- NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) - Positive media images of gay life--like hit TV shows "Ellen"
and "Will and Grace"--may be helping spur an increase in gay
sexual activity among Americans, a new study suggests. A national survey
has found the percentage of US women who say they recently had gay sex
has increased 15-fold from 1988 to 1998, with rates among American men
doubling over the same period.
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- "This is about people expressing who they are,"
said Cathy Renna, news media director of the watchdog group Gay and Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). She believes that "changes in
the cultural environment have contributed to a culture where gay and lesbian
people can be more safe, more comfortable and more self-accepting of who
they are."
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- In her study, Amy C. Butler of the University of Iowa,
in Iowa City, examined 1988-1998 data from the General Social Survey, a
poll of adult Americans over the age of 18 conducted every two years by
the National Opinion Research Center.
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- According to the survey, the number of men who said they
had recently had gay sex rose from 2% in 1988 to 4% in 1998, while rates
among women climbed from 0.2% in 1988 to nearly 3% ten years later. The
results are published in a recent issue of the Journal of Sex Research.
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- While the study did not investigate the reasons behind
the increase, Butler suggests in the report that positive images of gay
people in the media and declining legal and economic barriers "may
have made it easier for people to recognize their same-gender sexual interest
and to act on it."
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- GLAAD's Renna agrees. "Having a show like "Will
and Grace," "If These Walls Could Talk 2," or (other) films
that are out there--that's a way to really reach people in an accessible,
non-threatening way," she said in an interview with Reuters Health.
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- Changes in the nation's courtrooms and workplaces may
also be fueling Americans' shift in attitude towards gay sexuality. Butler
points out that the number of US companies providing domestic partnership
benefits to same-sex couples rose from six in 1990 to hundreds in 1999,
for instance. In the meantime, gay and lesbian parents have been granted
parental rights in several states and sodomy laws have been repealed in
25 states and the District of Columbia.
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- And over the last couple of decades women have gained
more earning power, allowing them to support themselves and their families.
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- "Equalizing the earning potential of men and women
may enable women to consider family structures and sexual partnerships
that do not include men," Butler explains. In fact, women, but not
men, were increasingly likely to report decreases in exclusively heterosexual
relationships in the past five years. More than 90% of women said their
sexual relationships were heterosexual only in 1988, compared with 86%
of women in 1998.
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- "I think lesbian visibility is something that in
particular has been increasing over the years," Renna said. "If
you look at the years the study was done, 1997 was really a historical
landmark in terms of "Ellen" and Ellen (Degeneres) coming out."
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- But while economic, social and legal constraints may
be loosening, many gay individuals still face discrimination on a daily
basis. One study cited in the report found that more than half of Americans
believe that gay sex is "always wrong."
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- Butler cautions against interpreting the results as estimates
of the percentage of people who are gay or lesbian, since some people may
experiment with same-gender sex but still identify themselves as heterosexual.
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- SOURCE: Journal of Sex Research 2001;37:333-343.
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