Myth 7

One aspect of the new liberality is a tremendous rise in homosexuality.

This is a myth that our original study, "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male," seems to have helped foster. In it, we reported that 37% of American men have had one homosexual experience to orgasm. The figure may have been distorted somewhat-because many of the subjects of our first study were prisoners, among whom homosexuality is common

but my guess is that what we stated is still pretty close to the truth. The confusion results from the fact that writers took what we reported to mean that 37% of American men are homosexual, and that simply has no basis in truth.

We're studying male homosexuality at the Institute right now, and as far as we can tell not over 3 to 5% of the population could be

termed homosexual in the sense that they have practiced homosexuality almost exclusively over a long-period of time which may, by the way, be the only practical definition.

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Would you call a heterosexually adjusted married man who engaged in some homosexual horseplay when he was a bova homosexual? I certainly wouldn't. Yet, that's the kind of data on which other writers have based their estimates. Nor would I call a man a homosexual even if he had engaged in homosexual activity for a few years of his life, possibly because he was in prison, or even -if he was free and had a choice in the matter. If you were to count men who have been exclusively homosexual for as long as three years, I doubt that the total would come to anywhere near 10% of the male population. Since standards have become more liberal, homosexuals are no longer harassed as much as they used to be, and many are more frank about their homosexuality than before.