From: Bob Jacobson <[email-masked]>

Gottschalk, Kurt. (1993 May, 31). The 1 percent solution. Anti-
     gay forces look for safety in low numbers. _In These Times_
     pp. 6-7 (Excerpts).

As organizers and activists across the country prepared for the
Lesbian, Gay and Bi March on Washington last month, a four-page
press release from a research group began appearing over fax
lines in the newsrooms across the country. A new study, the
release announced, had found that only 1 percent of the adult
male population in this country is gay and religious right forces
hoping to take the wind out of the march's sails.

The study, entitled the "1991 National Survey of Men," was
published in March/April 1993 issue of Family Planning
Perspectives. Conducted by researchers from the Battelle Human
Affairs Research Center in Seattle, the study surveyed 4,751 men
concerning patterns of sexual behavior.

Participants were asked, among a host of other questions, if they
engaged "exclusively" in same-sex activity, to which only 1
percent replied in the affirmative.

If the figure is correct, there are some 2.6 million gay men in
the United States. They certainly seem to get around: CNN
estimates that 1.7 million people showed up in Washington for the
gay-rights march. (Organizers estimated that at least 1 million
people participated; the "official" park police count of 300,000
includes only the number of people in the Capitol Mall not the
entire parade route--at any given time.)

Now, in the wake of the March's success, anti-gay forces are
using the study in an effort to convince Congress that the gay
population isn't actually as large and powerful as it claims. ...

"[The study] made it easier for us. We're on a more even playing
field," Kelly Mullins, director of the media relations of the
D.C.-based Traditional Values Coalition, told _In These Times_.
"Before, we had to fight this myth that there's 10 percent [gays
in the total population]."

Previous studies have varied greatly in counting the gay
population. The landmark Kinsey study in 1948 came up with
commonly cited 10 percent figure; other studies asking about
behavior, desire and self-definition have found that as many as
80 percent of Americans report some level of homosexual
inclination. The Battelle study is not the first find less than
10 percent, but its findings have been wildly misinterpreted, and
its methodology has received considerable criticism.

The surveys were conducted door to door, largely, by female
interviewers. Thirty percent of those polled refused to
participate, and those that did were asked for their name and
Social Security Number and employer before being asked to reveal
intimate details about their sexual behavior. The 1 percent
"exclusively homosexual" figure also effectively rules out
bisexual men as well as men who were involved with women before
coming out.

Clearly, some men are going to be inclined to withhold some
aspects of their sexuality from a strange woman who has just
asked for his employer's name. But the questionable methodology
has not been referred to in many of the media reports. ...

Hidden within the answers to other questions are some telling, if
convoluted, numbers: 3 percent reported performing or receiving
oral sex with another man; of the 20 percent who reported
engaging in anal sex, one-fourth (or 5 percent of the total
sample) reported male partners; slightly more than 2 percent
reported any same-gender activity."

In the commentary to the study, researchers admit that "some
respondents may underreport their sexual behavior..., because of
embarrassment or social unacceptability." The study was not, in
fact, even designed to count gay men. "[Media reports are]
missing the point," Korsy Taufer, one of the senior researchers
for the study, told the _Washington Blade_. "[The study[ was
specifically done to look at risky behavior among heterosexuals.
If we wanted to count gays, we would have done a totally
different study," she said. One that probably would have been
closer to the commonly accepted 10 percent mark--and one that

Henry J. D'Souza
School of Social Work
University of Nebraska at Omaha
60th and Dodge
Omaha, NE 68182
Phone (402)-554-2843
email: [email-masked]