Cohort Increases in Sex with Same-Sex Partners: Do Trends Vary by Gender, Race, and Class?

We examine change across U.S. cohorts born between 1920 and 2000 in their probability of having had sex with same-sex partners in the last year and since age 18. Using data from the 1988–2018 General Social Surveys, we explore how trends differ by gender, race, and class background. We find steep in...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inGender & society Vol. 34; no. 2; pp. 178 - 209
Main Authors Mishel, Emma, England, Paula, Ford, Jessie, Caudillo, Mónica L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.04.2020
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Conformity
Gender
Gender roles
Imprisonment
Men
Race
Sexual behavior
Social climate
Socioeconomic status
Trends
Women
bisexuality
lesbian
sexualities
cohort trends
and sexual minorities
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:We examine change across U.S. cohorts born between 1920 and 2000 in their probability of having had sex with same-sex partners in the last year and since age 18. Using data from the 1988–2018 General Social Surveys, we explore how trends differ by gender, race, and class background. We find steep increases across birth cohorts in the proportion of women who have had sex with both men and women since age 18, whereas increases for men are less steep. We suggest that the trends reflect an increasingly accepting social climate, and that women’s steeper trend is rooted in a long-term asymmetry in gender change, in which nonconformity to gender norms is more acceptable for women than men. We also find evidence that, among men, the increase in having had sex with both men and women was steeper for black than for white men, and for men of lower socioeconomic status; we speculate that the rise of mass incarceration among less privileged men may have influenced this trend.
ISSN:0891-2432
1552-3977
DOI:10.1177/0891243219897062