First published in the Chicago Free Press on November 2,
2005.
In mid-September, the National Center for Health Statistics, a
branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released
a 55-page
study claiming that 4.1 percent of both men and women ages 18
to 44 labeled themselves homosexual or bisexual.
In addition, the survey found that 6 percent of men 15 to 44
have had oral or anal sex with another man and 11.2 percent of
women 15 to 44 have had some sort of unspecified "sexual
experience" with another women. For men age 25 to 44 the figure was
6.5 percent and for women 25 to 44 the figure was 10.7 percent.
Finally, the survey found that, depending on age group, between
2.6 and 3.3 percent of men have had oral or anal sex with another
man in the last year and anywhere between 2.4 and 7.7 percent of
women have had a "sexual experience" with another women in the last
year.
As with most such surveys, the study made claims for its rigor
and accuracy and was accepted uncritically by the mainstream press.
It was, after all, based on information from 4,928 men and 7,643
women and derived "sensitive" information about sex by having
respondents enter their answers into a laptop computer rather than
telling the interviewer directly.
But careful analysis revealed ambiguities, inadequacies,
inconsistencies and omissions.
The most obvious problem was that more than 20 percent of the
people contacted refused to participate. Why did they refuse? A
distrust of privacy assurances? Shyness about sex? A desire to
cover up something? Although women generally tend to be more
reticent about sex, a higher proportion of men (22 percent) than
women (20 percent) refused to participate.
Another problem was that while only 4.1 percent of both men and
women labeled themselves "homosexual" or "bisexual," almost the
same number (3.8 to 3.9 percent) labeled themselves "something
else" than either of those or "heterosexual."
No doubt some people, especially at lower educational levels,
did not understand the terms homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual.
Kinsey often pointed out that standardized questionnaires offer no
way to clarify meaning or adapt language to the level of the
respondent.
Then too, some people may insist on an affirmative term such as
"gay" or "lesbian" rather than the clinical sounding "homosexual."
Or they may prefer some argot term such as queer, kinky, swinger or
polyamorous. Similarly, some African-Americans insist they are not
gay, which they associate with whites or effeminacy, but say they
are "down low" or "same-gender loving." This latter seems
especially likely since a stunning 7.3 percent of Hispanic men and
7.5 percent of black men-more than three times the percentage of
whites-said they were "something else."
Other black and Latino men think of sex with other men as just
"having fun with friends" but insist that "sex" is only what you do
with women, so they might actually think of themselves as
heterosexual or "something else."
In addition, a much higher percentage of black (3.2 percent) and
Latino men (3.5 percent) than white men (0.7 percent) refused to
answer the sexual orientation question at all. So another
disadvantage of questionnaires is that there is no way to pressure
people to answer. But it is worth remembering that Kinsey pointed
out long ago that if he met resistance anywhere it was when he
reached questions about homosexuality.
Then there was the problem that the survey asked men only about
the disease-transmitting behavior of oral and anal sex, but asked
women about any "any sexual experience" at all with another
woman-which could include kissing, "making out," body rubbing, or
masturbation with a partner.
The study does not explain why it was so much more interested in
any sort of female same-sex eroticism. But by refusing to include
analogous male same-sex body rubbing, interfemoral (intercrural)
sex and masturbation with a partner, the latter a common enough
activity among some gay men, the survey artificially depressed the
quantity of gay sex, the number of gay men and, accordingly, its
reliability as an index of sexual behavior.
There were other problems too. If the survey wanted to find out
how many gays there were or how much homosexuality there was, why
ask if people had engaged in same-sex sex at least once-which could
mean just once or a very few times? Asking, as the survey does,
about same-sex sex in the last year is a little more relevant, but
you would think the survey would ask something about how frequently
with how many partners. But no.
And what about the 23 percent of the self-defined "homosexual"
men who said they were attracted only to women? Kinsey would never
have let anyone get away with such an obvious contradiction. Did
they mean they like women better as friends, or are attractive to
women, or want to be attracted to women, or are attracted to the
idea of being women? Who knows? With a standardized computer
questionnaire, no one could notice the discrepancy at the time and
find out.
This is what the CDC offers as state of the art sex
research.