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In your estimation, what percentage of the population is gay?

In your estimation, what percentage of the population is gay?


  • Total voters
    89
Nice justification but the Bible came before the US

And hominids climbing trees to stay safe from predators came before the Bible.
 
Nice justification but the Bible came before the US

Not all cultures had a Bible but most or all had laws or other taboos against things like murder and stealing.

Today, here and in other countries, we can clearly see that some things are an infringement on a person's rights...such as a right to their life or a right to their property. Has and had (historically, even before the Bible) a foundation without religion.
 
The reason I have for voting 0.1% - 2% is that almost no one is 100% gay or 100% straight. (The question was worded in a way that only 100% gay individuals could be considered.)

Strictly speaking, almost everyone is bisexual, with about half leaning straight and the other half leaning gay - both to various degrees. The only reason we appear to have a more heterosexual population is that most people learn to ignore or even suppress their gay tendencies. I suspect it will be a long time before that aspect of social conditioning changes much.
Do you have anything at all to back this up. I find it very hard to believe. I am sure it is true for some percent of the population but I bet it is fairly small. While I have zero issues with homosexuals and support gay marriage, just the thought of kissing another man grosses me out. I find absolutely nothing attractive with another man and know plenty of other straight people that feel the same. I grew up in a family that never had issues with homosexuals so the idea that I have learned to suppress feeling seems like utter crap to me.

Unless you have some sort of proof of what you claim I am going to have to just go ahead and assume it is complete make believe.
 
Do you have anything at all to back this up. I find it very hard to believe. I am sure it is true for some percent of the population but I bet it is fairly small. While I have zero issues with homosexuals and support gay marriage, just the thought of kissing another man grosses me out. I find absolutely nothing attractive with another man and know plenty of other straight people that feel the same. I grew up in a family that never had issues with homosexuals so the idea that I have learned to suppress feeling seems like utter crap to me.

Unless you have some sort of proof of what you claim I am going to have to just go ahead and assume it is complete make believe.

Read up on Kinsey.
 
There is no reason to give such a small percentage power or special rights

What special rights/power do gays get that straights don't have?
 
While I appreciate the link did you actually read it.
According to your own link most of his work seems very suspect to say the least including him purposely making false claims.
If this is what you are basing your opinion on it seems pretty weak to me.
Just not buying it
 
In your estimation, what percentage of the population is gay?

I say "...in your estimation" because, as someone else said in another thread, not all gay people are willing to admit it (for reasons of their own), so the best stats we have are most likely incomplete.

Note also, bi-sexual, bi-curious, etc., are not included in the question. Straight (pun only slightly intended :mrgreen:) gay only.
I'd say ~5%. And even though it's not included in the question, I'm also inclined to point out that I also think ~5% of the population is straight. I suspect that most people, when stripped of denial or ignorance, are somewhere in the middle.
 
I would put it about 5% with 3 to 4% out and open, and 1 to 2% closeted. The closeted number probably jumps to about 30% at a Republican Convention (only kidding). But seriously, I would imagine that about 20% of gay men and women are married to someone of the opposite sex, and live their lives as though they were heterosexual despite having no attraction to the opposite sex.
 
Changing laws and using federal courts to interfere in states legislation. The feds are abusing their power

You care to elaborate on that?
 
While I appreciate the link did you actually read it.
According to your own link most of his work seems very suspect to say the least including him purposely making false claims.
If this is what you are basing your opinion on it seems pretty weak to me.
Just not buying it

I'm not implying that it's the gospel truth, but it's been very valuable to research into sexuality over the decades. If you "don't buy" the body of research out there, I can't help you.
 
Then let gays stay away from pastors and ministers that stand on their faith when it comes to marriage. Jesus said marriage was a man and a woman`

1. Grammar fail.

2. Show me the EXACT chapter and verse where he said this.
 
1. Grammar fail.

2. Show me the EXACT chapter and verse where he said this.

When you have nothing attack the poster. Typical liberal tactic

Matthew 19:4-6New King James Version (NKJV)

4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made[a] them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?[c] 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
 
I didn't vote.

That kind of information would have to come from a scientifically and statistically created/controlled poll or research....and since no one can tell if someone is gay by looking at them (it's a joke if people think they can always or even often tell)...an individual really cant do anymore than 'guess.' And I'd bet that that guess was heavily colored by their personal bias. Just IMO.
I understand what you're saying .. but Gallup may be the best we have, so that's what I used: http://www.debatepolitics.com/polls/207661-your-estimation-percentage-population-gay-8.html#post1063899910.

I recall a previous Gallup poll that specified that most of the LGBT community is B.

Putting everthing together, the correct answer is most likely .1 - 2 percent, the first response in the poll.
 
I'm not implying that it's the gospel truth, but it's been very valuable to research into sexuality over the decades. If you "don't buy" the body of research out there, I can't help you.
While I have not researched this in the past, my own personal experiences that disagree with that research along with the link you passed me seem to be very very suspect and not just by me but experts in the field so let's not pretend this is some definitive research that leaves no reason to doubt it. Anytime someone purposely misrepresents any part of his work it really makes all of it in doubt and shows a rather deep bias.
 
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It is hard to say exactly what that question means. Yes, a significant fraction of gay people know that they are gay, but would not admit it. Another significant fraction are gay, but are in denial about it even to themselves. Then you have the problem that it isn't really binary. A lot of people might sometimes have different inclinations, but tend to prefer one gender. That preference might shift through their life. How that preference shifts might come from them or it might come from attitudes imposed on them by society. Some people seem to be truly bisexual and have no preference either way. Etc.

If you are just talking about people who are cognizant of the fact that they clearly prefer the same gender, I think 5% (which is how I voted above).

If you are talking about everybody whose desires are not 100% heterosexual all the time, it is hard to guess, but if I had to come up with a number, I'd guess 30%.
 
It's got to be between 2 and less than 3% according to the latest data I have read. But, those whose enlightenment comes in the form of sit-coms, and Hollywood through films, those folks seem to think the percentage is much higher. Last gallup poll on the subject most people guessed at least 20%. I think the entertainment industry by design has created this persona as a way to shift public opinion more favorable to a gay lifestyle. Heck just watch HGTV for a couple of hours and you would swear that over 33% of the population is gay. One in every three shows has a gay couple looking for a home or wanting a new interior design.
 
There is no right to marriage in the constitution. That means there is no link to a website that asserts that there is a right to marriage granted in the constitution.

When the constitution was written in the late 1700's marriage wasn't a concern of the government. Marriages were granted by churches. State issued marriage licenses didn't become a function of government until the early 1900's. The authors of the constitution had no idea that such a thing would ever be considered.

an accurate recitation of history
 
an accurate recitation of history

I don't agree with that because my understanding is that Massachusetts began requiring marriage licenses in 1639, and by the 19th-century marriage licenses were common in the United States. It wasn't something that just "happened" in the early 20th century. It was a well established practice by then. And when you think about it Massachusetts at that time engulfed a lot of territory. Not just present-day Massachusetts but central New England, including portions of Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

the customary “banns” (public announcements made in church), used in the old country to notify family, friends, and neighbors of an impending marriage, were unsuited to the widely dispersed settlements in the colonies. Some historians claim that marriage licenses, issued by county clerks, developed to replace the banns. By the late-17th-century, the use of license spread northward to the Middle Colonies.

Colonial Love and Marriage
 
While I have not researched this in the past, my own personal experiences that disagree with that research along with the link you passed me seem to be very very suspect and not just by me but experts in the field so let's not pretend this is some definitive research that leaves no reason to doubt it. Anytime someone purposely misrepresents any part of his work it really makes all of it in doubt and shows a rather deep bias.

I never said that Kinsey's research was definitive, nor do I believe it is. It just happens to contain models that have served as the basis for dozens of other research efforts since then. Also, I place no stock in any one person's "own personal experiences." Science requires a lot more than just one data point.
 
When you have nothing attack the poster. Typical liberal tactic

You just did the very thing you accused me of.

The verse you cited condemns divorce. Not gay marriage. You do accept Jesus' words that divorce for any reason other than cheating is a sin, right?
 
At a guess, 2 to 5 percent. I'd say it's higher here, but Minneapolis is the named gay friendliest city in the country and people have known that for decades. Minneapolis is where the gays who are too introverted for San Fran go. So there is probably a much higher percentage here than average.
 
I never said that Kinsey's research was definitive, nor do I believe it is. It just happens to contain models that have served as the basis for dozens of other research efforts since then. Also, I place no stock in any one person's "own personal experiences." Science requires a lot more than just one data point.
Using models that are flawed and biased leads to bad conclusions. Such as that the majority of people are attracted to both sexes and are just repressing those feelings.
 
Using models that are flawed and biased leads to bad conclusions. Such as that the majority of people are attracted to both sexes and are just repressing those feelings.

Good science revises and improves its models continually.

You want to reject a very large body of research without even reading any of it, and based on only one idea. Not very scientific at all.
 
I picked 4-6% even though I know most sources put the percentage lower.

I think society is still homophobic enough to discourage complete honesty in many.
 
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