49% of UK young people say they are not 100% heterosexual
So here are the results of another new YouGov survey, this time its really interesting with 49% of 18-24 year-olds in Britain now defining themselves as something other than completely straight. The study used the Kinsey scale which invented in the 1940s placed people on a range of sexual preferences from exclusively heterosexual at 0 to exclusively homosexual at 6. They were asked to put themselves on that sexuality scale, 72% of the British public scored themselves at the completely heterosexual end of the scale, while 4% were at the completely homosexual end, with 19% stating they were somewhere in between.
With each generation, people are seeing their sexuality as less fixed and more fluid with the results for 18-24 year-olds showing 43% placing themselves in the non-binary area between 1 and 5 and 52% place themselves at one end or the other. Of these, only 46% say they are completely heterosexual and 6% as completely homosexual.
“there is no middle ground – you are either heterosexual or you are not”.
Public opinion seems to accept the concept that sexual orientation exists along a continuum, rather than being a either/or choice between being straight and gay. According to YouGov, 60% of heterosexuals support this idea, as do 73% of homosexuals. Only 28% of heterosexuals believe that “there is no middle ground – you are either heterosexual or you are not”.
When Kinsey developed his scale, he estimated that around 10% of the population was gay, although this percentage was criticised by the American Statistical Association. However, a 2011 Gallup poll asked over 1,000 people in the US “what percentage of Americans today would you say are gay or lesbian?” On average, respondents guessed that 1-in-4 Americans were.
According to a poll by Biscuit, a website for bisexual women, 38% of respondents have at one point engaged in some form of sexual activity with a same-sex partner, often as part of a group. Charlotte Dingle, editor-in-chief of Biscuit, told Pink News: “Women are increasingly viewing their own sexuality as fluid. I believe that the old definitions of ‘gay’, ‘straight’ and ‘bi’ are increasingly irrelevant in a society in which an individual’s sexual and gender identity is becoming more and more complex and diverse.”
