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Is the rule true?

Discussion in 'General Support and Advice' started by Will2M, Apr 25, 2014.

  1. Will2M

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    So I have heard that there is a 1:10 rule for gay people. As in if there were 1000 people in a room 100 would be gay. Is that close to true?? It would make me feel better. It seems like there is no one I know that is gay. I go to a high school of about 1300 people and know maybe 11-12 that are gay. Maybe the ratio starts changing as you get to college?
     
  2. Radioactive Bi

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    I would say such generalised rules are not reliable. I mean, it really depends where you are and the type of people in that area or environment.

    Some areas will higher ratio than that and some significantly lower.

    Happy days :slight_smile:
     
  3. BookDragon

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    I go to a high school of about 1300 people and know maybe 11-12 that are gay.

    Heavy emphasis on the part where you say there are only 11-12 THAT YOU KNOW OF.

    Unless you've been told or you've seen them being intimate with someone of the same sex, how would you know?

    I can bet you whatever you like if you walk through the middle of your nearest big city you will see a substantial amount of gay people and only identify a couple. :slight_smile:
     
  4. Trentacles

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    LOL random but my brother and i sometimes play somewhat of a game when we're walking or on the tube and bored by guessing the sexuality of the people we see. granted it was pure speculation but it was always nice to know my brother didn't always base things on stereotypes but it also always made me afraid that he knew i was gay.

    on topic: that number seems really high. i mean of course i don't know everyone at school but i would say like half that.
     
  5. Chip

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    Kinsey estimated 1 in 10. I've read other studies that say more like half of that (1 in 20.) Either way, statistically, in any random sampling of 100 people you're likely to find between 5 and 10 gay people. That doesn't mean they're out, only that they're gay.

    Now... in a room full of male interior decorators, male social workers, male landscape architects, male Starbucks employees... that ratio might increase to 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 or even 3 in 4 :slight_smile: And likewise, in a population of, say, female porn performers, female fashion designers, or something like that, the ratio might be 1 in 50 or 1 in 100. The point being... to the extent the percentages are accurate at all, they are only accurate with random population samplings. Anything that selects the group away from random sampling is going to affect the portion of the pool that is gay.
     
  6. BMC77

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    It depends on the room. For example, the room I'm in is currently 100% only gay people. (I'm alone.) :lol:

    Seriously...I think it's hard to say for sure. One real problem with statistics like this: they hinge entirely on a well done survey. And as part of that survey you must have people accurately and honestly reporting their sexual orientation. This last part is tricky, because there are undoubtedly some gays who'll lie even in the most anonymous survey. And there definitely gays who don't know or accept they are gay.

    I'd guess there are more. I assume the 11-12 are people who feel comfortable being openly out. But not everyone is in that position.

    I can't say for sure, but I'd bet yes. The college environment is more accepting (usually) than high school, and not just for sexual orientation.

    ---------- Post added 25th Apr 2014 at 03:53 PM ----------

    Actually being a lesbian might be a great thing for a porn star. She might be able to do a better job of focusing attention on the script and movie plot. What plot there is, of course. :lol:
     
  7. Holdingb

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    It's very hard to tell because some people won't realize it until later in life, or they may deny it, or simply lie about it. One reason why it's unreliable, and then as a population we will probably never know a true percentage. I would say that the rule is not true in any case, maybe a slightly smaller ratio, but 1/10 seems pretty high.
     
  8. Sigrid

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    I've always wondered whether these statistics describe the amount of gay people or the amount of people who are not heterosexual. Does anyone here know?
     
  9. BMC77

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    One other important point we all know but is worth remembering: we only know sexual orientation for certain if the person tells us truthfully. A lot of people are LGBT whom you'd never in a million years guess to be LGBT.

    Disclaimer: I don't think my gaydar is very good. Gay Central HQ sent me a defective gaydar, I think, when I signed up. :lol:
     
  10. Andrew99

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    There r 7 billion people in the world 10% of that number is gay.

    There r 700 million gay people in the world

    And I would say u will find more gay people in college to be true bc people r more accepting.
     
  11. WhiteShadows

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    It's supposedly roughly that percentage on average. But it changes between country, town, school etc.
     
  12. YuriBunny

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    I think it's about 70-170, but it depends. I've heard similar. My teacher was once talking about what the world would look like if it were a village of one hundred people (there have apparently been studies on this or something) and he said eleven of those people would be gay.
     
  13. Kreiger

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    Its hard to get accurate statistics on the amount of non-straight cis people since a lot of us are generally reluctant to disclose this, which skews the numbers. Hopefully we'll be able to have better results as time goes on, but the around 10% statistic is tentatively accepted by the scientific community.
     
  14. AAASAS

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    Buddy you're lucky.

    I went to a highschool of over 2,000 and NO ONE was out.

    I would've been really happy if there was ONE other person let alone 10.

    That rule isn't true, statistically speaking gay people are in the range from 3-10% of the population, there isn't a 100% correct way to find this out right now because people do not want to admit they're gay.

    I'm basically out and wouldn't admit it on a survey. Think about how many others do the same.

    Therefore the actual percentage of gay people is speculative, and most likely won't be known in our lifetime, as long as their is religion in society.
     
    #14 AAASAS, Apr 26, 2014
    Last edited: Apr 26, 2014
  15. bingostring

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    I went to a school of 1000 in a town of 25,000
    By the time I was 25 when i moved to london I had not encountered a single out person. How weird is that.

    I expect 1:10 is optimistic. Maybe more like 1:20 ish
     
  16. Ebro1122

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    I only knew 1 out gay kid in highschool and he was picked on mercilessly. :frowning2:
     
  17. emkorora

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    I would estimate 1:100. My experience has suggested this thus far.
     
  18. Pret Allez

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    The problem with that number is how you measure it. This is a population known for hiding, and as long as it's difficult to measure the degree of hiding, it will be difficult to measure the true proportion. Gallup seems to believe the number is around 5%.
     
  19. OGS

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    It's going to depend a lot on context. I live in a highrise--maybe 60% of the people who live here are gay. The building I lived in before I bought here was probably closer to 90. At my place of employment, assuming no one is closeted (and I have my suspicions to the contrary) we're about 20%, the job I had before this was probably closer to 40%. I guess the point is we probably are somewhere between 5-10% of the general population but we tend to self-select where you'll find us in that population.
     
  20. Colours

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    Of course it is hard to know within a group of people because many gay people are either not out or simply do not know they are gay yet. I have always believed in the 10% rule, but of course it is not always precisely true.

    When I'm in bigger groups of people I always like to think that 1 in 10 are gay and I always try to guess who are the gay folks.

    But if you're really going by the folks that are out, then especially before college or uni, it will probably not be 10%.