10/29/10
No, He's Not Trying to Turn You Gay

graphic via OKTrends

We are completely hooked on the dating research blog OKTrends because of how often it reminds us that the world is, in fact, a sane place — no matter how many of our politicians think that gay people shouldn’t be allowed to teach in schools or die for their country or get married or raise kids. The latest installment of research — based on OKCupid’s 3.2 million gay and straight users — is another perfect example, debunking some of the most common (and hostile) gay myths out there. For example, take the myth that “the gays” are on a mission to “convert” your precious little Johnny:

The subtext to a lot of homophobic thinking is the idea that gays will try to get straight people into bed at the first opportunity, or that gays are looking to “convert” straights. Freud called this concept schwanzangst; the U.S. Army calls it Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. We combed through over 4 million match searches, and found virtually no evidence of it:

  • only 0.6% of gay men have ever searched for straight matches.
  • only 0.1% of lesbians have ever searched for straight matches.
  • only 0.13% of straight people’s profile visitors are gay.

Read the rest of this post at SUNfiltered



3 Comments

  1. I thought my little emoticon conveyed “just kidding.” Guess not. Just kidding.

    As for the bi thing… yeah, I get it with the Kinsey scale, but bi DOES mean 2. I’d be skeptical of someone who says they’re bi, emailing 50 members of the opposite sex and none of the same.

    Plus, any guy who’s dated a lot knows that women (I don’t know how often men do it) bullshit about this all the time. “I’m bi, I like girls, sure I’ll hook up with a girl in front of you!” many a man has heard many a woman say, only for that to prove totally false. I actually respected my current girlfriend for saying, “I don’t like girls and I’m not doing that” when I brough up the standard threesome request. Usually you’ll get the run-around.

  2. Just because you’re being hit on, doesn’t mean you’re suffering from an attempted “conversion.” It’s not as if we all wear our sexual identities like nametags specifying “straight,” “gay,” or whatever. And even so, there’s a whole range of sexuality out there; few people are strictly only straight or gay 100% of the time, admittedly or not, and people who identify as bi aren’t necessarily attracted to both sexes equally. In fact, that’s rarely the case.

  3. That’s no myth – gay dudes have been hitting on me for years! 🙂

    Another interesting OKTrends study takes aim at professed bisexuality, stating that something like 80% of people who claim to be bi in their profiles only ever email one gender, suggesting that some people list that to try and come off as kinkier than they really are, and some people list that because they’re in denial about being just plain gay.

Comments are closed.