Gender Differences in the Prevalence of Same-Sex Sexual Partnering: 1988-2002

Abstract

This article proposes that recent normative, economic and legal changes in the United States have made it more likely for American adults, especially women, to select a sex partner of their own sex.Data from the GSS and NHSLS (n = 18,170) were used to examine gender differences in trends in same-sex sexual partnering between 1988 and 2002.The proportion of both men and women who reported having had a same-sex sex partner in the previous year increased over the period, and the increase was greater for women than it was for men.The increase for women was present among both white and black women and was not limited to young adults.Changes in normative climate accounted for the increase in same-sex sexual partnering among men and for a portion of the increase among women. Much attention has been given to estimating the rate of homosexuality among men and women. The commonly cited figure of percent can be traced to Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues, who concluded that in the United States, 10 percent of the (white) males are more or less exclusively homosexual for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 53 (Kinsey et al. 1948:651). Kinsey et al. (1953) estimated that the rate for women was a third to half as large as that for men. A study based on national probability samples of American adults from 1988 to 1993 found that women were about half as likely as men to report having had a same-sex sex partner in the previous year (1.4 percent of women vs. 2.7 percent of men) (Laumann et al. 1994). These estimates of same-sex sexual partnering should not be detached from their cultural context. Although genetic differences among people may explain some of the variation in sexual behavior within a culture, the vast differences in sexual behavior across cultures indicate that sexual behavior, including the gender of one's consensual sexual partners, is partly a consequence of social learning and thus is dependent in part on the cultural norms and structural (e.g., economic and legal) constraints of the time and place. Moreover, cultural and structural constraints on the selection of sexual partners, including the gender of one's sexual partners, differ for men and women and may change at different rates for men and women. To understand why men and women choose the sexual partners they do, one must take into account that sexual interactions between two people take place in the context of a relationship that may have been entered into to meet needs other than sexual. Consensual sexual relations between two people may take place because of the desire for emotional intimacy, the prospect of increased social status by association with a high-status other, financial gain, social acceptance and the desire for a family and children. Moreover, one's choice of sexual partners may be constrained by religious teachings, the opinions of friends and family, and legal factors. Thus, the potential earning power and job security of people in same-sex sexual relationships and the legal right of same-sex couples to raise children may