SAME-GENDER SEX AMONG U.S. ADULTS: TRENDS ACROSS THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AND DURING THE 1990s

• Published in: Public opinion quarterly Vol. 69; no. 3; p. 439
• Main Authors: Turner, Charles F, Villarroel, Mariaa, Chromy, James R, Eggleston, Elizabeth, Rogers, Susan M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.10.2005
• ISSN: 0033-362X
• DOI: 10.1093/poq/nfi025

Trends in reporting of same-gender sex are assessed using data from the 1988-2002 General Social Surveys (Ns = 9,487 males and 12,336 females). Analyses indicate that the reported prevalence of female-female sexual contact increased substantially and monotonically across twentieth-century birth cohorts, rising from 1.6 percent (Standard error [SE] = 0.60) for the cohort of U.S. women born prior to 1920 to 6.9 percent (SE = 0.81) for women born in 1970 and afterward. Increases in the reported prevalence of female-female contacts also occurred within the 1990s. These trends persist when statistical controls are introduced for changes in attitudes toward same-gender sexual behavior. No parallel trend is observed in the reporting of male-male sexual contacts during adulthood, although the proportion of U.S. men reporting such contacts in the past year and in the past five years increased during the 1990s.