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Homosexuality remains rare, but bisexuality rising among youth and correlated w dysfunction
Analysis of CDC Report | 7-17-14

Fascinating data released from the Center for Disease Control about homosexuality.



Homosexuality is not becoming more common. Out of 300 million Americans, only 2 million are homosexual men. 98% of men are heterosexual. And the share of the young-adult (18-45) public which is homosexual (1.9%) is almost the same as that of the middle-aged (45-64) public (1.8%), despite AIDS having ravaged the gay population which is now largely middle-aged.

Bisexuality may well be another matter. Young adults are three times more likely than middle-aged adults to be bisexual, although that's still just over 1% of the total population. (Women are far more likely to be bisexual.)



It's hard to know from a single snapshot whether that's because the young-adult cohort is substantially different than the middle-aged cohort, or whether the cohort which is now middle-aged has changed substantially since they were younger. It's possible that vast numbers of people who once regarded themselves as bisexual have now chosen one gender or another. If they no longer regard themselves as bisexual, it's worth exploring studying whether they feel their sexuality has changed, or they feel they were mistaken in identifying themselves as bisexual. It seems unlikely that young adults are simply that much more likely to admit to a survey to being bisexual, since middle-agers certainly aren't less likely admit to being homosexual.



The other possibility is that unlike homosexuality, the bisexual population is rapidly growing among young adults. If so, the CDC data suggests this is not a good thing, since compared to heterosexual women, bisexual women are…
… twice as likely to smoke (28.5% of bisexuals, 25.7% of lesbians, 14% of hetero[sexual]s)
… far more than twice as likely to have binged on alcohol in the past year (more than five drinks in a day) (33.8% of bisexuals, 25.8% of lesbians, 14.3% of heteros)
…60% more likely to be obese (40.9% of bisexuals, 36.7% of lesbians, 28.3% of heteros)
… two and a half times more likely to have experienced psychological distress in the past 30 days (10.9% of bisexuals, 5.3% of lesbians, 4.2% of heteros)
… and according to a separate report published jointly with the Department of Justice, women in Lesbian relations were five times more likely to commit physical assault (35.4% vs. 7.1%)



Bisexual men are even more likely to smoke, binge-drink, and be abusive then bisexual women. (They are less likely to be obese than even straight men or women.) These negative behaviors are not simply due to the stress of being a sexual minority; exclusively gay and lesbian people are actually statistically more like heterosexual people in all of these health crises.



Many interesting questions arise from the study:
Is bisexuality on the rise?
Or have former bisexuals ceased being bisexual?
Or have they decided they were mistaken about being bisexual when they were younger?
Does our society's promotion of sexual confusion among young adults cause unhealthy behavior?
Or are psychologically troubled youth more likely to be sexually confused?
What do you think? Keep in mind, all the answers could be positive in part.



Primary source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr077.pdf
Source for prevalence of violence within intimate relationships: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/181867.pdf
Any emotional, spiritual or psychological problems associated with homosexuality or bisexuality should inspire compassion towards the afflicted, not be an excuse to hate or abuse homosexuals, bisexuals or the afflicted.
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