Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The statistic that I have always seen thrown about is like 10% but something tells me it is higher. I am in a long-term committed relationship with a woman but fooled around with about five guys between ages 13 and 17 (helped to go to an all male boarding school).
My activity was pretty light (fondling, touching, jerking off, and, once, oral sex). I never really felt the need or desire to take it any further. It never really seemed like a gay thing as much as a way to just release sexual energy in an environment where there were no girls around. It was all just kind of "play" more than anything else and it was definitely happening, though perhaps not widespread, at my school. As I got older and met girls, it was clear my attraction was much greater toward them and my interest in guys faded away.
15 years on I feel lucky to have had these experiences. A few times, my guy friends have kind of suggested they were interested, or just curious in some abstract way, about what it would be like to be with another guy. I realize unrequited sexual interest/curiosity of any sort is an incredibly strong force within us and this would be a pretty powerful/aggravating question to walk around with in your adulthood.
So I'm curious about how common same sex experimentation is. I realize it would be impossible to ever have hard statistics on this sort of thing but I do wonder...
The only teenagers who have a "same sex experience" are gay. I have never had one, nor have any of my friends from high school, as none of us are gay.
I'd imagine it's only 1-2% of the population, as that is the percent of the population that is gay.
This is completely wrong. Your anecdotal experience is not enough to draw conclusion. I'm surprised this comes from someone who goes by "statisticsnerd". Certainly not statistics in the academic sense.
There's plenty of teenagers (mostly girls) that have same sex experiences. Ever go to a party when you were in high school? Girls are doing each other left and right... but they're doing it for the show... not for the sexual preference. Most of these girls never have relationships with girls and they don't continue to pursue sexual experiences after these phases of parties. They aren't gay.
I'd imagine it's less common for teenage boys to have same-sex experiences... because there's no boy-on-boy action at teenage parties like there is girl-on-girl action. But I doubt a single experience makes you gay.
Location: "Silicon Valley" (part of San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA)
4,375 posts, read 4,067,341 times
Reputation: 2158
I agree OP. I think it's far higher than 10%. Everybody is bisexual to some degree. It's a spectrum; few are on the extremes, the majority is in the middle. I used to say I was 100% straight, but I can't say that anymore because I have discovered that some gay porn arouses me. I would now say I'm 90% straight or so. I strongly prefer women, and I have never had romantic feelings for a man.
I have had romantic feelings for several women, and I have sexual feelings for 80-90% of the women I encounter in daily life. However, since I acquired a taste for gay porn, I now occasionally encounter men who arouse me as well. Usually men who are more on the feminine side in terms of gender expression.
Statisticsnerd, if you are convinced you could never feel aroused by another male, I would suggest to start with transgender porn and slowly acclimate yourself to that, then go to gay porn where the people are a little less androgynous, then finally gay porn in which people are clearly the same gender. If you are honest with yourself, I think you will find that your sexuality is a lot more flexible than you think.
Like Shane (played by Katherine Moennig) said in Episode 1 of The L Word, "No. Sexuality is fluid, whether you're gay or you're straight or you're bisexual, you just go with the flow."
Boys and men just aren't allowed to say it but I think it's well over 10% and likely just as high as girls. I admit to trying things with a friend when we were about 10 or 11. We were just curious if someone else's hand would feel better than our own. I was very surprised that his penis in my hand felt as good as his hand on me.
If I hadn't been so homophobic at the time, I'd guess that he and I would have continued, or even escalated, until we were old enough to have girls.
I think it's highly likely that much more than 10% of the population has some degree of same sex attraction regardless of whether it's acted upon or not. Seems to me that most people have had some degree of attraction to their own or the other sex, rather than being 100% gay or straight. I get the sense that sexuality is not so fixed as well, I think people's preferences can change over time and that their life experience and situations play a significant part in this.
This is all very progressive, open-minded and beyond tolerant and it's a great question, but I would be exceptionally surprised if the figure is above 10%.
I can agree that sexuality isn't necessarily as rigid as some seem to believe because there is a strong cultural element. There have been fairly macho cultures in history that viewed relationships with women as for procreation and an erotic mentoring relationship with an adolescent male as for pleasure and a means of birth control, but without being socialized with something like that as a norm I doubt very much that it would be very enticing to "breeder" oriented males.
I have to agree with statisticsnerd in other respects... It's natural for pubescent and adolescent humans to experiment, but straight guys aren't necessarily all that likely to experiment with other guys. Most people don't need to drink urine to know that they wouldn't like it...
The statistic that I have always seen thrown about is like 10% but something tells me it is higher. I am in a long-term committed relationship with a woman but fooled around with about five guys between ages 13 and 17 (helped to go to an all male boarding school).
My activity was pretty light (fondling, touching, jerking off, and, once, oral sex). I never really felt the need or desire to take it any further. It never really seemed like a gay thing as much as a way to just release sexual energy in an environment where there were no girls around. It was all just kind of "play" more than anything else and it was definitely happening, though perhaps not widespread, at my school. As I got older and met girls, it was clear my attraction was much greater toward them and my interest in guys faded away.
15 years on I feel lucky to have had these experiences. A few times, my guy friends have kind of suggested they were interested, or just curious in some abstract way, about what it would be like to be with another guy. I realize unrequited sexual interest/curiosity of any sort is an incredibly strong force within us and this would be a pretty powerful/aggravating question to walk around with in your adulthood.
So I'm curious about how common same sex experimentation is. I realize it would be impossible to ever have hard statistics on this sort of thing but I do wonder...
I think it is higher than 10% I grew up in rural Oklahoma, we had 76 in our class. When I was a bout 13 my neighbor, who was the same age, would have camp out parties with a few tents down in the pastor about a half mile from the house. He was very a very popular football player and very handsome. There would be about 7 or 8 other guys most of them also played foot ball. during these parties a few of the guys would Mod cut.
I have a buddy I went to school with, he got married with kids but is now gay, but he told me of a few guys in high school he had sex with, one of them was a guy who worked for my dad.
Last edited by PJSaturn; 04-07-2018 at 10:08 PM..
Reason: Not PG-13.
The statistic that I have always seen thrown about is like 10% but something tells me it is higher. I am in a long-term committed relationship with a woman but fooled around with about five guys between ages 13 and 17 (helped to go to an all male boarding school).
<snip>
So I'm curious about how common same sex experimentation is. I realize it would be impossible to ever have hard statistics on this sort of thing but I do wonder...
I don't know what to think of this. These days, straight male teenagers become sexually active (with their girlfriends) at an early age. So, I don't think there's a need to engage in same-sex experimentation with friends.
Also, you never hear of young gay men who ever experimented with women just out of horniness. I'd venture to say that most gay men would be repulsed by the thought of doing anything of a sexual nature with a woman. They wouldn't even consider touching a woman. By the same token, I would also venture that most straight men are genuinely repulsed by the thought of sexual contact with another man. Why else would society be so homophobic?
........ I would also venture that most straight men are genuinely repulsed by the thought of sexual contact with another man. Why else would society be so homophobic?
This is a rather creepy question BTW.
Agree, I never EVER thought of playing bone pirate and nobody I knew EVER suggested it.
And that includes years of attending Boy Scout summer camps with troops of guys from all over the area.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
