Neither can you ignore the gay men who recognize that they maintain an occasional sexual or romantic attraction or desire for women. I n 1984, when Calvin Burdine was awaiting sentencing for allegedly stabbing his gay lover to death, the prosecuting attorney encouraged the jury in his closing. Then there are the other straight men who might not want to tell even an anonymous survey that they have sporadic or frequent same-sex attractions or crushes on men. Plus, are all straight-identified straight men really straight? You can’t forget the 2% to 5% (depending on the survey) of straight men who “occasionally” chose to have sex with men.
Weve used the term LGBTIQ+ on this page but we realise this doesnt cover. That leaves 3% of the male population unaccounted for. LGBTIQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, queer or questioning.
If 2% of the male population is gay and 93% is straight, what are the other 5%? We know according to the National Survey of Family Growth that 2% of men identify as bisexual. Similar to Copen et al., in the 2005 wave of the Growing Up Today Study, 2.5% of men ages 17 to 25 years reported their sexual identity as gay or mostly gay (Rosario et al., 2014).
