# Poll: Have you had a homosexual experience? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2006, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211 "2006-06-02T22:18:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/121 "2006-06-05T21:04:01Z")
[QUOTE=ambushed] On the contrary, they are extremely high, at least during adolescence. While I’m led to believe that my experiences were on the far end of the spectrum, while an adolescent I had at least one homosexual experience with just about _every single adolescent boy in my neighborhood!_ (more than a dozen of them). [/QUOTE] Nothing like that in the neighborhood I grew up in either. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/122 "2006-06-05T21:30:16Z")
1. Yes 2. Female 3. Straightishly Bi? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/123 "2006-06-05T21:35:42Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] What?! So having sexual contact with a member of the same sex is not actually homosexual activity unless you’re thinking “wow, I’m gay?” So much for the whole “spectrum” of sexuality, in that case. No offense but this is a bad definition. The OP wants to know if people have had sexual experiences with members of their own gender. [/QUOTE] Yeah I’m with Argent Towers. The OP isn’t asking how many people are gay, or how many people ever considered themselves gay at one time, or whatever. They are asking how many people have had some sort of same-sex sexual experience, whether it was experimental, or just for fun, or out of curiosity, or for whatever reason. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/124 "2006-06-05T21:40:18Z")
1. Yes 2. Male 3. mostly straight but somewhat TrySexual…I’ll try anything once…twice if i like it… 🙂 peace, Love and Whatever floats your boat, TSFR ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/125 "2006-06-05T21:46:49Z")
[QUOTE=ambushed] I can’t help but believe we’re seeing a lot of macho denial. [/QUOTE] Or a whole lot of people who think it didn’t count unless there was actual penetrative sex or something. I think open-mouthed kissing, fondling, etc all counts as a “sexual experience” (though not as “sex”). I have had many sexual encounters with women, but I’ve never actually slept with a woman. I’ve kissed a bunch, and gone further with a few, but never actually gone _that_ far (not that I wouldn’t, given the right situation, mind you…). It seems to me that a ton of people in this thread are answering question 1 as “have you ever had sex with…” ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/126 "2006-06-05T22:44:24Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] 1. Yes 2. Female 3. Straightishly Bi? [/QUOTE] Was that 1 Yes 2 Female 3 Bi Opal 😉 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/127 "2006-06-06T05:22:55Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] Or a whole lot of people who think it didn’t count unless there was actual penetrative sex or something. I think open-mouthed kissing, fondling, etc all counts as a “sexual experience” (though not as “sex”). I have had many sexual encounters with women, but I’ve never actually slept with a woman. I’ve kissed a bunch, and gone further with a few, but never actually gone _that_ far (not that I wouldn’t, given the right situation, mind you…). It seems to me that a ton of people in this thread are answering question 1 as “have you ever had sex with…” [/QUOTE] Well, it seems to me that there are a ton of people posting in this thread that don’t understand some part of “NO”. If you, **ambushed** , et. al. need clarification about what NO means, here it is: I have never touched or been touched by another male in a sexual manner. I have never kissed, held hands, put my arm around, cuddled, or otherwise had physical contact with another male in a sexual or romantic context. I have never wanted to do these things. It has never occurred to me to think about doing such things. Does that explain “NO” sufficiently? I have spent some time thinking about the old neighborhood, growing up, and I can not recall ever hearing about one single incident where guys messed around with each other. Why would we have? It was a diverse neighborhood…It even had _girls_ in it! With girls available, why do something that you didn’t even want to think about and try to mess around with some guy? The subject of guys messing with each other never came up. It’s as simple as that. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/128 "2006-06-06T05:41:29Z")
I’ll put my two more cents in with **John Carter** above. All the things he never did, I never did, either. I grew up with some extremely uncultured peoples’ uncultured children, who made a sport of calling me a queer and beating me up for it before I was old enough to even knew what a homosexual was. When I learned what one was, I was crushed. They thought I was one of these homosexuals! Is there something, _anything_ more gross to an eleven-year old? If any of these same kids in my neighborhood were committing homosexual acts with one another and not beating each other up for being queer, too, it must be the world’s best-kept secret. If they had no compunction about assaulting someone they wanted to believe was gay, the probability that they were also gay, at 12 and 13 years of age is zero. Violent episodes aside, I have never wanted to have that experience. I won’t be changing my mind. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/129 "2006-06-06T06:32:45Z")
[QUOTE=Polerius] (If gay, please answer (1) about heterosexual experiences you’ve had) [/QUOTE] 1. No 2. Male 3. Gay ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/130 "2006-06-06T07:24:18Z")
[QUOTE=John Carter of Mars] Well, it seems to me that there are a ton of people posting in this thread that don’t understand some part of “NO”. If you, **ambushed** , et. al. need clarification about what NO means [/QUOTE] Eh, I am not refuting anyone’s claim to have had no homosexual experiences. I am going based on what people have said in further discussing the issue, and it really sounds to me like what they are talking about is intercourse (or close to it) rather than far more innocent encounters\*, and extrapolating from those people’s seeming misunderstanding that perhaps other people in the thread have the same misunderstanding, hence their answer. I don’t doubt at all that many if not most people haven’t had a homosexual experience. I was just offering up an alternative to the idea that people were outright lying to sound macho–that perhaps they were not counting non-intercourse contact. Jesus. Defensive much? \*things like “then it wasn’t homosexual activity. It was just, you know, messing around.” …“I don’t quite see how it COULD happen if you’re straight. Seems to me the suggestion would be pretty quickly rebuffed by any straight guy” is another… and “I cannot even imagine how a straight male would do such a thing” and partially in support of the statement, which I suspect is true, “I suspect many people don’t consider adolescent homosexual experiences to count in the context of this thread.” ---
**Author:** ![mrald](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mrald](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrald)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/131 "2006-06-06T07:37:42Z")
Not really Dreams, jeez yes Female Straightish, but mm I love my husband, and all his man parts (he knows I like girls too, but I only want him. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/132 "2006-06-06T14:39:28Z")
No (comparing wee wees at age 8 doesn’t count, right?) Male Straight In my personal experience, waaay waaay more than 10% of women have had some sort of homosexual experience. I even ran an informal survey on an internet chat room that I frequent. It was alarge, diverse population, and of the around 50 women that took the survey, **70%** have had at least one sexual experience with another women! Of course, they could have been pulling my leg. ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/133 "2006-06-06T15:31:52Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > Defensive much? Well, I think people do tend to get defensive when their answers aren’t taken in good faith. Just sayin’. I think most of the people here have comprehended the question as understood by the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/134 "2006-06-06T15:53:18Z")
Ok, not to be an asshole pedant, but I like to be thorough. I just went back through the whole thread and not _one_ straight male has said _anything_ like: > [@OpalCat](#): > > “then it wasn’t homosexual activity. It was just, you know, messing around.” The facts of the thread are, in fact, quite contrary to your claim. Many, many straight people in this thread have said “yes” for adolescent, sporadic, or one-time encounters, and some have even reported _dreams_ as a “homosexual experience”. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/135 "2006-06-06T16:04:23Z")
1. Yes 2. Female 3. Straight with occasional bi tendencies–Kinsey 3. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/136 "2006-06-06T16:34:07Z")
1- Yes 2- Mail 3- Striaght, as proven by the answer to 1. It actually happened a few times, once when very very young (I believe it would probably constitute abuse, actually, but I’ve never viewed it as such) and a few times in my early 20’s. No spark, nothing. Then we got back to having sex with my wife. It was an interesting time. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/137 "2006-06-06T17:12:57Z")
As always, _man_ am I boring: 1. No 2. Female 3. Straight And FTR, lesbian porn (there ALWAYS has to be a lesbian scene in porn! Always!!) bores the crap out of me. I try to fast-forward through it (if hubby isn’t protesting too much), which makes for an entirely different kind of entertaining imagery. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/138 "2006-06-06T17:18:27Z")
[QUOTE=Lama Pacos] Ok, not to be an asshole pedant, but I like to be thorough. I just went back through the whole thread and not _one_ straight male has said _anything_ like: . [/QUOTE] I never said a straight male said it. I merely said that I felt some people in the thread might be misinterpreting what constituted a sexual experience, and that sentence pretty much seems to hold up the idea that at least some people in the thread didn’t consider “fooling around” to be “a homosexual experience”. ---
**Author:** ![theunfounddoor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@theunfounddoor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theunfounddoor)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/139 "2006-06-06T17:57:17Z")
1: Yes 2:Female 3:Striaght? I prefer men. Although when drunk the lines of preference start shifting. I’ve had only one homosexual experience while completely sober. (wasn’t one on one) I find the female form very attractive. But, I usually feel uncomfortable when things start getting hot and heavy. (Come to think of it, that happens with guys too, so…) Bi or straight? Take it as you will. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211/140 "2006-06-06T18:03:22Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] that sentence pretty much seems to hold up the idea that at least some people in the thread didn’t consider “fooling around” to be “a homosexual experience”. [/QUOTE] Well, it seems pretty silly to use a quote that nobody said or implied to back up assertions that that’s the way people feel. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-have-you-had-a-homosexual-experience/359211.md?page=8)