This scale was developed by Dr. Alfred Kinsey and his associates in the late '40s and early '50s. These results were supported in studies conducted by Masters and Johnson and other sex researchers, though some more recent studies have reported lower rates nationally, with higher rates in urban areas. These studies collectively indicate there is a broad spectrum of sexual orientations - not just heterosexual and homosexual. Instead of looking a sexual orientation as an either-or condition, Kinsey developed a seven point continuum based on the degree of sexual responsiveness people have to the members of the same and other sex.

0 - exclusively heterosexual

1 - predominantly heterosexual, incidentally homoexual

2 - predominantly heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual

3 - equally heterosexual and homosexual

4 - predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally heterosexual

5 - predominantly homosexual, incidentally heterosexual

6 - exclusively homosexual

It is necessary to consider a variety of activities in assessing an individual's ranking on the continuum:

· fantasies · dreams · thoughts

· frequency of sexual activities · emotional feelings

Therefore, many "heterosexuals" would fall, in fact, somewhere between 0 and 3 because they occasionally think/dream/fantasize about sexual activities with members of the same gender and/or occasionally act on these feelings.

Kinsey's researchers found that over a three-year period:

4 - 6% of men were rated as "6"

10 % of men were rated 4, 5, or 6

18% of men were rated as 3, 4, 5, or 6

37% of all men experienced orgasm in a sexual activity with another man at some time in their life.

60% of all men had some type of homosexual relationship before they were age 16.

30% of all men had some type of homosexual relationship between age 20 - 24.

Ranks for women were about one-half that of men (exact percentages were not provided by Kinsey). Keep in mind, this research was conducted as a time of lower sexual activity for women than recent surveys have indicated.

Research was conducted primarily with white college educated, volunteer subjects and with prisoners. This research did not clearly parcel out behaviors which did not persit from adolesence into adult life.

The National Health and Social Life Survey (Saumann, et. al., 1994) surveyed 1749 women and 1410 men in a random sample of US adult. They found 10% of men and 9% of women reporting at least one of the following: 1) sexual desire towards the same gender, 2) sexual identity is not heterosexual, and/or 3) sexual behavior with the same gender.

Taken from lgbtcampus.org