Re: What Percentage of the Population Is Gay?
Kinsey's method was flawed, but no more so than similar studies. They all have a wildly high margin of error when you factor in social pressure to repress homosexual tendencies. The reason we'll never really know is because sexuality is always evolving yet the closet is still so huge.
Well, that or it can squeeze in like a gazillion people, but either way we cannot positively identify who is inside.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mrueOrhpDO...wn%2520Car.jpg
~BB~
Re: What Percentage of the Population Is Gay?
What I really like about the Kinsey study, despite some flaws -you’re right, Bella-, is the incredible and to my knowledge, unmatched length of the interviews he was conducting with the subjects. Long interviews of sometimes several hours considering more than 500 different topics on sexuality! His team interviewed as many as (or only) 12 000 people in more than a decade.
The second aspect that still is wonderful to this day is how Kinsey considered sexual orientation as something much broader than just hetero, homo and bi sexuality. He defined a spectrum, and considered every possible aspects of sexuality, from fantasies to scarce or occasional activities in different periods in life. This openness of mind got him to see that much many more people could be seen as leaning towards the middle then ever thought before.
As a matter of fact, because of these factors (time, fantasy, scarce sexual activities over time, evolution indeed, etc.), I suspect we will never be able to give precise numbers on the subject; as you said, the margin of error will always be much greater in the matter than in almost anything else. Yet, Kinsey probably gave a better answer and a better idea of what sexuality was than any other study because of that broad perspective.