Several thousand, actually. Not all of them personally, but a great many.
Polycarp raised some interesting points which SqrlCub and Ptahlis responded to. I just wanted to add something about the idea that “the purpose of sex among humans is for reproduction.” If this were truly the case, why is human sexuality not more “regulated” by nature (or God, for those who are religiously inclined)? Humans can, and do, engage in sexual behavior at almost anytime without the possibility of reproduction. If reproduction were truly the sole purpose of sex, I’m sure a much more logical and orderly method could have been devised.
I agree with SqrlCub:
I think this is true for all people.
In reference to pedophilia, I’ll tell you that a friend of mine is a pedophile. As he explains it to me, although he has never touched any boy, he feels great tenderness and sexual and romantic desire for boys. The way he tells it, it doesn’t sound to me that power or control enter into it; it sounds like a sort of idealized romance with no small amount of pathos. (That wouldn’t surprise me; after we’d known each other for a week, he asked me to marry him. I said no.) He’s quite harmless, and he’s resigned himself to never being able to act on his desires. It’s quite sad, actually.
I’m a heterosexual man and I would like to direct my comments only at heterosexual men. A couple of posts have used the word “normal” apparantly in reference to heterosexuality. I think that there is no such thing as normal. Oscar Wilde once said, “the only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well”, or words to that effect. Amongst heterosexual men there lurks every kind of perversion imaginable. Just check out some of the porno sites on the web if you don’t believe me. Rest assured that the very type of woman that “turns you on” will make another heterosexual guy puke. I have seen magazines devoted to men who like fat chicks (and I mean FAT), men who like feet, men who like hairy legs, men who like ENORMOUS breasts, men who like tiny breasts, the list of perversions is endless. Some men like to dominate women, some like to be dominated (or even tortured). What is the purpose of any of these fetishes? Some here have speculated that any genetic predisposition to homosexuality would have been weeded out by now, not true. The only way a gene can be completely weeded out by evolution is if it somehow precludes producing offspring. That is, as long as homosexuals are capable of having children and choose to become parents, then any “gay gene” that exists will continue to be passed on. If being gay made you sterile then it would be weeded out. The variety in mankind that you see every day (tall/short, left handed/right handed, smart/dumb, blue eyes/brown eyes, fat/thin…) are all the genes that haven’t been weeded out, regardless of whether or not they help or hurt a person procreate. The vast diversity in what arouses men (whether it be penises or vaginas or breasts or butts or various scattalogical perversions I can’t even think about) is there because evolution couldn’t weed it out. There are 3 billion men on this planet and each one has a unique face (except for twins) and a unique set of “turn ons”. Thus, each one is a pervert in his own little way. The whole idea of hetero/homo is much too vague to be of any use. If hetero men all had to specify what it is, exactly, that floats their boat then this whole illusion of unity would disappear and we would at last see one another for the perverts we all are.
I have heard a lot of people on here pondering about the causes of homosexuality but the one that ‘clicks’ the best in my mind is the one that talks about sexual preferences and fetishes.
At a quick glance, one would look at homosexuality in our society where pressures to be heterosexual are not as extreme as they were in days of yore (just wanted to say days of yore!) … just look at Oscar Wilde for examples with the past 150 years … and one could assume that homosexuality would die off. It does appear to be a genetically fatal disease in that it actively discourages the man from passing along his genetic material to future generations. In that past, societal pressures may have pushed homosexual men to have hetero encounters / marriages / offspring / etc in a method to appear to conform. However, for all the arguements this comment will generate, those pressures are nowhere near as srong or as dominant as they used to be. Public homosexuality is no longer punished by imprisonment, death, torture, etc.
Looking back to my original thought, is it not possible that homosexuality is merely a type of fetish? I wonder, though, now with societal pressure dwindling, and, one would assume, less homosexual men passing along those combinations of genes that created a potential for homosexual tendencies, if we will see a dwindling of homosexuality?
As for me personally, I am straight male, but my wife is bisexual. It is my belief that sex has many purposes of which reproduction is merely one. The pleasurable aspects of sex are my favorite and I am always eager to explore those. If that leads me towards some manner of homosexuality, then so be it. At current, however, my desire to maintain those perceptions people have of me would thwart any such activity (plus breasts are just so nice! smile )
About half of the crossdressers I know are straight men. I do not know the exact percentage, but according to every resource I’ve seen about crossdressing and transvestisism the majority percentage are heterosexual men. Go fig. 
Well, honey, trust Sqrl n’ me n’ the rest of us. We’re a queer lot, we is… 
Esprix
We are all united in our perversity!
Choice. Well put. Quotable. Reminds me of the bumper sticker I saw - “Celebrate perversity.”
Esprix