Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 05:04:14 -0500 (est)
From: Sam Damon <damon@dorsai.org>
Subject: Gay vs Straight actors/Percentage of gays

> >My sister is in the theatre business, and from what she tells me, I assume
> >that there is a higher possibility that the actor is, than that the
> >character is, for what it's worth....
> 
> I'm in the theatre business, too, and I can't say that there's a higher
> possibility the actor is.
> 
> You'd be amazed at how many straight people are actors.

Indeed.  According to the two academic studies I've read on the subject, the
prevalence of gays in acting is not significantly higher than it is in most
professions.  Comparisons of this sort are of course fuzzy at best because
there is no way to determine how many gays there actually are in a given
sub-population.  In fact, the number of gays in the general population is
still academically disputed, with most modern studies guesstimating about
2-7%.  Based on my [light] research, I'd agree, although one study actually
found it hovering around 20%.  Diamond did an excellent overview of all the
most recent international studies up to 1994 in The Journal of Sexual
Behavior.  The oft-misquoted and misunderstood 10% figure is no longer
academically valid (which is too bad because many gay organization name
themselves around this number)

As for gay actors, it's a shame that acting is not predominantly gay because
my girlfriend had an intersting theory on why there may be more gays there. 
She theorized that most gays had to pretend to be straight during their
adolescence, thus by necessity, honed their acting skills.  This, of course,
does not explain why there aren't more lesbians in acting as most lesbians
also had to pretend (although society gives women, thus lesbians, more
leverage to be open with their affections and emotions).

============================

Neuringer C.  On the question of homosexuality in actors.  Archives of
Sexual Behavior 1989;18:523-529.  

In this article, Neuringer, critiqued various studies done worldwide, and
pointed out that the only study to use direct measures of sexual orientation
[Taft, 1961] found no higher percentage of homosexuality among actors than
the general public.  The author concludes "that the current belief of
greater homosexuality in actors, as compared to the general population, is a
product of our Puritan heritage, the actors' nonconventionality, and of
public flaunting of the homoerotic behavior of that portion of actors that
are homosexual." I'm surprised by Neuringer's belief that gay actors flaunt
their homosexuality because common sense shows that celebrities tend to stay
in the closet.