David Samadi, MD - Blog | Prostate Health, Prostate Cancer & Generic Health Articles by Dr. David Samadi - SamadiMD.com|

View Original

29% Young People in America Are Bisexual

Almost a third of young americans and nearly half of their counterparts in the UK placed themselves on a sexuality scale with some degree of bisexual. Gay, straight or in between, it seems the in between is the gray area for most young people today. A report polling website, YouGov stated the results indicated an increasingly open-minded approach to sexuality. 

They surveyed 10,000 American adults and used the Kinsey Scale. The scale was developed in the 1940s by Albert Kinsey. They asked respondents to plot themselves on a scale of zero (exclusively heterosexual) to six (exclusively homosexual). 

The results published last week show 78% of adult Americans plotted themselves as completely heterosexual and just 4% completely homosexual. However, 16% were somewhere in between and another 2% unsure. 

When you evaluate Americans between the ages of 18 and 29, these numbers change. 29% of American young people plotted themselves somewhere between 1 and 5, which essentially labeled themselves bisexual. 

In a similar group of young British people between 18 and 24, 49% identified as bisexual. Even though 78% claimed heterosexual, 12% still reported having at least one homosexual experience. It's important to note that these are not measures of active bisexuality. Indeed 20% of Americans in the 18-29 range, say they've had a same-sex experience before.