Keep Numbers Straight About Gay People

To the Editor:

Jim Luce’s letter to the editor (“Talk of ‘Inclusion’ Must Include Gay People,” September 18) restates the canard that gay people comprise “one-tenth of the nation’s population.”

No facts support this figure, which apparently originated with Dr. Alfred Kinsey. More-recent studies suggest that the portion of the population who consistently engage in sexual activity with a member of the same gender is closer to 1 per cent.

In addition, gays and lesbians are demonstrably different from other groups, such as racial or ethnic minorities and women, whose self-defining characteristic is biological and, generally, immutable. The experience of many who were formerly engaged exclusively in homosexual relationships but who have now changed and who are married in faithful, heterosexual relationships is dramatic testimony that homosexual behavior has psychological and behavioral, but not genetic, roots.

Accordingly, homosexuality should no more be a basis for public or private “affirmative action” than whether one plays golf.

Charles Watkins
Arlington, Va.