A David at 91 Reflection on What I Have Learned About Human Sexuality

A David at 91 Reflection on What I Have Learned About Human Sexuality

Recently, I came across a statement that caught my attention:

“About 10% of the human population is homosexual.”

I have seen that number many times over the years. But is it still correct?

And what about bisexual people? Then I encountered another statement that was even more interesting:  “There is no person who is 100% heterosexual.”

At my age, I have learned that whenever I encounter a statement that sounds absolute, it is worth taking a second look. So I decided to learn more.

The 10% Figure

The first thing I discovered is that the old “10% homosexual” figure is much too simple.

The number is often associated with the pioneering research of Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues beginning in the 1940s. Kinsey's research challenged the idea that human sexuality could always be divided neatly into two groups: heterosexual and homosexual.

The Kinsey researchers developed a seven-point scale, ranging from exclusively heterosexual at one end to exclusively homosexual at the other, with several degrees of attraction and behavior in between.

That was an important idea because human beings are complicated.

However, the Kinsey research should not be interpreted as proving that exactly 10% of the world's population is homosexual. Modern researchers use different methods and definitions, and today's surveys generally produce different numbers.

For example, Gallup's most recent U.S. survey found that 9% of American adults identify as LGBTQ+ overall. That 9% includes bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgender and other identities—it does not mean that 9% are homosexual.

That distinction is important.

What About Bisexual People?

This is where the numbers become particularly interesting.

According to Gallup's 2025 survey, approximately 5.3% of U.S. adults identify as bisexual. That makes bisexuality the most commonly reported LGBTQ+ sexual-orientation identity in the survey. About 2% identify as gay and about 1–2% as lesbian.

Gallup also found that bisexual identification is considerably more common among younger adults than among older generations.

That does not necessarily mean that young people have suddenly become bisexual.

It may also reflect something else: People may feel more comfortable today identifying and talking openly about feelings that previous generations kept private.

That is an important distinction.

As someone who grew up in the Philippines during the 1930s and 1940s, I know how different social attitudes can be from one generation to another.

What people say publicly is influenced not only by what they feel, but also by what their society permits them to say.

Does Everyone Have Some Bisexual Feelings?

This brings me to the statement that nobody is 100% heterosexual.

I would be careful with that statement. Science does not establish that every human being has some degree of same-sex attraction.

There are people who genuinely describe themselves as exclusively heterosexual. The Kinsey scale itself actually includes “exclusively heterosexual” and “exclusively homosexual” categories.

At the same time, researchers have found that some people who identify as heterosexual experience a small degree of same-sex attraction. Researchers have sometimes described this group as “mostly heterosexual.” A review of the research concluded that this can be a meaningful group distinct from both exclusively heterosexual and bisexual people.

So perhaps the better lesson is not that everyone is secretly bisexual.

It is that human sexuality can be more varied than the labels we sometimes use to describe it.

Identity, Attraction and Behavior Are Not the Same Thing

This was another important lesson for me.

A person can identify as heterosexual while having experienced some same-sex attraction.

Another person might experience bisexual attraction but never have a same-sex relationship.

Someone else may have had a same-sex experience but not identify as gay or bisexual.

In other words: identity, attraction and behavior are related, but they are not identical.

This helps explain why different studies can produce different percentages.

If researchers ask: “How do you identify?” they get one answer. If they ask:

“Have you ever been attracted to someone of the same sex?”

they may get another. And if they ask: “Have you ever had a same-sex sexual experience?”

they may get yet another. There is no single percentage that answers all three questions.

America Is Changing

The numbers have also changed substantially over the past several decades.

Gallup reports that only 3.5% of U.S. adults identified as LGBTQ+ in 2012, compared with about 9% in 2025. Much of the increase has occurred among younger generations.

That does not automatically tell us why the numbers changed.

It could involve changes in social acceptance, language, survey methodology, willingness to disclose personal information, generational differences, or some combination of these factors.

What it does tell us is that the way people describe their sexual orientation has changed considerably.

And this is something worth remembering when we compare today's statistics with statistics from my younger years.

What About the Rest of the World?

There is another important limitation. Most of the statistics I found are from the United States.

We should not automatically take a U.S. survey and say:

“This is the percentage of the entire human population.”

Different countries have different cultures, religions, laws, social attitudes and survey methods. People may also be more or less comfortable disclosing their sexual orientation.

Consequently, estimating one precise worldwide percentage is much more difficult.

The safest conclusion is that sexual orientation exists in considerable diversity throughout humanity, but there is no scientifically established single worldwide percentage that divides everyone neatly into heterosexual, bisexual and homosexual categories.

What Have I Learned at 91?

At 91, I have lived through enormous changes in the way we understand human beings.

I was born in 1934.  I have seen the world move from radio to television, from handwritten letters to email, from slide rules to computers, and now from traditional computing to artificial intelligence.

I have also seen society change in its understanding of many aspects of human life.

Sexual orientation is one of them. My generation often grew up thinking in simple categories: male or female, heterosexual or homosexual.

But science and human experience have taught us that some things are not quite so simple.

People are individuals. Their feelings can be complicated.

Their identities can be deeply personal. And their experiences can change over a lifetime.

That does not mean that everybody is bisexual.

It means that we should be cautious about putting every human being into a box.

A Lesson in Tolerance

I am a Catholic, a scientist by training, a husband who was married to Macrine for more than 63 years, a father, grandfather and now great-grandfather.

My life has taught me that human beings have much more in common than we sometimes realize.

We all want to be loved. We all want dignity. We all want friendship and companionship.

We all experience joy, disappointment, loneliness, hope and the need to belong.

Perhaps that is the most important lesson I take from reading about sexual orientation at this stage of my life.

We don't have to completely understand another person's experience in order to treat that person with dignity.

And perhaps that is one of the privileges of growing older:

We have had enough time to discover how little we really knew when we were young.

My Takeaway, So, is 10% of the human population homosexual?

No-not as a scientifically established current worldwide figure.

Are approximately 10% of Americans LGBTQ+?

That is much closer to the current U.S. picture, but LGBTQ+ includes several different identities, not just homosexuality. Gallup's latest estimate is about 9% of U.S. adults.

Are about 5% of Americans bisexual? Yes, that is approximately what Gallup's latest survey found-5.3%.

Is nobody 100% heterosexual? That statement goes too far. Some people genuinely experience themselves as exclusively heterosexual. Others experience some degree of same-sex attraction.

The bigger truth may be that human sexuality is more diverse than a simple set of numbers can fully describe.

At 91, I am still learning. And perhaps that is one of the reasons I continue to write.

Growing older does not mean we stop learning about the world.
It simply means we have more years of experience from which to ask better questions.

AI Impressions on This Topic:

The “10%” figure is not a good current estimate if it is meant to say that 10% of all people are homosexual. Modern surveys measure sexual orientation in several different ways-identity, attraction, and behavior and those measures produce different percentages.

For example, Gallup’s latest U.S. data, based on interviews conducted in 2025, found that 9% of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ+ overall, not homosexual. About 5.3% identify as bisexual, while about 2% identify as gay and 1–2% as lesbian. 

And the statement that “nobody is 100% heterosexual” is too absolute. Some people genuinely describe themselves as exclusively heterosexual, while others experience some degree of same-sex attraction or identify as bisexual, mostly heterosexual, gay, lesbian, etc. The Kinsey Institute notes that sexual attraction and behavior do not always fit neatly into exclusive categories. 

I think this distinction makes a fascinating subject for one of your reflective “David at 91” essays, especially because you can approach it from the perspective of curiosity, science, human experience, and respect rather than politics.

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