A federal report released Tuesday says just 2 percent of Americans over the age of 18 identify as gay or lesbian.
The report, released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), relates to sexual orientation and health among U.S. adults.
The NCHS used statistics gathered from the 2013 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), an annual health study including 34,557 adults aged 18 and over. The aim of the new survey was to determine the disparities in health-related behaviors, health status, health care service utilization, and health care access among participants based on sexual orientation.
The NHIS included sexual orientation-based questions, such as, "Which of the following best represents how you think of yourself?" Male respondents could choose from the following responses: "gay;" "straight, that is, not gay;" "bisexual;" "something else;" and "I don't know the answer." Female respondents could choose from: "lesbian or gay;" "straight, that is, not lesbian or gay;" "bisexual;" "something else;" and "I don't know the answer."
This is the first time the NHIS has "included a measure of sexual orientation, thereby enabling researchers and data users to examine how the prevalence of a wide variety of health-related behaviors" in its 57-year history.
According to the results, 96.6 percent of respondents identified as straight, 1.6 percent identified as gay or lesbian and 0.7 percent identified as bisexual. The discussion section notes, "Many of the associations between sexual orientation and various health outcomes found in this analysis are similar to those found in past research."
- "[A] higher percentage of women aged 18–64 who identified as bisexual had experienced serious psychological distress compared with those who identified as straight..."
The reported number of less than 2 percent is lower than some figures released in previous years. Sex researcher Alfred Kinsey popularized the "10 percent" figure when his Kinsey Report claimed "10 percent of males were more or less exclusively homosexual" in his 1948 book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. In 2011, demographer Gary Gates reported that 9 million American adults, or 3.8 percent, identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
However, Gallup has highlighted issues with surveys and estimates that relate to sexual orientation:
There is little reliable evidence about what percentage of the U.S. population is in reality gay or lesbian, due to few representative surveys asking about sexual orientation, complexities surrounding the groups and definitions involved, and the probability that some gay and lesbian individuals may not choose to identify themselves as such.
Before You Go
In a 2011 Esquire interview, Megan Fox confirmed her bisexuality, stating, "I think people are born bisexual and then make subconscious choices based on the pressures of society. I have no question in my mind about being bisexual. But I'm also a hypocrite: I would never date a girl who was bisexual, because that means they also sleep with men, and men are so dirty that I'd never want to sleep with a girl who had slept with a man."
The Green Day front man opened up about his sexuality in a 1995 interview with The Advocate: "I think I've always been bisexual. I mean, it's something that I've always been interested in. I think everybody kind of fantasizes about the same sex. I think people are born bisexual, and it's just that our parents and society kind of veer us off into this feeling of 'Oh, I can't.' They say it's taboo. It's ingrained in our heads that it's bad, when it's not bad at all. It's a very beautiful thing."
Comedian Margaret Cho has long been open about her sexuality. In August 2013, Cho discussed the semantics surrounding her open marriage to artist Al Ridenour, saying that she's "technically not able to stay with one person sexually because I’m bisexual,” and joking that she just “can’t stop up that hole.” She also identifies as queer, and opened up about her sexuality in an interview with HuffPost Gay Voices Editor-At-Large Michelangelo Signorile.
Twice-married record executive and music mogul Clive Davis came out as bisexual in his 2013 memoir, The Soundtrack Of My Life. Davis opened up about two long-term relationships he had with men after his divorce from his second wife.
Actress Bai Ling is openly bisexual -- and the identity category has often provided some humorous mix-ups involving her first name. According to GLAAD, she discussed it in-depth in a 2009 interview with Entertainment Weekly: "[A]t first when I was in the United States I didn't always have an interpreter in interviews and I didn't speak English so well. There was some confusion. My name is pronounced 'bi,' so when I was asked, 'Are you bi?' I said, 'Yes, I am Bai.' Do you like men? 'Of course!' Do you like women? 'Why yes!' And later I found out what that means and I said, 'Sure, I am bi!' But I think the interpreters and the reporters thought that I didn't know what I was saying because I was so open about it. They were uncomfortable about it. Such a thing is not important for me."
The "Portlandia" star and former guitarist and vocalist for Sleater-Kinney is often assumed to identify as gay. However, she told "Willamette Week" in 2012 that, "It’s weird, because no one’s actually ever asked me. People just always assume, like, you’re this or that. It’s like, ‘OK. I’m bisexual.’”
The star of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" revealed that she's bisexual in an "Inside Edition" interview in April 2015. Her daughter "Pumpkin" Lauryn Thompson also came out as bi at the same time.