News: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex Even Though You're Not Having It Much

Like all media, The Lancet's National Survey Of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles was BONKTASTIC! manna from PHWOAR! heaven for The Independent.
A survey!
And it's about sex!!!
Double-page spread with saucy photos?
Beats working!

"For some aspects of sexual behaviour, for example numbers of partners, it has narrowed, for others, such as age at first sex, it has closed and yet in other respects, such as same-sex experience, women have overtaken men," Professor Wellings said.

"Whilst same-sex experiences have remained relatively constant among men [at 7% for 16-44 year-olds*], it has increased markedly among women. Although a minority of women have reported sex with another woman, that proportion increased from 4 per cent in 1990 to 16 per cent in 2010 and 2012," she said.

Asked whether this four-fold increase was real or an artefact of the survey, she added: "I think it's too big to be simply an artefact of reporting. We can see signs in the media that there have been changes in the representation of women. There have been celebrities who have apparently embraced same-sex experiences. We do see women kissing together and so on."

Daily Star: The survey said we're having less sex

• Here is it all broken down into a series of supercool infographics.

There's probably no survey more unreliable than a sex survey - people will lie either way; the disconnect between the number of sexual partners men (12) and women (8) claim is typical of these things, and hilariously telling (Here's NATSAL's methodology).
Another warning sign is that almost a third of men claim they haven't had a wank in the last four weeks.
Yeah, right.
This all does seem to support Fagburn's theory that British people don't really like doing it much.
The overall percentage for men who reported having had "same-sex experience with genital contact" is 5% - and not 7-8%.*
But the figure for men who said they'd had "at least one male sexual partner in the past five years" - genital or not - is just 2.6% (2.9% for 16-24s).
Fagburn is not sure how other people define "sex".

* This was the first survey that asked people aged 45 and over about their sex lives - I know not why - which brings the total male average ever ever ever having had gay sex - or "contact" (??!) - to 8%.
It's also worth noting 3% of all people refused to answer "intimate" questions.

• Here are all the men's tables.

Do conventional public opinion surveys under-report the proportion of gays and lesbians in the population? And do they underestimate the share of Americans who hold anti-gay views?
A team of researchers from Ohio State and Boston Universities say the answer to both questions is yes...

Pew Research.

Gay Britain: What The Statistics Don't Say

Gay Britain: what do the statistics say?

How many people in the UK are gay, lesbian or bisexual? The Office for National Statistics reckons it's 1.5% while the Kinsey report says it's 10%. Who's right?

The Guardian [Graphic from The Sun].

Here we go again.
It's still probably to get a reliable figure on th LGBT population through polling.

So here's another way of working it out...

The equation’s quite simple: the number of gay and bisexual men living in the UK who’ve had a positive HIV test is 26,400 (HPA, 2004 figures) and the percentage of gay and bisexual men who’ve tested positive, according to the last Sigma survey, is 7.2%. This gives us a figure of 377,520 gay and bisexual men (14.3 x 26,400). As the UK adult male population is 23.4 million (2001 Census), this gives us a percentage of the adult male population who are gay or bisexual of 1.62% (“Bisexual” here basically means actively bisexual, rather than theoretical. Calculating the number of lesbians through HIV data is impossible).

Ford Hickson of Project Sigma thinks such a triangulation “adds up”, and calculated a similar figure himself. Although he stresses that the percentage of men who said they’d tested positive in the Sigma survey is probably an overestimate; “We think gay men with HIV are more likely than those without HIV to take part in surveys like Sigma's, partly out of altruism, but also because it’s a gay community survey and positive men are at the heart of the gay scene.” He believes the figure for gay and bisexual men living with diagnosed HIV is between 4% and 5%, with 4% meaning a higher number of 660,000 gay and bisexual men in the UK, or 2.82% of the adult male population. These figures are far less than has been conventionally thought, but come close to the findings of both the NATSAL surveys. So, could it be that we’re only 1.5%-3%, or between one in 66 or 33? Are there really only about 350,000–700,000 gay and bisexual men in the UK? It could be an underestimate, but this year’s Sigma survey will provide an opportunity to compare it with another – and arguably more precise - triangulation, as it asks how many men have entered Civil Partnerships. Ford Hickson says that results in so far appear to confirm a figure of around 2.6%.

Fagburn.

ONS Survey: Note the age discrepancy, though the peak is still low...

PS The above comes from an article I wrote for Gay Times eight years ago and said they should press release it.
"We can't - it contradicts everything we're saying!"
ie lying that there are 2million gay men with plenty handbag so please advertise with us.

Britain: Worse Than Nazi Germany - Official

Many lesbian, gay and bisexual people continue to live in fear of prejudice, despite the significant progress in recent years to improve equality.

Gay in Britain, a report by the campaign group Stonewall, suggests that large numbers of Britain's 3.7 million* gay people fear they will be discriminated against if they stand for political office, seek to foster a child or look to become a magistrate.

Three in five of those questioned in the YouGov poll of just over 2,000 gay people said they expected their child would be bullied in primary school if it were known they had gay parents; more than four in five expected the same if they had a child in secondary school. Seven in 10 people expected to face barriers because of their sexual orientation if they applied to become a school governor...

Its survey found more than six in 10 gay and bisexual men and four in 10 lesbians and bisexual women expect to experience homophobia if they take part in a team sport and are open about their sexuality. And almost half think that television's portrayal of lesbian, gay and bisexual people is unrealistic.

The Observer. 

I know I've said this before, but I really can't say it enough - and heaven forfend I sound like a monumental loon with no idea how the world works - but this shows once again that Britain today is to homophobia what Nazi Germany was to antisemitism.
This is just one train stop away from Auschwitz, dudes.

This is exactly what apartheid South Africa was like.
Exactly!
And I, for one, refuse to be hysterical and exagerate.
Good day, sir.

* In-no-way is this figure made-up! See also the thing about how much The Gays contribute to the economy. LOLZ etc...

Update: The Stage on The Gays on The Tellybox. 

Oh and finally... here's a PDF of the Stonewall survey.

Time Out Sex Survey: Phwoar!

An amazing 60% of London’s women and 23% of the UK capital’s men either have had or would have a same-sex experience.
That means almost 42% of the city’s population are in to gay sex.
It’s the shock figure coming out of a Time Out survey... 

Gay Star News. 

No, dear.
It's a survey.
It doesn't tell us anything about Londoners, only about the people who replied to this self-selecting survey.*
How many nuns do you think filled this in? 
And further, there is no survey as unreliable as one that asks people about their sex lives.
Which was the only thing anyone ever really learned from The Kinsey Report.
You fool.

* I'm working on the assumption Time Out hasn't sexed-up the results, like some magazines I could mention. 

Another Poll: How Many LGBT People Are There?

A new poll by Gallup - claiming to be "the largest population-based survey of LGBT Americans ever conducted" - has 3.4% of American adults - and 3.2% of men - identifying as LGBT.
And yes, they recognise that the findings in such a poll are probably deeply flawed, so don't write in.
Some other interesting findings to note...
"Don't knows/Won't says" still outnumber LGBTs in every category - if they were discounted the figure comes out at about 6%.
Age showed the most marked differentials: 6.4% of 18-29s, to 1.9& of 65+.
Women were slightly more likely to identify as LGBT than men.
"Nonwhite individuals" were more likely to identify as LGBT.
College graduates are less likely to identify as LGBT than those with a high school education only.
Similarly, the more you earn, the less likely you are to identify as LGBT.
Fascinating stuff.
Most reliable recent surveys have claimed the same - only gay marketeers and others with a vested commercial interest still claim higher figures.
But the last four points - which are more reliable markers of group difference and self-identification - turn conventional wisdom upside down.
Looks like, contrary to myth, we are not all bourgeois now. 

• And here's Fagburn's formula for working out how many gay men there are in the UK, which came up with a similar figure to the above.

Exclusive: Now Cameron Bans Jokes!

British prime minister David Cameron wants to ban all jokes.
Cameron, the Conservative leader who attended the royal wedding last week, supports a ban on all jokes - particularly on TV.
An independent survey may recommend the restriction - or then again it may not.
According to a new press release issued by the Royal London Society for the Blind and reprinted in today's Daily Mirror; "Most people say they no longer find jokes about disability, race or sexuality funny.
"More than eight out of 10 now believe such gags are unacceptable and a third told researchers they felt 'uncomfortable' when told a joke about a sensitive subject."
The survey was carried out in the wake of Frankie Boyle’s gag about Katie Price’s disabled son, Harvey, on his Tramadol Nights show.
Although David Cameron is completely unaware of the survey's existence, a source close to the PM who really exists told Fagburn: "This could spell the end of all jokes on TV - and not just before the watershed, but, like, ever."
The ban has been slammed by someone from Corrie who Twittered last night; "So PM now baning jokes. WOT!!! Is he having a larf? LOLZ!!!"

Fagburn Awards 24: Dubious Statistic Plucked From The Ether Award

The Office of National Statistics "Estimate of the population who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual" is 1.5%.
Which might explain why Fagburn's still single etc etc...

Survey: Parents OK With Gay Kids (Relatively)

66% of British parents questioned in an in-no-way unscientific survey commissioned to promote some DVD or other said they would have no problem if their child was gay.
Mums were more relaxed - 76% saying they wouldn't be bothered if their child was gay.
But 55% of dads admitted they would feel uncomfortable.
But please bear in mind that twice as many parents say they would be happy with a gay kid as they would with one who experimented with drugs (32%).
Any kids caught by their parents after staying out all night dancing on blood boiling rave dugs are advised to lie and say they've been out bumming.

How Many Gay Men Are There? Not That Many

Today the Office of National Statistics publishes Measuring Sexual Identity: An Evaluation Report.
You can read it as a pdf here.
It's their first attempt to try and answer the eternal question; what percentage of the population are lesbian or gay?
There is - but of course - much in the report on how aware they are that its findings may be flawed, how they conducted the interviews, yada yada yada...
Anyway, you want to know the figures, don't you?
Here they are...

Heterosexual/Straight 46,922 - 94.8%
Gay/Lesbian 481 - 1.0%
Bisexual 245 - 0.5%
Other 242 - 0.5%
Don't Know/Refusal 1,393 - 2.8%
No Response 233 - 0.5%

The figure the ONS are now touting as an "Estimate of the population who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual" is 1.5%.
This is much lower than the popular guesstimate - which usually puts the figure at between 5 and 10%.
Sadly this just seems like wishful thinking with little bearing on the facts.
The ONS survey may be closer to the truth - but its low figure will cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth from those who prefer living in a land of make-believe.
Most reliable surveys however have put the figure at between 1% and under 5% (For examples see Tables 6 and 7 on the report).
Interestingly twice as many men identified as gay as women identified as lesbian.
And twice as many women identified as bisexual as men did.
There are also breakdowns of the figures by age, socio-economic classification, religious/non-religious, employed/unemployed and educational qualifications.
It's fascinating stuff but - of course - flawed.
Fagburn has worked out a simple but reliable mathematical formula to work out the gay male population.
This puts the percentage at between 2 and 4%.
Ask me how!