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Shoddy reporting, and not really very well-conducted survey. Full details of the actual report are at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/nojournal/measuring-sexual-identity-report.pdf
One of the striking things is how many fewer people in their 50s and 60s identify as gay than those in their 20s and 30s (see the confusingly-laid-out table 8 on p17 of the report)... this survey appears not to have managed to identify thoser still in the closet, and suffers from a variety of other methodological problems.
Personally, I'll stick with just assuming that everyone is bi until they give me reason to think otherwise, and making arguments for equality that do not depend on numbers, but on fairness.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
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The survey methodology is designed to create a low percentage of those self identifying as non heterosexual in that it is face to face or over the telephone. The chance of being overheard by other household members is enormous. It is also data that is capable of identifying an individual, thus is data I would feel concerned about giving to a government body.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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I can't speak towards the subject of the accuracy of the reporting nor the journalistic integrity of this article, but the one item that stood out for me was this quote from Philip Davies, a Tory MP, who stated:
"An awful lot of focus in diversity issues is given to people's sexual preference and this difference is not quite as widespread as believed.
That said, I do not see what relevance it is to anyone else. Someone's sexual preference is a personal matter and it calls in to questions why anyone is bothered at all."
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DesDownunder
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Likes it here |
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Registered: September 2010
Messages: 127
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Surveys of this type seem to be aimed at reducing the political responsibility to protect minorities, based on the principle of the smaller the minority, the less protection it needs from the majority. To put it another way, the smaller the minority the more likely the law will be used to make the smaller numbers conform to being socially acceptable, i.e. heterosexual (and most likely Christian).
As to the percentages of the occurrence of homosexuality in a culture, I believe even 10% is way to small a number. I think if you remove the social and cultural conditioning from the populace you would find that there is a transient group of around 35-75 % of the population which would find a homosexual interaction somewhat attractive as a kind of dalliance in expressing mutual affection, (or maybe just plain Bonobos style playfulness or lusty fun).
Unfortunately we have moral institutions that have indoctrinated people from a very early age to regard such expressions of affection as being sinful and thus unacceptable in the minds of the majority, including no doubt, the Office for National Statistics and the management of the Daily Telegraph.
Sexual freedom really means liberating people to engage in their natural inclination to make love with each other, regardless of their basic sexuality. But I don't suppose that will sit well with merchants of sin.
DesDownunder
Call me naive if you want, but life without trust in the goodness of others would be intolerable.
Religious indoctrination: It gets better, without it.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
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Knowing that the majority of the folk here are likely to be gay I still see it as valid to answer this survey at http://tinyurl.com/29t6ng9 but I ask that we avoid skewing it by your choosing to ask as many friends as you wish also to look and consider answering it. By this I mean friends who are of all sexual identities
The survey has, if you choose to use it, a "Mail this poll" facility on the results page, or you may wish to pass the blog address along.
If you are closeted do remember that sending the poll or the blog to a friend says nothing whatsoever about you except that you find the subject matter of interest
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Back in the day, when George Schlatter's hilarious 1976 gay-themed homage to American Family Values, NORMAN ... IS THAT YOU? (MGM/United Artists, UPC: 027616053534) and Richard Lester's 1976 blatantly raunchy gay bath-house romp, THE RITZ (Warner, UPC: 085391203513), the ratio of homosexuals to heterosexuals was then being widely touted as "one-in-seven"; this apparently morphed sometime in the 80's in the midst of the AIDS crisis into being "one-in-ten"; whereas, presently The World now in the wake of the AIDS aftermath, and a resurgence by the Religion Nazis and their fundamentalism, we find that number has apparently dwindled to about "one-in-one hundred".
Go figure!
Incidently, for those who may have never, ever, seen Red Foxx and Pearl Bailey performing at likely their very finest, I heartenly suggest that you obtain a copy of NORMAN ... IS THAT YOU? and screen the film in the company of family and close friends, making this your very own "destination event".
Too, Treat Williams in his very first film role as the brunt of Jack Weston's timeless comedic nuance in THE RITZ, is a cert to lighten anyone's mood.
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
"... comme recherché qu'un délice callipygian"
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Re: One in ten gay? No longer… 
