How many people are actually gay?

I don't think that there is a definitive number, but it's commonly accepted (or so it seems to me) that gays are generally between 2-10 percent of any given population...

And I first wondered if I was gay a few years ago, but I never definitively answered yes until a few months ago, at age 25.

 

All that I have heard statistically is about males but; one in ten adults consider themselves gay and one in three teens consider themselves at least bi(!). I don’t know how true it is because they said that just having “impure thoughts” of other same sex people makes you bi. I think it takes an actual act or desire to make you gay. Just looking at a pee-pee in a straight porno doesn’t make a straight guy gay. Maybe I am wrong...

 

hmm well I don't know how many people are actually gay, and who is to say how many people out there in the world hide the fact that they are gay for their entire lives. There are probably a pretty big percentage of people who are gay, its just that only a small percentage of us actually live our lives as gay people.

I think I first realized it when girls started really noticing guys and I had no idea what the big deal was with guys. It was at this time that I realized I was looking at other girls the way the girls were looking at guys so I don't know maybe 11 or 12. But I denied it until about 16.

 

I've also heard 8 or 10%... if only they all wore a badge so I'd know who to chat up... or I had a 'gaydar' that worked.

I didn't realize i was gay until just recently - in the past 8 months or so. In hindsight, I'd say there were signs that I've denied since I was around 20.

 

I think the 10% count is around right although i bet that only counts for the openly gay people. I'm sure if you count all the people who stay closeted thier whole like thE number is probably around 15%-20%. And i do beleive that i have a 'gaydar'. i talk to my sis about it when we go to the mall i'm like 'oh, i bet their gay, my gaydars going off' lol. she doesn't really get the joke though.

I realized that i was gay around 3rd grade so i was like 8. i didn't admit that i was bi until last summer and i came out to myself as gay around march(when i joined this site i was still bi, but realized that i was just gay shortly after).

 

That 10% probabaly is correct. Sometimes it's hard to tell though, because I knew a lot of people that said they were gay at my high school, and I know that they really weren't. For some reason, being gay was like a fad at my old school.

I knew I was gay in like the 6th grade.

 

Apart from my current job, in previous jobs etc about 3% of people were gay/lesbian and out. These were engineering companies though (so perhaps not the most likely places). In my current job about 40% of us are gay, but that's an exception.

Generally I reckon about 5% are gay/lesbian/bi and out, and a further 5-10% are closeted (many of them for their whole lives).

 

Your guess is as good as mine for the numbers. I knew I was gay in 7th grade.

 

Ermmm, I dont know that there is an excact number or percent for gay population. But I still remember that for like 4 years ago, as I read in a magazine, it said there are 40% estimate of the gay population in the world, didnt know if they included lesbian too.

You know, it was funny when I was a little and I didnt know what the heck dose the word gay mean

Then I discovered I was gay when I was 7 yers old, as I read books and magazines talking about it, at first was horrible, now I got used to it^^

 

First of all HOW COME I DONT KNOW ANY OF THIS 10% (other tha u guys)

And lol I wish that was a fad at my school

 

I've heard that about 2% of people are gay and the number jumps up higher to about 3 to 4% in the more metropolitan areas like New York or Los Angeles. The high numbers come from surveys that have very sckewed results. I also think these higher numbers come from survey asking people anonymously if they had ever had sexual fantasies of the same sex and based these numbers on that. Maybe a large portion of our society is bisexual even if its just a few fantasies here and there. Even those of us who are gay and dont consider ourselves bisexaul might have had a few fantasies about the opposite sex.

I knew I was gay around 14. I grew up thinking that it was wrong and couldn't be changed. I came to terms with that a few years ago when i was about 17. It's just who I am, unchangable and perfectly alright no matter what others think.

 

I posted some info from a discussion elsewhere here http://emptyclosets.com/forum/showthread.php?t=488 last year, which seems to fit the figures Hendrix posted.

 

10% is what I have heard, but here in Atlantida, the percentage is about 0.04% - only four people...

I assumed my bisexuality when I was 16 but now that I think of it, I have been into guys since I was like 12 or so.

 

I was going to offer an opinion much in line with what Hendrix said...but he beat me to it.

I think it definitely depends on where the surveys are based, how the questions are framed and what interpretation is placed on the answers.

Let's face it, you'd get very different results in a poll taken in Sydney or San Francisco compared to one taken in Tehran or Harare!

I would actually tend to doubt that, even in accepting societies, the percentage would be as high as 5% for people I would personally define as Gay. To me, "Gay" is people who (out or not) have a sexual preference predominantly or exclusively for the same sex. FWIW I believe in the Kinsey "sliding scale" model of sexuality - that has always made complete sense to me.

For anyone who might not be familiar with the Kinsey scale for seuality, it is shown and briefly explained here: http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/resources/ak-hhscale.html - bear in mind that Kinsey accepts (and I believe) people can also change their position on this scale, Personally, I would have placed myself at around a "2" on the scale when I was young and (with various ups and downs over the years) would now regard myself as a "4", perhaps almost a "5".

I agree totally with Hendrix on his opinion on what produces the higher percentage results - I think his was a very sensible post - and I loved his last "matter of fact, self accepting " paragraph. Good stuff - an attitude everyone should strive for.

 

I've heard of anywhere from 10% to a third of the population. But I highly dout 1 in 3 people ar gay. Maybe at a stretch bi but I think it would be closer to 1 in 5 or 6. ut have no idea.
I knew I was bi Novembe last year but wondered since I was 12 or so

 

i read 3 in every 10 people are gay/bi

 

I was unsure of myself from around age 15, I was somewhat sure around age 17-18, then I got 100% truth when I went on my first date with a man last weekend. I enjoyed it MUCH more than any date on any girls I ever went out with, and suddenly I realize I'm not even actually attracted to girls at all. It just seemed the 'right' thing to do, since it was the norm, so i did it too.

 

i think its really hard to come up with an accurate poll of the gay population when there are so many people who are deeply closeted...i guess i had the first idea that i was gay in maybe 6th grade but it wasn't until this January that I fully accepted it. now i have an incredible boyfriend of two months!

 

Like other people have said, I don't think it's possible to get a truly accurate number. I've heard 10%, but I don't know how reliable or accurate it is.

For me, I think I kind of knew when I was around 11 or 12, but I denied it so hard I didn't believe it. While other girls were going nuts over boys, I really never understood what they saw in them. Occasionally, however, I'd look at a girl and think she was attractive, but as soon as I realized what I was thinking I would quickly deny it and block it out. So at first I had myself convinced I was asexual. Then I thought I was bi, which really wasn't true at all because I've never been attracted to guys, but I was still having a hard time believing and accepting that I might like girls. It was only a few months ago that I fully realized and accepted that I am indeed gay.