# Prevalence of Homosexuality in Russian...and variance amongst countries. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 17, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500 "2013-08-17T17:15:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![andrea\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecccb3/32.png) [@andrea\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrea_green)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/1 "2013-08-17T17:15:06Z")
I had always assumed that the approximate percentage of homosexuals in any given nation was the same but some quick googling indicates this may not be the case. I am particularly interested in finding any data relating to the prevalence of homosexuality in Russian versus western countries as a Russian colleague of mine recently suggested there are far fewer LGBT people in his country. Finally, any data on the variance of homosexuality between different countries would also be very interesting to learn if anyone happens to know about this. spasíbo (thanks). ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/2 "2013-08-17T17:36:04Z")
> [@andrea\_green](#): > > I had always assumed that the approximate percentage of homosexuals in any given nation was the same but some quick googling indicates this may not be the case. > > I am particularly interested in finding any data relating to the prevalence of homosexuality in Russian versus western countries as a Russian colleague of mine recently suggested there are far fewer LGBT people in his country. > > Finally, any data on the variance of homosexuality between different countries would also be very interesting to learn if anyone happens to know about this. > > spasíbo (thanks). I don’t think there is a huge disparity between different countries, however if a country actively attacks its LGBT community I would expect many if not most to go underground and therefore not be reported. So it might appear that there are less in Russia when in fact there are just as many as anywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![NotDeadYet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotDeadYet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotDeadYet)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/3 "2013-08-17T17:55:51Z")
If you go with the prevailing science that homosexuality is hard-wired into ones genetic makeup and neither a choice nor hereditary then the numbers should not vary statistically from country to country. OTOH, if you believe it is a “choice” then those countries that are more open and accepting will have more people making that choice. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/4 "2013-08-17T18:11:12Z")
Depends on how you define homosexuality. ---
**Author:** ![Buffalo\_Bilious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e99b99/32.png) [@Buffalo\_Bilious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buffalo_Bilious)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/5 "2013-08-17T18:25:14Z")
Jesus Hopping Christ on a Pogo Stick… I’ve now officially had absolutely enough of seeing or hearing about homosexuals and their real or imagined travails. If you’re gay, then just STFU about it and get on with your life. A government mandate isn’t going to change the time the alarm clock goes off in the morning or the date the bills are due. Gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, ad infinitum. STOP IT! I’m sick and tired of hearing about a sexual preference being used as a political cudgel. More on topic, the Russians can do whatever they want to do. If you want to protest, go right ahead. While you’re doing that, I’ll be at the local Home Depot, protesting about violence against nails. They have a right to exist without being violently struck by a hammer. Arg… can you tell that I’m sick of this shit? Right now there’s hand-to-hand combat in the streets going on in Egypt, people are killing each other on the streets of Chicago, Detroit and other urban deserts, and everyone is getting shoved to part-time status in their jobs to avoid Obamacare (if they have a job in the first place). But we need to forget about all that and concentrate on your “equality” because you simply prefer to orally satisfy your same-sex partner? Gimme a freakin’ break. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/6 "2013-08-17T18:34:00Z")
**Buffalo Bilious** , you think _you’re_ sick of this shit? Think of how sick actual gay people must be of it! You actually have the option to ignore it-- They don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Buffalo\_Bilious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e99b99/32.png) [@Buffalo\_Bilious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buffalo_Bilious)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/7 "2013-08-17T18:45:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > **Buffalo Bilious** , you think _you’re_ sick of this shit? Think of how sick actual gay people must be of it! You actually have the option to ignore it-- They don’t. Then you’re saying that a percentage of gay folks are either conflicted, basic attention whores or media hyenas, a la Al Sharpton and his race-baiting ilk. I know a handful of gay folks and they’re all happy, healthy and living what could conservatively called a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. More like Upper-Middle Class. In other words, they’re perfectly “vanilla”. They don’t clamor for “special rights” because they don’t need them… they don’t define themselves by their sexuality. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/8 "2013-08-17T18:53:38Z")
> [@Buffalo\_Bilious](#): > > Jesus Hopping Christ on a Pogo Stick… I’ve now officially had absolutely enough of seeing or hearing about homosexuals and their real or imagined travails. > > If you’re gay, then just STFU about it and get on with your life. A government mandate isn’t going to change the time the alarm clock goes off in the morning or the date the bills are due. > > Gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, ad infinitum. STOP IT! > > I’m sick and tired of hearing about a sexual preference being used as a political cudgel. > > More on topic, the Russians can do whatever they want to do. If you want to protest, go right ahead. > > While you’re doing that, I’ll be at the local Home Depot, protesting about violence against nails. They have a right to exist without being violently struck by a hammer. > > Arg… can you tell that I’m sick of this shit? Right now there’s hand-to-hand combat in the streets going on in Egypt, people are killing each other on the streets of Chicago, Detroit and other urban deserts, and everyone is getting shoved to part-time status in their jobs to avoid Obamacare (if they have a job in the first place). > > But we need to forget about all that and concentrate on your “equality” because you simply prefer to orally satisfy your same-sex partner? > > Gimme a freakin’ break. Let’s say just for a second the world was not in tune with Buffalo Bilious’ sexuality and you had a woman’s body instead of a man’s, but your brain was male oriented the same as it is now. and every time you went out into public you were expected to wear high heels, lipstick, makeup and a skirt and behave like a woman when all you wanted to wear was jeans and t-shirt or men’s suits and be (behaviorally) a man. If you violated these expectations you might get beaten and/or imprisoned. Let’s say there were hundreds of millions of people just like you in various countries where enlightened laws did not exist. Would wars, famine and other social crises make your identity issues so unimportant that it would just be something you needed to STFU about and deal with? ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/9 "2013-08-17T18:59:18Z")
> [@Buffalo\_Bilious](#): > > They don’t clamor for “special rights” because they don’t need them Like the special right to visit your dying partner in the hospital? Or the special right to not be specifically targeted by the police? > [@Buffalo\_Bilious](#): > > they don’t define themselves by their sexuality. The problem is not homosexual people defining themselves by their sexuality. The problem is governments defining people by their sexuality. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/10 "2013-08-17T19:11:20Z")
Iran does not have any homosexuals. I heard that straight (heh!) from the Ex-President. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/11 "2013-08-17T19:22:13Z")
> [@Buffalo\_Bilious](#): > > I know a handful of gay folks and they’re all happy, healthy and living what could conservatively called a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. More like Upper-Middle Class. In other words, they’re perfectly “vanilla”. They don’t clamor for “special rights” because they don’t need them… they don’t define themselves by their sexuality. I too know a handful of gay couples that are middle class and financially secure. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to be able to get married (and they finally can here now, yea!). It means they just don’t talk about it much. They don’t want “special rights”, they want the same rights, and I think that’s a valid discussion to be having right now. Congratulations on being part of the majority for whom this isn’t an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/12 "2013-08-17T19:30:55Z")
Getting back on-topic, I think **dolphinboy** has it right. It is hard to collect accurate numbers if the country in question when homosexuality is repressed and/or attacked. ---
**Author:** ![Buffalo\_Bilious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e99b99/32.png) [@Buffalo\_Bilious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buffalo_Bilious)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/13 "2013-08-17T19:31:31Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Like the special right to visit your dying partner in the hospital? Or the special right to not be specifically targeted by the police? > The problem is not homosexual people defining themselves by their sexuality. The problem is governments defining people by their sexuality. Visitation as well as survivor rights are A-OK with me, and should be manditory… But do we need the sacrament of “marriage” to make it so? I don’t think so. Otherwise, what’s all the hoo-hah about? It’s gone to the point of nothing more than puerile rubbernecking. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/14 "2013-08-17T19:36:15Z")
> [@Buffalo\_Bilious](#): > > Visitation as well as survivor rights are A-OK with me, and should be manditory… But do we need the sacrament of “marriage” to make it so? I don’t think so. > > Otherwise, what’s all the hoo-hah about? It’s gone to the point of nothing more than puerile rubbernecking. And what does this have to do with whether homosexuality is distributed evenly around the world? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/15 "2013-08-17T19:48:22Z")
> [@Buffalo\_Bilious](#): > > Visitation as well as survivor rights are A-OK with me, and should be manditory… But do we need the sacrament of “marriage” to make it so? I don’t think so. > > Otherwise, what’s all the hoo-hah about? It’s gone to the point of nothing more than puerile rubbernecking. A sacrament is something you do in your church. No one really cares what ceremony you have when you sign the license and have it witnessed. They just want the option to enter into that contract, without the government blocking them because of their choice of partners. Since “marriage” is already the word to describe this legally recognized relationship whether it is entered into in a church, a mosque, a synagogue, or town hall, that is the word we use. And the sacrament is “Holy Matrimony.” You can keep that term for specifically church weddings if you like. And as for the OP, I believe social acceptance has a \*huge \*effect on reported homosexual orientation and / or behaviors. ---
**Author:** ![Buffalo\_Bilious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e99b99/32.png) [@Buffalo\_Bilious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buffalo_Bilious)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/16 "2013-08-17T19:49:24Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > And what does this have to do with whether homosexuality is distributed evenly around the world? Zero, but I’m annoyed by these dime-store attempts to vilify those who don’t fully kneel down and agree with the militant gay faction. Russia doesn’t like gays? Hokay… The South Side of Chicago doesn’t like White People, no matter whether theyre gay or straight. Get used to it. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/17 "2013-08-17T19:49:26Z")
You mean Gosplan didn’t have a quota for this, too? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/18 "2013-08-17T19:56:39Z")
> [@Buffalo\_Bilious](#): > > Zero, but I’m annoyed by these dime-store attempts to vilify those who don’t fully kneel down and agree with the militant gay faction. As you’re new here, you may not be aware of this, but in General Questions, no one cares whether you’re annoyed. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/19 "2013-08-17T19:57:23Z")
Is there any reliable hard data from _any_ country, let alone Russia? ---
**Author:** ![AGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500/20 "2013-08-17T20:00:44Z")
> [@NotDeadYet](#): > > If you go with the prevailing science that homosexuality is hard-wired into ones genetic makeup and neither a choice nor hereditary then the numbers should not vary statistically from country to country. Did you mean to say “hard-wired into one’s brain”? Otherwise, that statement seems self-contradictory. I would agree with the notion of homosexuality becoming hard-wired into the brain (LeVay) at some point of development, but I think J. Michael Bailey’s 2000 study of twins makes it pretty clear it’s mainly not genetic (only 20%-24% probandwise concordance in identical twins for being at least a 2 on the Kinsey scale). Anyway, I don’t see any reason why rates couldn’t vary a bit between countries. I believe culture plays a huge role. Just look at some of the ancient Greek societies, where pederasty was a common practice, even revered in some cases (e.g. the Sacred Band of Thebes). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prevalence-of-homosexuality-in-russian-and-variance-amongst-countries/666500.md?page=2)