Understanding lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals takes a bit of time and a fair bit of reading, even for those of us who are ourselves l, g or b, so the resource here are supposed to help getting you head round some of the issues and ideas.

Sexual identity vs. Sexual behaviour

Just because someone sleeps with someone of the same sex doesn't always mean that they identify as gay or lesbian, and similarly sometimes individuals who identify as lesbian and gay can sleep with people of the opposite sex and still be gay/lesbian.

Being gay or lesbian or bisexual is about the way that an individual identifies themselves to the rest of the world, or even just to themselves, it's about looking in the mirror and saying 'I am a lesbian' or 'I am a gay man' or 'I am a bisexual'. If that individual then nevers has sex with another person, they still identify as gay/lesbian or bi and it is still part of their identity.

Scientists and public health professionals are often focused on individuals sexual behaviour because they are looking at the transmission/spread of sexuall transmitted diseases such as HIV and gonnorrhea. In some reports you will see the term MSM (Men who have sex with Men) or HAM (Homosexually Active Men), these are men who have sex with men but do not all identify as gay or bisexual.

How many gay people are there?

At the moment the national Census doesn't include a question on sexual identity and so there is no national data on the number of lesbian, gay or bisexual people living in the UK.

The National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL) in 1990 and 2000 asked a sample of the UK population about their sex lives. NATSAL found that  5-6% of women and men had ever had same sex sexual contact and that about 3% had had a same sex sexual partner in the last five years.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) reviewed a range of studies over the last 15yrs which looked at the numbers of lesbians and gay men and they estimated that 6% of the UK population are lesbian or gay which is about 3.6 million people.

In the US, the work of Albert Kinsey in the 1940s & 1950s opened up the discussion around human sexuality and revealed that 37% of men and 13% of women had had same sex sexual contact at some point and that only 1-4% only had sex with members of the same sex.

The website http://www.gaydata.org/ illustrates that there are many national surveys in the USA which include sexual identity/orientation as a dimension of the data collected and it's a good place to start finding out more.

If you'd like to read more about this go to:

http://www.avert.org/hsexu1.htm