How common is homosexuality?
Homosexuality occurs to some extent in every known human society, though its exact extent is a matter of debate. Some researchers believe that all people are capable of some degree of homosexual desire and behavior [7]. If they are correct, then variability in sexual orientation is a universal human trait, as a sexual capacity even if it is never strongly experienced or acted on. Other researchers study the way people describe their own erotic attractions, their behavior, and the way they describe their identities in order to measure the extent of homosexuality in a given population. One team of researchers studying people that way in the United States reported that 2.8% of their male subjects and 1.4% of the female subjects identified themselves as having a homosexual or bisexual identity [8]. They noted, however, that a considerable number of men and women who report themselves as having a homosexual identity also say that they have had heterosexual sex at some point in their lives a
