That government survey claiming just 1.5 percent of British folks — about 725,000 people — are gay or bi? Hogwash, says dating site Gaydar, which has just a tad more profiles than that.
The British government’s Office of National Statistics came up with its figure based on 450,000 responses to its Integrated Household Survey, “the biggest pool of UK social data after the Census.” But Gaydar and GaydarGirls say they’ve got 2,185,072 profiles in Britain alone. Which means with a total population of about 61.4 million people, according to World Bank estimates, at least 3.6 percent of them are cruising for same-sex matches online. (Gaydar says their figures mean 6.7 percent of the population has a profile, meaning they’ve got smaller overall figures for the country’s population.)
Of course we must consider that individuals have posted more than one profile, and that some profiles might belong to ex-pats or non-citizens, which might not be counted in the government survey.
That, and gays learned long ago to lie to Big Brother.
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alan brickman
People get beat up or killed in “Shitain” Maybe they don’t want people to know…
jason
The problem with surveys of human sexuality is that they are often conducted in a way which scares the respondents. They’re often conducted in a very impersonal way, often over the phone, by people who are total strangers. A person who is gay is more likely to tell these people to fuck off.
Keep in mind that most straight-identifying men would never concede to a bisexual orientation despite the fact that most of them do sometimes have sexual feelings for men. A straight-identifying, bisexually oriented man who’s married to a woman will not tell a survey that he’s bisexually oriented. His identity trumps all, even his biology.
If his wife is looking over his shoulder, he is even less likely to concede to a bisexual orientation. Most women are extremely jealous and hostile towards the concept of a sexually fluid man, partly because it multiplies the competition she faces should her man seek temptation elsewhere.
If it’s another woman, she can at least scratch her eyes out.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
And just which particular group are these idiots trying to appease by such absolutley laughable figures?????
Paul Mc
You would have thought Office for National Stats (ONS) in the UK would have more savy. Although they did try to minimise reporting bias by holding up cards, it’s a just fact that a doorstop survey of identity will underestimate by a long way. The clue is in 3% or so who didn’t want or wouldn’t answer.
Also part of 94.8% declaring themselves are those who haven’t come out yet and/or bisexual.
I still think 6% is a good working figure and explains the Gaydar number as well as the 1.5million or more who attend various gay pride events in UK.
Andreusz
The government survey that showed only 1.5% of the British population are gay or bi, is absolute rubbish! People are natural born liars and further more homosexuality is still seen as “uncool” in many societies around the world. I’ll tell you what realistic is, at the very least 40% of the British population is either gay, bi and transgendered. Get used to it!
Tommy
I thought I remember reading some US survey that said that gay and bisexual people are about 10% of the population. That seems about right. I would think it would be the same in the UK.
40% seems too high. Probably that many have had one same sex experience in their life, but that doesn’t make you gay or bisexual.
jason
I think the number of men who are bisexually oriented is between 80 and 90%. One of the main reasons they don’t admit it is women. Women are notoriously homophobic towards male-male intimacy, especially if it’s in the context of a man who can turn from men to women and back again with ease.
If there were no women in the world, men would turn to each other with ease. It would be a totally relaxed, albeit promiscuous, world.
nineinchnail
Whats the difference between a straight guy and a bi guy? About eight cans of strong lager.
Andreusz
Surveys conducted on sexuality are never accurate at all. We need to accept that we all live in a very sexually diverse world, where there isn’t just male & female, black & white. The reasons why millions of LGBT people are too scared to come forward is so obvious, only an idiot would not know this. Therefore, any percentage given is inaccurate. This cannot be measured like the colour of one’s eyes. There are so many theories out there on what the percentage of the population is LGBT and I for one believe that it is hugely underestimated for so many reasons. I know of so many people out there who have been leading double lives, however the Kinsey scale is probably the best way of measuring this. Some are exclusively LGBT or only slightly that way inclined. However, it is not insufferable for some of these people, so they choose to go with the flow and the mainstream. We need to respect this diversity.
Max
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080417160636AAw91WY