This poll is getting lots of publicity, showing that when “Asked to plot themselves on a ‘sexuality scale’, 23% of British people choose something other than 100% heterosexual – and the figure rises to 49% among 18-24 year olds.”
One conclusion: “With each generation, people see their sexuality as less fixed in stone.”
Britain, like the rest of the Western capitalist world, has come a long way since the persecutions of countless gay men, including most famously Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing, who were just the tip of the “Victim” iceberg.
Then there’s the sad case of former PM Edward Heath.
More. YouGov-US: 31% of Americans under 30 say they are not 100% heterosexual, while 24% of people aged 30 to 44 say that they’re somewhere on the scale of bisexuality, compared to 8% or less of over-45s.
As in the UK findings, young Americans are far more likely to acknowledge same-sex attractions. The fear, paranoia and shame with which older generations treated any manifestation of same-sex desire is receding, more so in the UK but still dramatically noticeably here in the US.
Future generations will be psychologically healthier and happier as a result.
9 Comments for “The YouGov-UK Poll”
posted by Houndentenor on
Isn’t this what Kinsey told us decades ago? Gay/straight is a false binary.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
It seems to me that the poll reflects changes in our culture, but not changes in behavior and/or reality.
It is now acceptable for younger people to admit that they aren’t 100% straight, something that was almost unheard of in the 1960’s, when I was in the 18-24 demographic.
I suppose that it is possible that the level of same-sex experience among young straights has increased somewhat as the onus of homosexuality has diminished, but I doubt that factor is what is at work in the poll results.
posted by Mike in Houston on
Kids today are just as randy & horny as they always have been… it’s just that on the gay side of the Kinsey scale, there’s far less stigma attached.
posted by Kosh III on
It is because the onus is gone.
Last year on a cruise, I happened to be talking with a 20 y/o guy from Louisiana. He casually tells me that he’s played around with guys in high school but he prefers P…y. He said that in the same matter-of-fact manner he might have said he was going to the store to pick up bread and milk.
When I was that age, such a statement would have been unthinkable not to mention very dangerous.
posted by Dale of the Desert on
At a bar mitzvah luncheon 30+ years ago, a blustery tablemate I didn’t know said that if society started tolerating gays, soon everyone would be having gay sex. I told him he was making gay sex sound very appealing and asked if he would be tempted to try it. He got indignant and shut up. But do you think maybe he was right?
posted by Jorge on
Nonsense. Not even every gay person has gay sex.
posted by Jorge on
Isn’t this what Kinsey told us decades ago? Gay/straight is a false binary.
Humph. It works in reverse as well. (Oh, wait, I think gay America knows that already. The closet, hello?)
Then there’s the sad case of former PM Edward Heath.
Sad, maybe even tragic, but I am too depressive for it to bother me. You have someone using an escort service for what society thinks of as the rarest reason, in large part because he could not be out. But the industry knows it as a time-honored one that justifies the profession. It is not a bad thing to do the right and honorable thing at least once in your life.
Speaking of which, here’s the really sad part. How can you protect the confidentiality of such a client you know is a former Prime Minister? Almost impossible. Of course she had to tell him she recognized him. So many famous people in the US come to have no such protection.
posted by tom jefferson 3rd on
How do you define “other than heterosxual”.
If a guy can admit that another guy is hot, does that mean that the clicked on the other then heterosexual.
posted by tom jefferson 3rd on
….meanwhile the Saudi Interior Minister condemned LGBT rights in one of the kingdoms rare public discussion on gay rights.
….LGBT people in Iraq are still subjected to harassment, even vigilant murders.
……LGBT people in India saw a landmark human rights judicial decision overruled.
Yes. thinks do get better, but people still need to help make it better