on to fans? Was he being greedy, as some joked? Or was he, as the video’s blushing tone suggested, simply caught up in the heady disorientation of first love, a place too intoxicating for labels? 

Whatever the answer, Mr. Daley’s disclosure reignited a fraught conversation within the L.G.B.T. community, having to do with its third letter. Bisexuality, like chronic fatigue syndrome, is often assumed to be imaginary by those on the outside. The stereotypes abound: bisexuals are promiscuous, lying or in denial. They are gay men who can’t yet admit that they are gay, or “lesbians until graduation,” sowing wild oats before they find husbands. 

“The reactions that you’re seeing are classic in terms of people not believing that bisexuality really exists, feeling that it’s a transitional stage or a form of being in the closet,” said Lisa Diamond, a professor at the University of Utah who studies sexual orientation. 

Population-based studies, Dr. Diamond said, indicate that bisexuality is in fact more common than exclusively same-sex attraction, and that female libido is particularly open-ended.

Male bisexuality, by contrast, is more vexed, and much of the skepticism comes from gay men. In the aftermath of Mr. Daley’s announcement, Ann Friedman wrote a post for New York Magazine’s The Cut blog predicting that male bisexuality would become more visible as gender mores evolved. “Traditional definitions of masculinity — which tend to go hand in hand with homophobia — are going through a real shake-up,” Ms. Friedman wrote. “More hetero men are tentatively admitting that they’re turned on by certain sex acts associated with gay men.” 

The gay conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan swiftly countered on his own blog, The Dish, saying, “I suspect, pace Friedman’s dreams, that there will always be far fewer men who transcend traditional sexual categories — because male sexuality is much cruder, simpler and more binary than female.” He called Mr. Daley’s claim about liking girls “a classic bridging mechanism to ease the transition to his real sexual identity. I know because I did it, too.”

Such thinking has irked bisexual advocates, who see bias within gay circles as evidence of “biphobia.” The claim has been lodged repeatedly at the sex columnist Dan Savage. In 2011, the blogger Chris O’Guinn accused Mr. Savage of saying “blatantly hurtful, cruel and insulting things about bisexuals,” including his remark in the documentary “Bi the Way” that “I meet somebody who’s 19 years old who tells me he’s bisexual, and I’m like: ‘Yeah, right, I doubt it. Come back when you’re 29 and we’ll see.’ ”  

[A] follow-up study at Northwestern concluded the opposite: male bisexuality is real. Why the change? Whereas the first study advertised for subjects in gay-oriented publications and included men who identified as gay, straight or bisexual, the second recruited from places catering specifically to bisexuals and selected only those who had seriously dated both men and women. 

Advocates, a touch exasperated, applauded the new results, though some pointed out that physical stimulation is only one ingredient of sexual orientation, which also stems from emotional intimacy.

In Mr. Daley’s case, the difference may be generational. People who have grown up in a more assimilated world may not see the value in labels like “gay” or “bisexual,” when the communities they describe are no longer as marginalized. 

“Among the younger generation, I’ve seen much more openness about bisexuality in both men and women, and often a rejection of all labels,” Dr. Diamond said. “They’re more open to the idea that, ‘Hey, sexuality is complicated, and as long as I know who I want to sleep with it doesn’t matter what I call myself.’ ”

In my own case, it was very hard to get to the point of looking in the mirror and admitting to myself that I was gay.  That said, I clearly knew that it was guys to whom I was really attracted.  Sexuality is complicated and we should not judge others.