Got 10 friends?

[xyzzyplugh]

How many of them are gay? [male or female.] Isn't it reckoned to be 1 in 10? Just that I have not met many people that I knew to be homosexual, some but certainly not 1 in 10. I've even heard it is 1 in 4. Is there gay hype going on? How come all the 'soaps' feature at least one gay, are they really that prolific?

[Harley]

My Xmas list has 100 names.None of them are gay and I can truthfully say I don't know anyone who is.

[Miss Zippy]

I know a fair few gay people. Two of my close friends are gay; one is a long-standing female friend from school and the other, a guy who is an ex-colleague who has been a good friend now for about 5 years. Most of the people I have met who are gay I have met through my association with law - four of my old uni friends (all guys) are gay and I have a few acquaintances (again all guys) from my days working in practice.

[incitatus]

Id say ten percent was about right for my freinds...

[ravenhair]

I have six gay friends; five women and one man. Strangely, four of the women have the same first name.

[darth vader]

My best drinking pal at University was (and still is) gay. I was in digs with 1 gay (plus 2 heterosexual). My wife's uncle is gay. I think it's probably fair to say about 10% yes, though the spread is not even throughout the land (i may get shouted down for this statement but it is my opinion that homosexual people tend to live in the city as they can retain a certain element of anonymity plus they are more likely to associate and meet with other homosexuals). There have been scientific claims that the majority of men have gay tendencies, whether they are homosexual or heterosexual. dunno how true that is though...

[j2buttonsw]

I wish I had 10 friends...

[Wispy68]

Ravenhair, on the 'same name' thing, my sister knew a gay couple a few years ago, both Sue, and I've known three gay women also named Sue! xyzzyplugh, I'm sorry this isn't really relevant to the original question, but just thought I'd share a kind of 'coincidence'!

[gazzawazza]

A while ago I read an article (backed up by seemingly credible research but I can't for the life of me remember where I read it), which concluded that although some sources claimed 1 in 4 and others claimed 1 in 10, the truth was actually not even as high as 1 in 100. The point being made was that the gay lobbyists were so powerful that for so long the fear had been that anybody revealing this information this would immediately be denounced as homophobic/anti-gay etc.

Strangely enough, (or perhaps not, when you think about it) was that the article started with almost exactly the same sort of comments as the question!

[darth vader]

j2buttonsw - i'll be your friend (sorry i'm not gay though)

[xyzzyplugh]

Coincidence is cool, - good ones too. Mostly I am trying to discover the real ratio as opposed to the media implied ratio of homosexual to heterosexual. Or are they one and the same, so percentage proof would be good; not to be confused with percent proof which I have reserved for a separate question.

[sft42]

Ha i'm maybe not the best person to testify on this one....depending on which aspect of my life i draw the friends from you can have either A/10 hetro of those 8 married or long term partners and 2 single or B/ 5 hetro and 4 Bisexual and 1 exclusively gay....though why just ask about gay? what about disabled (also 1 in 10 as the old UB40 song says) or transsexuals, transvestites, lesbians and the worst of the bunch Celibates!

[blackburne]

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that everyone in London is gay, and no-one anywhere else. I think this would put it at over 10%.

[Andromeda]

Difficult question to answer. It is more on the definitions of being gay. If you are talking exclusively homosexual, I would suggest a very low ratio - about the same as exclusively hetrosexual. We do not live in a world of black and white, just various shades of grey. It depends on where you end up drawing your line. All soaps feature at least one gay person because it is trendy to do so. Just like when black culture (finally) started to become more mainstream in this country it was considered trendy to feature a 'token ethnic' in programmes.

Andy

[xyzzyplugh]

Wrong sft42. This is not an '-ist' question. It is a media distortion question; Andromeda got it right.

[mikewith]

I have to say I'm taken aback by some of the answers to this question... Andy, for example: it's "trendy" to have black or gay characters in a soap opera??? How about... it's more representative of real life to have black and gay characters? Or are all the black and gay people in this country just being 'black' or 'gay' because it's "trendy"?

It's a sad fact that many gay and lesbian people in this country feel they have to keep their sexuality quiet because they feel prejudice around them. And in my experience there are 'straight' people who don't recognise that people around them may be gay or lesbian -- either because it just doesn't occur to them to consider someone's sexuality (I try not to think about my bank manager in any kind of sexual terms!!) or because they don't want to be confronted by it, for whatever reason.

Right. Back to the question, in an effort to even the balance rather than because I like the tone of it... Yes I have ten friends, and in the Top Ten I reckon three and gay, lesbian or bisexual.

[sft42]

Sorry to argue plugh but you have picked me up wrong i'm afraid....i wasn't making out that you were -ist anything i was asking why you had noticed this 10% of society more than each of the other groups who also rate at between 8% - 15%? If anyone is that influenced by the media then they really should get an opinion of their own by getting out more and meeting more people.

[xyzzyplugh]

Disabled People? Apart from Chris Tate, Chief Ironside, Sam Dingle and Benny from Crossroads. Well I don't call That 10% sft42 and why single out sex minorities, transvestites etc.? and lesbians? aren't they gay? I think my question should have been about the disabled being under-represented and not about gays being over-represernted on TV. - As you're all so touchy, homophiliacal about it.