Homosexuality and Science: Biology and the Social Sciences

Jeramy Townsley

February 2001
Presented at the
Midwestern Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Allies College Conference

I. Sexuality/Gender Terms
II. Theories of Etiology
     a) Psycho-social Origins
     b) Biological Origins
III.Social Science Research Homosexuality
     a) Professional Opinion on our Mental Health
     b) Psychological Testing
     c) Queer relationships
     d) Myths about Homosexual Behaviors
     e) Prevalence of Homosexuality in Contemporary Western Societies
     f) Mental Health Issues Facing the Queer Community

Sexuality/Gender Terms

(from Remafedi, "Adolescent Homosexuality", Advances in Pediatrics 45 (1998): 107-144)
  1. Gender identity-personal sense of maleness or femaleness
  2. Gender role-outward expression of gender identity
  3. Transsexuality/Transgender-incongmence between biological sex and self-perceived gender-identity
  4. Transvestitism-cross-dressing in clothing of opposite gender for pleasure; has nothing to do with sexual orientation
  5. Sexual orientation-persistent pattern of physical or emotional attraction
    1. sexual fantasy
    2. emotional attraction
    3. sexual behavior
    4. self-identification
    5. cultural affiliation

Theories of etiology:

  1. Psycho-social

    2. (subject headings derived from etiological theories proposed by Jones and Yarhouse, Homosexuality: The Use of Scientific Research in the Church's Moral Debate (InterVarsity Press, 2000))

    A.1) Psychoanalytic:

    Close-binding mother; rejecting, absent or detached father; related to the inability of the male to detach from the mother and attach to the father, causing insecure masculinity and therefore an erotic attraction to maleness/men.

    1. Irving Bieber, et al, Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals (Basic Books, 1962), where 106 male homosexuals were compared to 100 male heterosexuals.

    2. Evans, "Childhood Parental Relationships of Homosexual Men," Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 33 (1969): 129-35, which compared 42 gay men and 142 straight men.

    3. Bell/Weinberg, Sexual Preference: Its Development in Men and Women, (Indiana University Press, 1981), 1500 homosexuals. Showed no maternal influence, but strong paternal influence (48% of gay men reported detached fathers; 29% of straight men).

    4. van den Aardweg, On the Origins and Treatment of Homosexuality, (Praeger, 1986), 200 gay men. 79% described mothers as overconcerned, 71"/o reported detached fathers.

    A.2) Critique of psychoanalytic theories of homosexuality

    1. Most such studies generalize their theories based on a sample from a patient group. Several studies have shown that there are significant psychological differences in people who seek treatment and those who do not seek treatment. It almost becomes a tautology--people who seek professional psychological help tend to have greater psychological problems than those who see no need to seek psychological help. Studies in the past decade on memory construction have verified that people are very suggestible. Memories can easily be planted by psychologists who "think" they know what caused the patient's problems and then geared their counseling strategies to "discover" that history in the patient. I haven't seen any studies that do this for ex-gay therapies, but it has been a widely studied phenomenon in the sexual abuse literature. You may recall the court cases several years ago regarding patients who had very clear memories of sexual abuse, memories that were later discovered could never have happened. After a few cases like this, several studies documented the effect. Given that gay men that seek treatment are likely to already know etiological theories, and ex-gay counselors tend to accept Moberly's/Bieber's/Nicolosi's data, there is high probability for false-memory construction (Brandon, "Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse: Implications for clinical practice." British-Journal-of-Psychiatry 172 (1998): 296-307).

    2. Correlation does not equal causation. Assuming that some of the distant fathers/gay sons cases prove to be true, there still is no causative evidence, which is one of the primary fallacies of psychodynamic theories like Moberly's. For example, it is entirely possible that a son starts out with effeminate characteristics, then becomes rejected by a father who doesn't know how to relate to/is afraid of/is repulsed by his effeminate son. Even if a correlation between distant fathers and effeminate sons could be shown, then it doesn't by any means give us the data to say that distant fathers "cause" effeminate sons.

    B.l) Childhood sexual experience:

    1. Laumann, The Social Organization of Sexuality, (U Chicago Press, 1994), n=3500. Of those who reported sexual abuse, 7.4% of men and 3.1% reported being gay. Of those who reported no SA, 2.0% of men and 0.8% of women reported being gay.

    2. Shrier and Johnson "Sexual Victimization of Boys: An Ongoing Study of an Adolescent Medicine Clinic Population." Journal of the National Medical Association 80 (1988): 1189-93. Demonstrated that homosexual adolescents in their clinic reported more sexual abuse as children than did heterosexual adolescents.

    3. Manosevitz "Early Sexual Behavior in Adult Homosexual and Heterosexual Males." Journal of Abnormal Psychology 76 (1970): 396-402. Reported that homosexual adult males reported more childhood sexual experiences with other male children than did heterosexual adult males.

    B.2) Critique of the CSE hypothesis:

    1. While the Laumann study shows an increased correlation; a 7.4°/a rate hardly constitutes evidence that being molested causes homosexuality. What about the other 92% of sexually abused men who didn't become gay?

    2. Shrier and Johnson-While the adolescents represented in this study who were sexually abused indeed report an increased identification of homosexual, such identification may be simply from developmental sexual confusion related to their sexual abuse. There is no reason to believe, from the data presented in the study, that the adolescents would have continued to identify as homosexuals as they matured. Studies show that adolescents often experience sexual identity confusion, exhibiting some homosexual behavior during this phase, but later stabilize into heterosexuality (Remafedi, "Adolescent Homosexuality", Advances in Pediatrics 45 (1998): 107-144).

    3. Manosevitz--Some authors imply that childhood sexual behavior (CSB) is a causative agent in a person later becoming homosexual. However, Manosevitz makes the opposite conclusion: that sexual orientation determines the choice of gender for CSB. Their study indicates that 25% of the homosexual men engaged in CSB with other male children from age 5-9, and 43% from age 10-12, while no heterosexual men reported CSB with male children when they were 5-9. However, 18% of heterosexual men report CSB with females from 5-9, 23% from age 10-12, 10% of heterosexual men report CSB with other males from 10-12, and,i4% of both homosexual and heterosexual men report CSB with both genders. There is probably no statistical difference between the amount of CSB of heterosexual men with opposite-gendered children and the amount of CSB of homosexual men with same-gendered children (for 5-9 yrs, z=0.6; for 10-12 yrs, z=1.5). This lends itself to the interpretation given by the authors of the study--that childhood sexual orientation determines the choice for gender of CSB, not the other way around.

    C.1) Exotic Becomes Erotic (EBE),

    Bern, "Exotic Becomes Erotic: A Developmental Theory of Sexual Orientation," Psychological Review 103 (1996): 320-35.

    1. (from Jones, p 59) "Bern suggests that -being raised to. be most familiar with your same-sex group results in a certain mysteriousness or "exoticness" or the other sex and what is exotic tends to be regarded as sexually attractive or "erotic" in adult life. The result is that most boys and girls grow up to be sexually attracted to one another. Children who grow up feeling different from their same-sex peers for gender related reasons can develop same-sex attraction, which is often (but not always) preceded by a lack of interest in gender-typical toys and activities."

    2. It claims to predict the greater sexual fluidity of women, since they engage in more gender-nonstereotypical behaviors than males and it is more socially acceptable, therefore "girls are less likely than boys to feel differentially different from opposite-sex and same-sex peers and, hence, are less likely to develop exclusively heteroerotic or homoerotic orientations" (Bem, p. 398). Relies on Weinberg, where 71% of gay men and 70% of lesbians experienced feeling different from their same-sex peers, compared to 38% and 51% of straight men and women.

    3. Summary of flow of EBE development A. Biological variables code for childhood temperament such as aggression and activity level B. Childhood temperament predispose children to enjoy certain activities, sometimes sex-atypical. C. Sex-Typical/Atypical activity and playmate preferences. D. Feeling Different from opposite/same-sex peers (unfamiliar/exotic) E. Nonspecific physiological arousal to opposite/same-sex peers--anxiety, anger, etc, around certain genders produces physiological arousal, linked to sexual arousal F. Erotic/Romantic attraction to opposite/same-sex persons

    C.2) Critique of EBE and of the Bell/Weinberg study

    1. Critique of EBE by Peplau

      2. "A Critique of Bem's 'Exotic Becomes Erotic' Theory of Sexual Orientation", Psychological Review 105 (1998) 387-394.

      1. Large proportion of heterosexual female feelings of dissimilarity as well as for men. Weinberg specifically denies the relationship: "Our path analysis indicates... that such feelings of alienation did not in and of themselves play a role in our responden'ts becoming homosexual. The variables about feeling different from other girls were eliminated" (Bell, p. 157-58).

      2. Bem's theory would predict a general unfamiliarity of homosexuals with same gender persons, like same-gender friends during childhood or same-gender siblings. Bell's study disconfirms the former and other studies disconfirm the latter. Anthropological reports not cited by Bem indicate that same-sex segregation is not related to increased heterosexuality and vice-versa.

      3. Reports of gender non-conformity is a better predictor for homosexuality in men (51%) than women (6%). Further, retrospective studies suffer from the artifact of memory distortion in adulthood.

    2. Critique of the use of the Bell/Weinberg Study by anti-gay advocates

      1. The sampling of the homosexuals in the study was not random, and they admit as much. The heterosexual sample was random, using census data and land tracts to ensure a random sample, and going to exhaustive lengths to make sure those samples were truly random. While they did go to great lengths to get a large sample group of homosexuals, and I don't doubt that their data is representative of the sample they were testing, their data is absolutely not generalizable due to the clear fact that their sample was not a random sample.

      2. Another reason why their data is not generalizable is that they while they did a survey of heterosexuals as well as homosexuals, for some reason they didn't include the heterosexual data. For example, while they claim that one homosexual respondent claims to have had sex with over 10,000 people, and a large percentage of their sample claim to have had sex with over 500 people, they do not give correlative data on the heterosexual sample. For all we know the heterosexual sample may have had a greater number of sexual partners than the homosexual sample. Without this control group, we cannot generalize their sample to the population at large, because we do not know that their population represents national norms since we have no heterosexual control group. It is possible that the heterosexual statistics were equally high, and could have shown that the data does not represent promiscuity specifically among gays, but of the sexually active single person in San Francisco in the 1970's.

      3. A third problem, still relating to the heterosexual sample, is that it did not represent a true control group. Apart from the fact that the homosexual sample was not random and the heterosexual sample was, the homosexual samples were taken from the following places: singles bars (22%), gay baths (9%), public places (=guys hanging out in parks to find sex partners; 6%), private bars (=sex clubs; 5°/a), personal contacts (people that the bar people, public place people, bath house people, etc, knew personally and referred; 23%), public advertising + organizations + mailing lists (29%). The heterosexual sample, on the other hand, were people in residential areas, admittedly including married people. These two samples are not parallel, and even if they had included the heterosexual data, they would not be comparable. In order for this data to have been generalizable, they would have had to go to heterosexual singles bars, sex clubs, bookstores, etc, to get their population.

      4. They used Kinsey 2-6 for their inclusion of homosexual population. Their sample does not represent only homosexual persons, but also includes bisexual persons.

  2. Biological Origins

    1. Neuroscience

      1. Hypothalamus

        2. INAH 3 (LeVay„ Simon "A Difference in Hypothalamic Structure Between Heterosexual and Homosexual Men," Science 253 (1991): 1034-37.)

      2. Suprachiasmatic Nucleus

        3. (Swaab DF. Hofman MA. An enlarged suprachiasmatic nucleus in homosexual men. Brain Research. 537(1-2):141-8, 1990 Dec 24.)

      3. Anterior Commisure

        4. (Allen, L.S., Gorski, R.A. "Sexual Orientation and the size of the anterior commissure in the human brain." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. Vol. 89, pp. 7199-7202, 1992)

    2. The Prenatal Androgen Theory: AnatomicaUNeuroendocrine effects and Fetal Neuroendocrine Effects

      1. Fingerprints

        2. (Hall JA. Kimura D. Dermatoglyphic asymmetry and sexual orientation in men. Behavioral Neuroscience. 108(6):1203-6, 1994 Dec.)

      2. Finger length

        3. (Williams TJ. Pepitone ME. Christensen SE. Cooke BM. Huberman AD. Breedlove NJ. Breedlove TJ. Jordan CL. Breedlove SM. Finger-length ratios and sexual orientation. Nature. 404(6777):455-6, 2000 Mar 30.; For background science only --Manning JT. Scutt D. Wilson J. Lewis-Jones DI. The ratio of 2nd to 4th digit length: a predictor of sperm numbers and concentrations of testosterone, luteinizing hormone and oestrogen. Human Reproduction. 13(11):3000-4, 1998 Nov.)

      3. Auditory System

        4. CEOAE (McFadden, Dennis and E.G. Pasanen, "Comparisons of the auditory systems of heterosexuals and homosexuals: Click-evoked otoacoustic emissions," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95 (March 1998): 2709-13.)

      4. Penis size

        5. (Bogaert AF. Hershberger S. The relation between sexual orientation and penile size. Archives of Sexual Behavior.28(3):213-21, 19'9'9 Jun.) _

      5. Birth Order

        6. (Blanchard R. Birth order and sibling sex ratio in homosexual versus heterosexual males and females. [Review] [110 refs] Annual Review of Sex Research. 8:27-67, 1997.)

      6. Neuroendocrine response-

        7. -positive estrogen feedback luteinizing hormone secretion in homosexual men, not in heterosexual men (Dorner G. Neuroendocrine predisposition for homosexuality [letter]. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 12(6):577-82, 1983 Dec.)

      7. Cognitive Tasks-

        8. (Naeve. "Sex Differences in Cognition: The Role of Testosterone and Sexual Orientation." Brain and Cognition 41(3): 245-262, 1999.) HtM scored significantly higher on "mental rotation test" than HmM, HtF and HmF. HtM scored significantly lower on "verbal association" than HmM, HtF and HmF.

    3. Genetics

      1. Xq28

        2. -indicates a potential genetic marker that predisposes the individual to homosexuality (Hu S. Pattatucci AM. Patterson C. Li L. Fulker DW. Cherny SS. Kruglyak L. Hamer DH. Linkage between sexual orientation and chromosome Xq28 in males but not in females. Nature Genetics. 11(3):248-56, 1995 Nov.; Hamer, D.H.. S. Hu, V.L. Magnuson, N. Hu and A.M.L. Pattatucci, "A Linkage Between DNA Markers on the X Chromosome and Male Sexual Orientation." Science 261(1993): 321-27.)

      2. Twin studies

        3. -- indicate that if one maternal twin is homosexual then the other is more likely to also be a homosexual, more so than fraternal twins, who, in turn, experience a greater liklikhood of having similar sexual orientations than non-twin siblings. (Bailey JM. Pillard RC. A genetic study of male sexual orientation [see comments]. Archives of General Psychiatry. 48(12):1089-96, 1991 Dec.; Bailey JM. Pillard RC. Neale MC. Agyei Y. Heritable factors influence sexual orientation in women. Archives of General Psychiatry. 50(3):217-23, 1993 Mar. ;Bailey JM. Pillard RC. Dawood K. Miller MB. Farrer LA. Trivedi S. Murphy RL. A family history study of male sexual orientation using three independent samples. ehavior Genetics. 29(2):79-86, 1999 Mar.)

      3. Experimental: Drosophilia

        4. .--switched sexual orientation of fruit flies by changing a single gene (w). (Zhang SD. Odenwald WF. Misexpression of the white (w) gene triggers male-male courtship in Drosophila. roceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 92(12):5525-9, 1995 Jun 6

    4. Critique of the Biological Hypothesis

      5. Currently none of the biological studies have been replicated. Attempts have been made to replicate many of the results and those attempts have failed. In some cases the same researcher who originally found differences have tried to replicate their findings in larger samples but have failed to find a difference (eg., Bailey). While this doesn't disprove the biological hypothesis, it does make it impossible at this time to state that biology has "proven" anything. Currently the most we can say from a scientific standpoint is that evidence indicates a biological component to homosexuality, but that there is no conclusive evidence.

  3. Interactionist Hypothesis

    1. Few researchers believe that sexual orientation is completely biologically determined, despite the growing evidence supporting biological causation and the poor support for environmental factors. Most researchers work from the assumption that a combination of environmental and biological factors interact to produce sexual orientation, just as combinations of these two factors interact to produce most complex human behaviors.

    2. Valid issues have been raised with many of the biological studies. For example, Bailey himself was unable to replicate the correlation of homosexuality in twin studies in a recent, large-sample, Australian study. Another recent study failed to replicate LeVay's findings (Byre, Mt Sinai Hospital, New York). Similarly, studies have failed to replicate genetic marker results, like Hamer's as well as other brain structure studies.

    3. This doesn't mean that biological definitive biological evidence won't be found, it does mean that we must be cautious in our assumptions about the extent that biology participates in sexual orientation development. It also means that we must be cautious in using biology when entering the political, legal or philosophical arena to defend gay rights and affirm ourselves as gay people. Given the tentative nature of the data so far, if we rest our arguments on biology and biology eventually fails to prove our case, that could lead to negative consequences for our movement's progress.

Social Science Research Homosexuality

  1. Professional Opinion on our mental health

    1. Position statements from professional licensing organizations

      1. American Psychiatric Association:

      2. American Psychoanalytic Association's statement on gay marriate:

      3. American Psychological Association:

      4. American Medical Association:

        1. JAMA 1996 (275):1354-1959

        2. AMA policies on sexual orientation

      5. American Academy of Pediatrics:

      6. National Association of Social Workers: http://www.socialworkers.org/da/da2005/policies2005/documents/glb.pdf

      7. American School Counselor Association: Position Statement: Sexual Orientation of Youth

    2. Professional opinion

      1. historically, psychoanalysts have been the primary opponents to the depathologization of homosexuality in the 1973 APA decision, Socarides and Bieber being by far the most vocal opponents of the decision. However, a recent survey of psychoanalysts (n=82) found that "no respondents strongly endorsed the type of pathological model proposed by Socarides" (p. 84), and that "the responses of the group as a whole were more towards a health than illness model." (Friedman, Richard. "An empirical study of the beliefs of psychoanalysts about scientific and clinical dimensions of male homosexuality." Journal of Homosexuality 1996 (32): 79-89.).

      2. In another recent study, it was reported that 47.3% of psychiatric training directors (n=198) view homosexuality as normal or somewhat normal, 51.2% view homosexuality as neutral, and 1.5% view it as somewhat pathological or pathological. (Townsend, Mark. "Gay and Lesbian Issues in U.S. Psychiatry Training as Reported by Residency Training Directors." Academic Psychiatry 1995 (19): 213-218).

      3. Similarly, two recent dissertations found that heterosexual therapists did not rate their gay/lesbian patients with higher pathology than their heterosexual patients (Stokes, Tami. Sexual Orientation and Clinical Decisions. New School University, 1998.; Heid, Richard. Relationships Between Sexual Orientation, Psychologist Attitudes and Perception of Psychotherapeutic Prognosis. Temple University, 2000).

  2. Psychological Testing

    3. The following studies represent the evidence that homosexuality is not pathological, and comes from studies that were primarily done in the 60's, 70's and 80's. There were many studies done after the classical study by Evelyn Hooker in 1957, representing the large body of studies from the 60's -70's. The studies become fewer as the 80's progressed and very few studies.ean be found in the 90's. Since all of the evidence is convergent, no further studies were warranted, as indicated by the progressive decline in the number of studies through the decades. The conclusion is that homosexuality evidenced no pathological characteristics that were significantly different from heterosexuals.

    1. MMPI data:

      2. L Braaten- 1965, Genetic Psychology Monographs 71:269-310
      R Dean-1964, J of Consulting Psychology 28 483-86
      W Horstman-1972, Homosexuality and Psychopathology (dissertation)
      Adelman-1977, Arch of Sex Beh 6(3):193-201
      Oberstone-1976, Psychology of Women Quarterly 1(2):172-86

    2. Other tests (Eysenck's Personality Inventory, Cattel's 16PF, California Personality Inventory, etc)

      3. R Evans- 1970, J of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 34:212-15
      R Turner-1974, Br J of Psychiatry 125:447-49
      M Siegelman-1972, Br J of Psychiatry 120:477-481
      M Siegelman-1972, Archives of Sexual Behavior 2:9-25
      M Freedman-1971, Homosexuality and Psychological Functioning, Brooks/Cole Publ.
      J Hopkins-1969, Br J of Psychiatry 115:1433-1436
      M Wilson-1971, Psychological Reports 25:407-412
      N Thompson- 1971 J of Abnormal Psychology 78:237-40
      E Ohlson-1974, J of Sex Research 10:308-315
      D Christie-1986, Psychological Reports 59:1279-1282
      H Carlson-1984, Sex Roles 10:457-6'7
      T Clark-1975, Am J of Psychoanalysis 35:163-68
      R LaTorre-1983, J of Homosexuality 9:87-97,
      P Nurius-1983, J of Sex Research 19:119-36
      C Rand- 1982, J of Homosexuality 8(1):27-39
      J Harry-1983, Archives of Sexual Behavior 12:1-19
      E Hooker-1957, J of Projective Techniques 21:18-31

    3. Reviews

      4. B Harris-1977, Bulletin of the Am Acad of Psychiatry and Law 5:75-89
      J Gonsiorek-1977, Psychological Adjustment and Homosexuality, Select Press.
      W Paul-1982, Homosexuality: Social, Psychological and Biological Issues; Sage Publ.
      M Hart-1978, J of Clinical Psychiatry 39:604-608
      R Meredith-1980, Professional Psychology 11:174-93
      B Reiss-1974, J of Homosexuality 1:71-85
      _ B Reiss- 1980, Homosexual Behavior a modern reappraisa l, Basic Books
      P Falk-1989, Am Psychologist 44(6):941-947
      Kingdon-1979, Counseling Psychologist 8(1):44-45
      V Armon-1960, Journal of Projective Techniques 24:292-309
      N Thompson-1971, J of Abnormal Psychology 78:237-40

    4. Psychiatric Interviews

      5. R Pillard-1988, Psychiatric Annals 18:51-56
      M Saghir-1970, Am J of Psychiatry 126:1079-86

  3. Gay relationships

    1. 40-60% of gay men, and 45-80% of lesbians are in a steady relationship J Harry-1983 Contemporary Families and Alternative Lifestyles, ed by Macklin, Sage Publ.
      K Jay-1977 Gay Repor t, Summit Books
      L Peplau-1981, Journal of Homosexuality 6(3):1-19
      J Spada- 1979, The Spada Report, New American Library Publ

    2. Studies of older homosexual people show that gay relationships lasting over 20 years are not uncommon D McWhirter-1984, The Male Couple, Prentice-Hall
      S Raphael-1980, Alternative Lifestyles 3:207-230, "The Older Lesbian"
      C Silverstein- 1981, Man to Man: Gay Couples in America, William Morrow Publ.

    3. In a large sample of couples followed for 18 months the following "break up" statistics were observed: lesbians=22%, gay=16%, cohabiting heterosexuals=17%, married heterosexuals=4% Blumstein and Schwartz (1983) American Couples: Money, Work, Sex; Morrow Publ.

    4. Homosexual and heterosexual couples matched on age, etc, tend not to differ in levels of love and satisfaction, nor in their scores on other standardized scales M Cardell-1981, Psychology of Women Quarterly 5:488-94
      D Dailey-1979, Journal of Sex Research 15:143-57
      S Duffy- 1986, Journal of Homosexuality 12(2):1-24
      L Kurdek-1986, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51:711-720
      L Peplau-1982, Journal of Homosexuality 8(2):23-35
      (see L Peplau-1991, Homosexuality: Research Implications for Public Policy, ed by J Gonsiorek).

    5. Gay/lesbian parents report no greater stress than heterosexuals, and children are not adversely affected by being raised by homosexual families K McNiell-1998, Psychological Reports 82:59-62
      A Brewaeys-1997, Human Reproduction 12:1349-59
      A Brewaeys-1997, J of Psychosomatic Obs and Gyn 18:1-16
      C Pattersm-1992, Child Development 63:1025-42
      S Golombok-1983, J of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 24:551-572
      K Lewis-1980, Social Work 25:198-203
      R Green 1986, Archives of Sexual Behavior 15:167-184
      R Green-1982, Bulletin of the Am Acad of Psychiatry and Law 10:7-15
      M Alien-1996, J of Homosexuality, 32(2):19-35
      J Miller-1981, J of Homosexuality, 7(1):49-56
      M Kirkpatrick- 1981, Am J of Orthopsychiatry 51:545-551
      M Kirkpatrick- 1987, J of Homosexuality 14:201-11
      F Tasker-1995, Am J of Orthopsychiatry 65:203-15
      D Kleber-1986, Bulletin of the Am Acad of Psychiatry and Law 14(1):81-87
      B Hoeffer-1981, Am J of Orthopsychiatry 51:536-44

  4. Myths about Homosexual Behaviors

    5. There is an extant myth, propagated by the Christian Right, that homosexuals engage in highly promiscuous behavior. Granted, there are some homosexuals that do engage in such behavior. But there are heterosexuals that do the same thing. What is important to recognize is the substantial heterosexist bias that causes people to ignore heterosexual flaws while highlighting homosexual flaws.

    1. Myth: Homosexuals are more promiscuous than heterosexuals

      1. One study which appears to support the idea that homosexuals are highly promiscuous was published by Bell and Weinberg, and is often cited by the Christian Right, and even some secular sources. However, their data is highly suspicious, and cannot be generalized to the entire homosexual population. Because of their methodology, their data is valuable only as a case study for the sample they studied, but it is not by any means representative of the general gay population. for my specific critique of this study, and why their statistics on gay promiscuity are so bizarrely high. Bell and Weinberg. Homosexualities : A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women. New York, 1978 a. The sampling of the homosexuals in the study was not random, and they admit as much. The heterosexual sample was random, using census data and land tracts to ensure a random sample, and going to exhaustive lengths to make sure those samples were truly random. While they did go to great lengths to get a large sample group of homosexuals, and I don't doubt that their data is representative of the sample they were testing, their data is absolutely not generalizable due to the clear fact that their sample was not a random sample. b. Another reason why their data is not generalizable is that they while they did a survey of heterosexuals as well as homosexuals, for some reason they didn't include the heterosexual data. For example, while they claim that one homosexual respondent claims to have had.sex with over 10,000 people, and a large percentage of their sample claim to have had sex with over 500 people, they do not give correlative data on the heterosexual sample. For all we know the heterosexual sample may have had a greater number of sexual partners than the homosexual sample. Without this control group, we cannot generalize their sample to the population at large, because we do not know that their population represents national norms since we have no heterosexual control group. It is possible that the heterosexual statistics were equally high, and could have shown that the data does not represent promiscuity specifically among gays, but of the sexually active single person in San Francisco in the 1970's. c. A third problem, still relating to the heterosexual sample, is that it did not represent a true control group. Apart from the fact that the homosexual sample was not random and the heterosexual sample was, the homosexual samples were taken from the following places: singles bars (22%), gay baths (9%), public places (=guys hanging out in parks to find sex partners; 6%), private bars (=sex clubs; 5%), personal contacts (people that the bar people, public place people, bath house people, etc, knew personally and referred; 23%), public advertising + organizations + mailing lists (29%).The heterosexual sample, on the other hand, were people in residential areas, admittedly including married people. These two samples are not parallel, and even if they had included the heterosexual data, they would not be comparable. In order for this data to have been generalizable, they would have had to go to heterosexual singles bars, sex clubs, bookstores, etc, to get their population. d. They used Kinsey 2-6 for their inclusion of homosexual population. Their sample does not represent only homosexual persons, but also includes bisexual persons.

      2. In a study of sexual behavior in homosexuals and heterosexuals, the researchers found that of gay men, 35.9°/ had one male partner in their lifetime, 45.8% had 2-4 male partners, 7.9% had 5-9 male partners, and 10.3% had 10 or more sexual partners. The mean of this is 4.2 partners. (The statistics I did by myself using the data presented, which is presented as a percentage of total males interviewed, both gay and straight (p. 345)--they can be verified yourself by looking at the numbers given in the paper)(Fay; n=77 gay males of 1450 males total). In a parallel study, a random sample of primarily straight men (n=3111 males who had had vaginal intercourse; of the total sale of n-3224 males, 2.33% had indicated having had sex with both men and women), the mean number of sexual partners was 7.3, with 28.2% having 1-3 partners, and 23.3% having greater than 19 partners (Billy). This data indicates that gay men have had a significantly lower number of sexual partners than heterosexuals. J Billy-1993: Family Planning Perspectives 25:52-60 R Fay-1989, Science 243:338-348

      3. In another set of studies, the first (n=2664) showed that gay men had an average of 6.5 sexual partners in the past 5 years. In fact, the authors of this paper report that "homosexual and bisexual men are much more likely than heterosexual men to be celibate" given the data in the table below, which compares their data to a second, parallel study of only heterosexual men (n=1235, age=18-4.9 yrs). The table indicates the percentage of men having the given number of sexual partners in the previous year [top row: Binson; bottom row: Dolcini]:

        Orientation

        no partners

        1 partner

        2+ partners

        gay

        24 %

        41 °/a

        35

        straight

        8 %

        80 %

        12
        D Binson-1995: Journal of Sex Research 32: 245-54. M Dolcini-1993: Family Planning Perspectives 25: 208-14.

    2. Myth: Homosexuals are more likely to molest children

      1. In a random sample of 175 child sex offenders 76% report having exclusive adult heterosexual behavior, and 24% report having adult bisexual behavior. The sexual attraction towards children is a pathology unrelated to sexual orientation. A Groth-1978, Archives of Sexual Behavior 7(3): 175-181

      2. In a second study of 1206 convictions for child molesters in New Jersey, 80.7% were heterosexual acts and 19.3% were homosexual acts. E Revitch-1962, Diseases of the Nervous System 23:73-78

      3. In a third study, 47% of males convicted of sexual abuse against male children were in an heterosexual marriage. P Gebhard-1965, Sex Offenders, New York: Harper and Row

      4. In a fourth study in Great Britain, in a review of 200 sexual assaults on boys, only 32 of the perpetrators were homosexuals. J McGeorge-1964, Medicine, Science and the Law 4!245-53

      5. In a fifth study of 148 offenders who sexually assaulted under-age persons in Massachusetts, 71 (51%) selected only female children, 42 (28%) selected male children, and 31 (21%) assaulted both male and female children. Moreover, the authors report that "offenders attracted to boy victims typically report that they are uninterested in or revulsed by adult homosexual relationships and find the young boy's feminine characteristics ... appealing" (p. 20). They found that of those pedophiles that were attracted to both children and adults (51%), 83% were exclusively heterosexuals, and 17% were bisexual. A Groth-1978, LAE Journal (Lambda Alpha Epsilon American Criminal Justice Association) 41 (1): 17-22 1. In yet another study at the Children's Hospital in San Diego, of the 140 boys presenting with sexual abuse, only 4% of the assaults were by homosexuals. M Spencer-1986, Pediatrics 78 (1):133-138

  5. Prevalence of Homosexuality in Contemporary Western Societies

    1. Introduction to the issues

      1. The following data are contrary to the popular conception of the number of gays and lesbians in the general population. Ever since Kinsey's classic studies on homosexuality several decades ago, the myth that 10% of the population is gay/lesbian has become rooted in our culture. However this data is far from supported in well-designed studies, and Kinsey's data has not been replicated by scientifically accepted studies. The following studies confirm that the G/L population tends to range from 2-5% of the general population.

      2. Several issues are involved in studying prevalence rates

        1. The most important issue is the question of whether or not the person in the study is answering the questions truthfully. Most scientists who work in the field of human sexuality believe that all reports of homosexual behavior are probably underreported due to the ongoing social stigma of being labeled an homosexual.

        2. Another issue is how questions on surveys are worded. If a man self-identifies as heterosexual, but occasionally engages in homosexual behavior, he may not report homosexuality on a survey unless the question is worded such that specific behaviors are listed.

        3. Similarly, if a man considers only "penetrative sex" to be "real sex" then he may report no homosexual behavior if he only engages in oral sex or mutual masturbation.

    2. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 24(3):235-48, June 1995 RL Sell--"The Prevalence of Homosexual Behavior and attraction in the United-States, the United-Kingdom and France."
       

      United

      United

      		  

      Attractions

      States

      Kingdom

      France

      Males having

      20.92%

      16.47%

      18.11%

      same sex attraction

      		      

      Females having

      18.54%

      18.55%

      18.55%

      same sex attraction

      		      

      same-sex sexual

      United

      United

      		  

      parters in the

      Sites

      Kingdom

      France

      past five years

      		    

      N=2193
       

      N=1834

      N=1685

      		  

      Male Bisexual

      5.42%

      3.51%

      9.94%

      Male Same Sex

      0.82%

      1.15%

      0.72%

      Female Bisexual

      2.96%

      1.54%

      3.02%

      Female Same

      		      
       

      0_27%

      0.54%

      .014%

      Sex

      		      
      They also reviewed several studies that looked at male same-sex behavior in the past 5 years: Billy-1989:2.3% Johnson-1992: 1.4%
      Spira-1992: 1.4% (females=0.4%)(also studied same-sex behavior "ever", with males claiming 4.1% and females 2.6%)

      Then 2 studies of same-sex behavior in the past year:

      Fay-1989: 1.8%
      Smith-1991: 1.6%

    3. Journal of Sex Research, 32(3):245-54, 1995

    4. Binson, "Prevalence and Social Distribution of men who have sex with men, Unites States and its urban centers." Men reporting same-sex behavior in the past 5 years (does not exclude bisexuals; sample size=2664)

      Central cities of 12 largest SMSA's

      7.8%

      Central cities of next 88 largest SMSA's

      4.6%

      Suburbs of 12 largest SMSA's

      2.5%

      Suburbs of next 88 largest SMSA's

      1.6%

      Other Urban Counties

      1.9% i

      Other Rural Counties

      0.9%

      white

      9.1%

      black

      3.1%

      hispanic

      2.7%

      asian/other

      2.2°/a

      less than high school education

      2.4"/0

      high school

      3.8%

      more than high school

      8.8%

      age 18-29

      6.41/o

      age 30-39

      7.1%

      age 40-49

      5.7

      married

      0.4%

      SDW

      4.8%

      never married

      10.6°/4

      cohabitating

      20.9%

    5. Archives of Sexual Behavio r, 22(4):291-310, 1993
        M Diamond. "Homosexuality and bisexuality in different populations." [REVIEW]

      1. Dixon-1991, sample size=701 males, 745 females; "Any sex with another male 1978-1989?"=7.3%

      2. Harris Poll-1988; sample size=739 male, 409 female

        "Any same sex partner previous five years"

        4.4% male

        3.6% female

        "last year"

        3.8% male

        2.8% female

        "last month"

        1.8% male

        2.1% female

      3. Hart-1968 (Philippines; 729 persons=total population of tribe): 1.6% male, 0.0°/a female reported same-sex behavior

      4. Asayama-1976 (Japan) sample size=2574 male, 2101 female "Any homosexual contact such as kissing, petting or mutual masturbation?" 7.1% male, 4.0°/" female

      5. JASE (Japan) "Ever any homosexual body contact?"

        Year

        Male sample

        Female sample

        1975

        6.7 % of 2764

        3.8% of 2236

        1981

        5.8% of 2505

        5.0% of 2485

        1987

        3.7°/" of 4317

        		  

      6. Michael-1988 "Any same sex experience last 12 months" 504 males=3.2%, 567 females=0.2"/"

      7. Morens (Palau)-1991 "What type of same sex experience in last 12 months"

        424 male

        1.9% homosexual

        2.8% bisexual

        422

        2.8% homosexual

        0.9% bisexual

        female

        		    

      8. Rogers-1991, "any same sex experience during adulthood"

        Year of Study

        Sample

        Percentage

        1970

        3018 males under 21

        6.7%

        1989

        1537 males under 18

        4.9%

        1990

        1372 males under 18

        - _ _ 4.8%

      9. Sittitrai-1992 (Thai), "Any same sex experience during adulthood" 983 males=3.7%, 1285 females=3.1°fo

      10. Schover-1988 (Denmark) "Any same sax experience during adulthood" 625 females=0.2%

      11. Wellings-1990; "Any same-sex Experience?" 1000 males and females combined=9.0% male, 4.0% female

  6. Mental Health Issues

    1. Coming Out

      2. (4-stage model based on Troiden, taken from Remafedi, "Adolescent Homosexuality", Advances in Pediatrics 45 (1998): 107-144)
      1. Sensitization- "a vague feeling of being different from their peers without specifically seeing themselves as sexually different"

      2. Identity Confusion-"Same-sex arousal, the absence of heterosexual arousal and possibly same-sex experience. Stigma, ignorance and misinformation about homosexuality can lead to significant inner turmoil and anxiety during this period . .. .Social development may be constrained by hiding core aspects of identity and the lack of opportunities for socialization with gay and lesbian peers."

        Evading stigma

        1. Denial-ignoring their feelings

        2. Repair-deliberate attempts to eradicate homosexual feelings

        3. Avoidance-withdrawal from situations that might confirm suspicions about homosexuality

        4. Redefinition-rationalizing "homosexual feelings or behavior along conventional lines as temporary or experimental

        5. Acceptance-seeking out information

      3. Identity Assumption-"individuals begin to tolerate and accept their own homosexual orientation and share it with others . ... Unfortunately, many gay and lesbian youth experience painful rejection and loss of heterosexual friendships.

        Evading stigma

        1. Passing-keeping homosexual identity from groups of people, family, friends, etc.

        2. Group affiliation-finding a sense of belonging by immersion in gay/lesbian communities

      4. Commitment- integrating "homosexual identity with other aspects of life. ..manifested by intimate same-sex relationships, a feeling of satisfaction, disclosure to a widening array of others and socializing with both homosexual and heterosexual individuals."

        Evading stigma

        1. Blending/Covering-acting in a manner that does not draw attention to ones differences

        2. Conversion-publicly confronting stigma

    2. Youth Suicide

      1. The GLB-sample populations present the following statistics:

        Author, Year

        		  

        GLB-youth reporting suicide attempts

        Hershberger 1997

        194

        40% males, 430/o females

        Jordan, 1997

        34

        35.3%

        Proctor, 1994

        221

        40.3%

        Rotheram, 1994

        138

        39%
        Hershberger,-Scott-L. Pilkington,-Neil-W. Predictors of suicide attempts among gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. Journal-of-Adolescent-Research 12 (4): 477-97,1997.
        Jordan,-Karen-M. Vaughan,-Jill-S. Woodworth,-Katharine-J.I Will Survive: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youths' Experience of High School. Journal-of-Gay-and-Lesbian-Social-Service s; 7, 4, 17-33,1997.
        Proctor; Curtis-D. Groze. Victor-K. Risk factors for suicide among gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths. Social-Work 39 (5): 504-13,1994. Rotheram-Borus,-Mary-J. And-Others. Suicidal Behavior and Gay-Related Stress among Gay and Bisexual Male Adolescents. Journal-of-Adolescent-Research; v9 n4 p498-508 Oct, 1994. .

      2. The population-based populations present the following statistics:

        Author, Year

        N

        GLB-youth reporting suicide attempts

        non-GLB-youth reporting suicide attempts

        Faulkner, 1998

        3054

        41.7% (represents only sexually-active youth)

        28.6% (represents only sexually-active youth)

        Fergusson, 1999

        1007

        32.1%

        7.1%

        Garofalo, 1998

        159

        35.3%

        9.9%

        Remafedi, 1998

        36,254

        28.1% male, 20.5% female

        4.2% male, 14.5% female

        Safren, 1999

        104

        30%

        13%

        Schaffer, 1995

        120

        2.5% of the 120 youth were allegedly GLB

        97% of the 120 youth were allegedly non-GLB
        DuRant, Robert; Krowchuk, Daniel; Sinal, Sara. Victimization, use of violence, and drug use at school among male adolescents who engage in same-sex sexual behavior. Journal of Pediatrics 133(1): 113-118, 1998. (data presented as Spearman Coefficients, not raw numbers so is absent from the above table)
        Faulkner,-Anne-H. Cranston,-Kevin. Correlates of same-sex sexual behavior in a random sample of Massachusetts high school students. American-Journal-of-Public-Health 88 (2): 262-66,1998.
        Fergusson, David, et al. "Is Sexual Orientation Related to Mental Health Problems and Suicidality in Young People?" Archives of General Psychiatry 56 (10): 876-880, 1999.
        Garofalo, Robert. Wolf, Cameron. The Association Between Health Risk Behaviors and Sexual Orientation Among a School-based Sample of Adolescents. Pediatrics; v101 n5 p895-902,1998.
        Remafedi; Gary; French; Simone . The relationship between suicide risk and sexual orientation: Results of a population-based study. American-Journal-of-Public-Health 88 (1): 57-60,1998. Safren, Steven. Heimberg, Richard. Depression, Hopelessness, Suicidality and Related Factors in Sexual
        Minority and Heterosexual Adolescents." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 67 (6): 859-866, 1999.
        Shaffer; David; Fisher,-Prudence; Hicks. Sexual Orientation in Adolescents Who Commit Suicide. Suicide-and-Life-Threatening-Behavior; 25, supplement, 64-71,1995.

    3. Drug Abuse

      1. Alcoholism:

        2. a) Saghir and Robin, Male and Female Homosexuality: A Comprehensive Evaluation. (Baltimore, 1973) N=230

        1. 35% of lesbians vs. 5% of heterosexual women

        2. 30% of gay men vs. 20% of heterosexual men

      2. Nicotine dependence:

        2. Fergusson, et al. "Is Sexual Orientation Related to Mental Health Problems and Suicidality in Young People?" Archives of General Psychiatry 56 (10): 876-880, 1999
          1- 64.3% of Homosexuals/Bisexuals vs. 26.7% of heterosexuals

        3. Skinner. The Prevalence and Demographic Predictors of Illicit and Licit Drug Use among Lesbians and Gay Men. American Journal of Public Health 84 (8): 1307-1310, 1994

          1. 35.4% of gay men vs. 27.1% of heterosexual men

          2. 38.1 % of lesbians vs. 22.0% of heterosexual women

      3. Other drug dependence

        1. Fergusson, see above-
          1- 60.7% of homosexuals/bisexuals vs. 44.3% of heterosexuals

        2. Health Care Needs of Gay Men and Lesbians in The United States. JAMA 275 (17): 1354-1359, 1996
          1- 28%-35% among homosexuals vs. 10%-12% among heterosexuals

        3. Skinner, See above-looking at marijuana use in 2 major metropolitan areas.

          1. 37.5% of gay men vs. 16.5% of heterosexual men

          2. 23.5% of lesbians vs. 9.1% of heterosexual women

    4. Affective Disorders

      5. 1. Fergusson,see above.
       

      Homosexual, bisexual

      Heterosexual

      Major depression

      71.4%

      38.2%

      Anxiety disorder

      283%

      12.5%

      Conduct disorder

      32.1%

      11.0%

    5. Heterosexism and Homophobia

      1. Heterosexism is different from homophobia. The former represents a pervasive cultural bias that promotes heterosexuality as the best way for society to be structured and for individuals to live. Our society is structured heterosexually, observed by looking at marriage laws, cultural traditions of marriage and dating rituals, legal and economic benefits derived from government and employers, etc. Individuals and structures can be guilty of heterosexism just as they can be guilty of racism and sexism.

      2. Homophobia is a gyre specific and less pervasive issue, rooted in a fear of homosexuals and homosexuality. Studies show that intense homophobia, especially homophobia that ends in violence against homosexual persons, is often correlated with a sense of homosexual attraction within the homophobic person. This same destructiveness is often seen in people who acknowledge their homosexual feelings, but tends to be expressed in self-destructive behaviors.

      3. Homosexual people "grow up in a homophobic society in which they learn that homosexuality is immoral and sick,concepts drawn from the religious and early medical psychological theories. At some point in their lives, varying from person to person, they come to realize that they are different from most people based on their erotic and emotional attractions to people of the same biological sex. By this time, however, they have already internalized society's homophobia. As role models, most gays and lesbians have only the media's negative stereotypes of sick, sinful, `effeminate' men or `masculine' women. " (Erwin. "Interpreting the Evidence: Competing paradigms and the emergence of lesbian and gay suicide as a social fact."' International Journal of Health Services 23 (3): 437-453,` 1993)

      4. One hypothesis for the increased rates of alcoholism among gay men was that gay bars were the primary place that gay men could come together. However, in an ethnographic study of the link between alcoholism among gay men, it found that most gay men started drinking heavily prior to going to gay bars. The study concluded that "non-acceptance of gay ness" is the primary factor for the in gay community. (Kus. Alcoholism and Non-Acceptance of Gay Self: The Critical Link. Journal-of-Homosexuality 15(1-2): 25-41, 1988.)