Divergence of sexual behavior, sexual attraction and self perception of sexual identity among young Americans, 2002-2008 Part Two

In the survey year 2002, when asked as to the orientation of sexual attraction, females of ages 18 to 44 said that 85 percent of them were attracted only to the opposite sex, so that we may infer that the remainder, 15 percent, were either bisexually or homosexually attracted.  The comparative figures for men were 92 percent heterosexually attracted, so that 8 percent were either bisexually or homosexually attracted. 

In the survey year 2006-2008, only 83 percent of American young females were exclusively attracted to the opposite sex, thereby increasing the percent attracted to the same sex.  American men displayed an opposite trend, because in the later survey period (2006-2008), 93 percent were attracted to the opposite sex, decreasing the percent bisexually or homosexually attracted to 7 percent.  In both sexes, there were less than 1 percent who were “not sure”.

However, when directly asked to identify the gender category to which they belonged, the percents bisexual and homosexual  reduced drastically: in 2002, at least 90 percent of young American women claimed to be straight, and 90 percent of men did the same.  In 2006-2008, 93 percent of women claimed to be straight, reflecting the same percent “attracted to the opposite sex.”  Young American men, however, claimed that 96 percent of them were heterosexual or straight.  

Despite these claims, however, the survey of 2006-2008 revealed that of those reporting themselves as exclusively straight, 27 percent of the women admitted being attracted to the opposite sex, while 13 percent of “straight” men reported being attracted to the same sex!  In addition, the rates for young American men are problematic in that while a whopping 16 percent of them did not report their sexual identity, these also admitted being attracted to the same sex!  The corresponding rate for women who did not report sexual identity is only 7.5 percent.

From these figures, it is evident that self identification of sexual attraction, e.g., reporting self as being “straight” does not correspond to feelings of sexual attraction, and that a sizable proportion of those self reporting as straight are in fact homosexually attracted.  Also, a large percent of young American men while refusing to report their sexual identity (15.9 or 16 percent), admit to be in fact bisexually or homosexually attracted.  For the survey years 2006-2008 at least, the discrepancy between these two categories are so huge (statistically speaking), that it casts doubt on the conclusion that the prevalence of homosexuality among American young men is only 5 percent  [see the Laumann, et al. study, University of Chicago].  From these figures reported by the CDC/NCHS Survey, it is as likely to be greater at 13 percent, or even 16 percent.