Friday 24 September 2010

A minority sport?

A while back I got into a discussion with a member of one of the groups who support 'alternative' lifestyles and although we got on well it was obvious that we were in very different places at a number of levels. I spoke of choice and he spoke of numbers. I spoke of obedience and he spoke of happiness. I spoke of discipline and he spoke of freedom. I pointed this out and rather than fight we laughed and I bought him a pint.

If only we could dialogue like this with every person who holds contrary views on lifestyle, theology, politics or even football teams. The reality was that this man was, and is, someone I consider to be a brother in Christian terms. Our lifestyles differ and our choices diverge on a number of issues but on the main tenets of faith we found some areas of mutuality.

One of the interesting areas that came up was the number of people who were homosexual. The reason for this was that in the discussion, this was spoken of as if it were every other person yet the most supportive report I'd ever read placed the global number at less than five percent (in fact it was a little over three percent to be accurate). This was an interesting part because the wording and tone suggested what obviously wasn't the reality and this challenged us both - but also yielded some positive stuff on both sides.

Following on from that discussion, I read yesterday that the Office for National Statistics (ONS), having released the results of its national household survey, place the number of adults who consider themselves to be homosexual to be about one percent of the adult population, which equates in numbers to 480,000.

Interestingly another half a percent of the population indicated that they were bisexual (the numbers being 245,000).

The overall scores on the doors were:

Heterosexual - 95%

Don't know (or no answer) - 3%

Homosexual - 1%

Bisexual - 0.5%

(looks like 0.5% lost in the wash somewhere!)

A couple of things struck me.

The first was that people often talk about having no choice, they are either programmed as homosexual or heterosexual (a discussion for another day perhaps) and if this is the case, then the reality is that this is a pretty small group and perhaps indicates that the tail is wagging the dog (as is so often the case in this world of ours).

The second is that being bisexual is surely all about choice. I can claim that I have chosen to be heterosexual or to have been programmed by my genes such that I am heterosexual (or any other reason for the fact that I am attracted to women - notice I didn't say attractive to women, I am a realist :)). The same would probably be said, putting it in to a different focus, by someone who is homosexual.

Surely bisexual people just enjoy ringing their bell with anything and anyone that happens to come along and therefore to lump bisexuals into the grouping such that we have GLB actually damages any claims that it's not about choice? I have a fair few homosexual friends and know their struggles and their pain and have realised that associating them with bisexuals only diminishes and devalues their struggles and their realities.

And then there's the theological debate . . . . (again for another day and another place because it's been done to death)

2 comments:

Revsimmy said...

The figure of 5% has been bandied around to my certain knowledge for at least the last 35 years. Since the ONS survey is a self-identifying one I think it likely that the figure of 1% is on the low side. My suspicion is that a fair few of the don't know/no answers will be homosexual, as there is still a certain amount of social stigma involved. Same may apply to some of the self-identifying hetereosexuals.

So say the figure is around the 4-5% mark, as is often claimed. This is still enough for almost everyone in the country to know several people who are homosexual. And although this may be a relatively small minority, it is probably over-represented in certain occupations, most notably media and the arts, "punching above their weight", as we might say.

I agree with you about the bisexuality thing. Given that, in the church debates at least, no one is arguing for anything other than monogamous relationships, it is hard to see why this needs special accommodation.

Anonymous said...

"Surely bisexual people just enjoy ringing their bell with anything and anyone that happens to come along and therefore to lump bisexuals into the grouping such that we have GLB actually damages any claims that it's not about choice? I have a fair few homosexual friends and know their struggles and their pain and have realised that associating them with bisexuals only diminishes and devalues their struggles and their realities."

Just because someone is attracted to both sexes does not mean that they are more promiscuous.

Being heterosexual doesn't seem to result in a chaste life, just look at any town centre on a Friday or Saturday night. Seems like there's a lot of indiscriminate bell ringing going on...

A straight man has only straight women available.
A bisexual man has straight women and gay men as his 'options'. This adds, by the numbers you quote, an extra 0.5% of the population. Why should they be more promiscuous?

There is no reason a bisexual person cannot have a stable monogamous relationship. Heterosexuals are able to do so even if there are millions of other heterosexuals to tempt them.