Looking over all of these sources, can we at least all agree that if you gave everyone a truth serum and made them identify their sexual orientation, the percentage of non-heterosexual people would almost certainly be both higher than 3.5% and lower than 52%? It would seem to me that any survey trying to exactly determine the LGBT population of society is flawed because self-identifying is all you can do, and that's obviously not an actual reflection of anything except what the respondent is socially comfortable saying. This is especially pertinent when considering the figures which suggest that 96.5% of people are straight as an arrow.
Agreed. Although to add to this it would vary a lot depending on if we’re using the Kinsey scale vs the generic terms of bisexual/Hetero/homo/etc.
Plus you’ve got the Santander types who are only straight when intoxicated. Gotta figure out a way to classify them.
Yeah, I think you do get a bias with straight-ish people when you use the bisexual/hetero/homo options. Someone who's mostly straight, but not entirely, will probably identify as heterosexual given only three options, thinking that bisexuality refers only to a hypothetical person who is equally attracted to both men and women. On something like the Kinsey scale, they wouldn't feel so obligated to a small number of encompassing options.
I agree with this. I bet a huge majority of people who are a 1 on the Kinsey scale would call themselves straight. Wouldn't surprise me if some 2s did as well.
Poll
