Local sports radio guy, really a doofus, went on a rant about this yesterday (in support of Sam). He said, 'of course there are gay players already in every locker room. One out of every 8 or 9 people are gay.' Now, I don't know what is accepted as the official percentage, but I'm pretty sure it's not 10-13% of the population (especially in pro sports). Point being, why do people feel the need to exaggerate this stat all the time? He's not the first person I've heard do this recently.
I think the actual percentage of the population that is homosexual as defined by an actual preference for sexual contact with a member of one's own sex over sexual contact with a member of the opposite sex is less than 5% but I don't know how much less. And I think it's exaggerated because the primary objective of the movement involved is to bring people around to viewing homosexuality as a normal condition and if it's seen as very common that contributes to that effort.
I can remember seeing and reading about that 10% figure during the late 1980s. From what I read back then the original 10% figure came from a study by Alfred Kinsey that looked for homosexual behavior and included prison inmates. Various surveys are all over the place. You can see an example of that at
http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/resource ... oprev.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
I recommend looking for reference to probability sampling and if you don't see that don't assign any credibility. And if you do that you will certainly see that the actual figure is far less than 10%. It's hard to get at because most of the results are expressed in terms of having had some homosexual sexual contact and/or being "homosexual or bisexual" so you can't tell what percentage actually prefer same sex contact over opposite sex contact.
The one that looks to me to come closest to answering the question is Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, and Michaels (1994). Estimates are based on a probability sample and one of the conclusions is:
Given the identity category choices of heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or something else, 2.8% of men and 1.4% of women surveyed reported "some level of homosexual identity.
I would expect the percentage of those who actually prefer sexual contact with a member of their own sex over sexual contact with a member of the opposite sex to be somewhat smaller.
Another thing I look at to get is an idea is exit polling results describing national elections. For example: An estimated 5% of those who voted in the 2012 election answered test to "Are you Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual." 4% answered "yes" to that question in 2008 as well as in 2004.
I consider that to be consistent with the conclusion from the Laumann et. al, 1994 survey. All in all it leads to the belief that the percentage of those who are homosexual as defined by an actual preference for sexual contact with members of their own sex is somewhat smaller than 5%. We don't know how much smaller because neither the surveys nor the exit polling data directly answer the question in those terms. But smaller.
I'll be back later to comment on the "re-education" issue. I know you're waiting with baited breath.
How old were you from 65-72?
