Wolfgang, I quoted from the Kinsey Reports, so it is not my contention. I recall seeing in his books a chart of percentages of sexual orientation, and on the chart was a diagonal line, running from 7% to 14%, and the text that went with the graphs indicated that the figures indicated roughly—roughly—10%, give or take a couple of percentage points. Some researchers contest his findings, others. I neither support it nor challenge his findings, I merely quoted them. Do with them what you will.

The more recent figures quoted in the Wikipedia article are probably more accurate. 4% to 5% is quite probably about right.

But—that does not alter the civil rights issue.

If only one-tenth of one percent of the human population engages in homosexual activity with other consenting adults of similar orientation, and a particular same-sex couple wishes to be regarded as married in the same way as heterosexual couples—or if twenty percent wish to do so—it's still one helluva stretch to try to claim that allowing them the same rights and privileges as heterosexual married couples in any way "endangers the sanctity of marriage."

The only thing it "endangers" is the sense of propriety of people who are overly concerned with what other people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms.

Don Firth

P. S. It appears to me that those who seem to be most opposed to allowing same-sex couples to marry for "moral" or "endangering the sanctity of marriage" or for economic reasons (insurance coverage, inheritance rights, etc.) are pretty much the same people who object so strenuously to the idea that one out of ten people might be gay. For those who are trying to whittle down the figures, let me point out that if anyone is concerned about some kind of economic impact that same-sex married couples might have, the smaller the percentage, the less the impact.