UK GLB poll results.

D_Rictiotarvic_Ephenphart

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I'd need to know how the question was worded and how they picked the respondents. If they went around to military bases and asked guys, "Are you a fag?" then I might see how they only get 1.5% positive responses. Also, self-perception is a funny thing. Just look at this site...
 

D_Tim McGnaw

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Hmmmm it says the polling methodology is considered experimental, I have a feeling there's something slightly off about it. I'd be extremely surprised if the figure is actually that low.
 

joyboytoy79

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Its a bit odd that the survey only included those who are 16 and above, but the results aren't worded as "1.5% of adults over 16" but rather "1.5% of the population". This is what we call a "skew." A large subset of the population (those under the age of 16) are excluded from the poll, but included in the results, creating an artificially low number of gays. I'm also pretty concerned that 3%, or twice the number of gay/bi respondents, didn't answer. That's a VERY significant question mark floating out there, and it obscures the validity of the 1.5% figure.
 

erratic

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The Office for National Statistics says 480,000 (1%) consider themselves gay or lesbian, and 245,000 (0.5%) bisexual.

Emphasis mine.

I'm less concerned than joyboytoy about not including youths in the survey - asking youths about their sex lives is asking for trouble with ethics boards, parents, and gonzo politicians. Besides, teenagers are still deep in the identity-formation period and will eventually become adults anyway. Not asking them is a problem, but it's one of pragmatics and I think you can generalise from the 16+ population.

My big issue is with asking for self-reports. This is a notoriously unreliable way to assess who is actually attracted to the same sex - many researchers have been trying to get away from self-report for decades now. Of course, this is because some people lie to fit who they think they are, some people are deep in denial, and others simply assume that they have to be gay or straight but nothing in between. Studies that ask "Are you gay/straight/bi/queer?" alongside "have you ever been attracted to/had consensual sexual activity with a member of your sex" show that many, many people who answered "straight" indicate that they've had a sexual attraction or sexual encounter with at least one member of their own sex - up to 15% and more (depending on if they were male or female), if memory serves.

And, when you do like this website does and ask people to rate how gay and how straight they are, you come up with different results altogether. A great many people will say they're a little bit straight or a little bit gay.

So, many studies - like this one I suspect - just report on people who self-identify as GLBTQ. So 1.5% of the UK identifies as GLBT or Q. There you have it. We're left in the dark as to how many people are closeted, are straight-but-curious, don't adhere to social labels, and so on. Oh, and closet-cases are much more likely than the rest of the population not to answer these surveys at all. So are people who have been persecuted because of their orientation.

And, as joyboytoy mentioned, 3% did not respond to the question. There are any number of reasons why they might not of, but it's not a stretch to suspect that the same societal forces that keep guys on the DL calling themselves straight affected that 3% in one way or another.
 
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I'd think it was pretty big underestimation. Prolly because of nervousness about being totally honest in the survey.
 

Jason

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It's a very British poll.

In the UK just about everyone over say 35 is culturally hetrosexual, ie not openly gay and unlikely to come out. In the 16-35 age bracket there is still a strong cultural pull towards hetrosexuality. I suspect most bi men would tick the hetrosexual box for an easy life. So would many gay men. The cultural pull is so strong that it may even be that some gay/bi men convince themselves they are straight.
 

D_Tim McGnaw

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It's a very British poll.

In the UK just about everyone over say 35 is culturally hetrosexual, ie not openly gay and unlikely to come out. In the 16-35 age bracket there is still a strong cultural pull towards hetrosexuality. I suspect most bi men would tick the hetrosexual box for an easy life. So would many gay men. The cultural pull is so strong that it may even be that some gay/bi men convince themselves they are straight.

Your kidding right? Britain is like the Gayest country bar the Netherlands (and perhaps Germany at a push), in Europe.

I'll buy what your saying about older people, but anyone under 45 is not going to casually say they're heterosexual when they're an out homosexual or bisexual just because of a very mild cultural bias.

If you were saying this about France or Italy or Spain I could buy that too. But Britain?
 

Viking_UK

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I think the survey methods will also have had a bearing on the answers people gave. According to the report, it was conducted either by telephone or in person, and a lot of people are not going to come out and say they're gay/bi/lesbian or whatever to some stranger standing on their doorstep with a clipboard - OK, chances are they're going to conduct the survey indoors, but that still puts a lot of pressure on people especially if they're not out to family members. Most people are reluctant to discuss their sex lives with strangers, and the selection of interviewers will also have had a bearing on the results. For example, if a hunky rugby player who is married but regularly screws one of his team-mates after practice is being interviewed by a sexy young woman, he's much less likely to admit to being bi than if he was being interviewed by a sexy young guy with a twinkle in his eye.

Personally, I think the results would have been different if they'd just sent out forms for people to fill out anonymously in private, or conducted an on-line survey with a section, as erratic suggested, where they can self identify and then clarify whether or not they engage in, have previous engaged in or are interested in same-sex contact. There's much less bias when it's just you and a sheet of paper or the computer you use to view porn.
 

flame boy

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I know of plenty of people who would claim to be heterosexual if they were asked, but have boyfriends and live gay lives. They just don't want to admit it to someone collecting data. The poll figures are extremely low and I think they would have been better to say this is the number of openly gay and bisexual people, rather than saying the total number.