Articles

(This letter to the editor was published on November 22nd, 2006 in my university's newspaper.)

Not one in 10 people

Re: One in 10 people...

Dear editor,

While reading the Queer and Trans supplement I ran across the article "One in 10 people" by Bryan Wilson, the supplement's coordinator. In it, he states that "After all, it's well known that one in every 10 people is queer or trans". I am not sure what his purpose in making this statement was, but it has been shown to be false and accepted by homosexual advocacy groups as such.

This 10% figure is based on the much criticized (and morally questionable) research of Dr. Alfred Kinsey that took place in the late 40's to early 50's based on samples obtained from prison populations and others who identified as homosexuals instead of random samples. Several more accurate and recent studies as done by the US National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS), Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics, Planned Parenthood/Alan Guttmacher Institute study, indicate that only 2.3% of the male population and 1.4% of the female population considers themselves homosexual. In fact, the Canadian Community Health Survey, which was part of a comprehensive survey of more than 135,000 Canadians conducted between January and December 2003, found that 1.3% of Canadian men, and 0.7% of Canadian women aged 18 to 59 were homosexual. That gives an average of 1% of Canadians with other studies showing even smaller numbers. I believe the time is ripe to stop using this figure, if at least out of respect for factual accuracy.

Now, if Mr. Wilson's statement was tongue in cheek, I'm sorry, but I didn't get it. That, and his display of disrespect for the intersex community, which finds it offensive, and does not appreciate being included in the LGBT[...] acronym or generalized into that group, make me question his motives.

Please in the future do a little research before you make offensive statements or show blatant disregard for fact. It is not amusing nor is it appreciated.

- [my name]