British Office Of National Statistics Finds 1.5-Percent Of British Identify As Gay; First Time Poll Seen As Skewed

A new survey conducted by Britain’s Office of National Statistics estimates the country’s gay community at 1.5-percent of the population – much lower that the more commonly estimates of between 5 – 7-percent, the Guardian reports. The results were based on interviews with more than 450,000 individual, and estimated from those surveyed that 481,000 individuals identify as gay, while 245,000 individuals, mostly women, identify as bisexual. The study also found that gays are more likely to hold managerial or professional positions that their straight counterparts, in addition to being better educated, 38-percent of those identifying as gay having a degree. The ONS found that 45-percent of the gay men and women are cohabiting. This is the first time the ONS has completed such a study and the results of the poll are already being regarded cautiously or criticised by gay rights advocates because they dramatically undercut the more commonly held contention that between 7 and 10-percent of the population identifies as gay, figures frequently used to advance the need for full equality among gays and lesbians. Gay rights groups point to the fact that respondents were asked their “sexual identity” instead of the more common “sexual orientation” as indication that the results were somewhat skewed. The Telegraph quotes Ben Summerskill, the chief executive director of the United Kingdom gay charity Stonewall, who says “We warmly welcome these figures as Stonewall’s pushed for this information for some time. However this is the first time that people were asked and date collection happened on doorsteps or over the phone, which may deter people from giving accurate responses – particularly if someone isn’t openly-gay at home. Stonewall now works with 600 major employees and their experience is that these statistics increase when regularly ask about sexual orientation as a part of general monitoring information. We’d expect to see these figures increase over time as people’s confidence in the survey grows and sexual orientation becomes a routine part of data collection.”