New Poll Says Most British Kids Aren’t Gay – But They Aren’t Straight Either

A new poll is casting an unexpected light on the youth of Great Britain. It turns out that a striking majority of kids in Britain don’t classify themselves as straight.

However, they don’t consider themselves gay either.

The poll that was conducted in Great Britain used the Kinsey scale, which is a scale developed by Alfred Kinsey, the famous sex researcher. On the Kinsey scale, a zero means “exclusively heterosexual,” and a six means “exclusively homosexual.”

As expected, a three on the Kinsey scale means that the individual is attracted to both sexes.

When the YouGov U.K. Poll was conducted earlier this month, an overwhelming number of British citizens came back with a zero – meaning that according to the Kinsey scale, they are exclusively heterosexual.

However, 23 percent of British citizens came in somewhere between one and six, meaning that on some level, they aren’t exclusively gay or straight according to the Kinsey scale, but somewhere in the middle. What is more interesting, however, is when an examination is done on the poll based on age.

According to the YouGov U.K. Poll, about half of all British youth between the ages of 18 and 24 identify themselves somewhere between one and six on the Kinsey scale. That means that half of the kids in the U.K. are not exclusively gay or straight, but somewhere in between.

So, is this that unusual?

The same poll was given in the United States, and a third of the same age group of Americans fall into the same cateogry of not being 100 percent gay or straight.

Is it odd to find out that such a large number of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 aren’t exclusively gay or straight? That such a large number of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 are on some level bi-sexual?

Let’s keep in mind that just because the young people in the poll that registered somewhere between one and six on the Kinsey scale doesn’t mean that they are equally attracted to both men and women. It means that they’re somewhere in-between. A New York Times article conducted last year suggested that bisexuality isn’t a black and white or gay and straight issue. People – like those young British people in the poll – can be more attracted to men or women, but still be attracted on some level to the other sex. Additionally, just because someone ends up being somewhat attracted to the same or opposite sex, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will ever end up acting on any of those secondary attractions.

What do you think? Is it odd that so many young people aren’t 100 percent gay or straight? Where do you think yourself and your friends would end up on the Kinsey scale?

[Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images]