- Are there 320,000 gay people in the country? Or is it
at least 1.6 million, or perhaps closer to 3.2 million? The controversy
over how many people are gay in Canada was stirred up again yesterday as
the 2003 Canadian Community Health Survey showed that 1 per cent of the
population identified themselves as homosexual. The gay community says
the number is actually somewhere between 5 per cent and 10 per cent. (According
to Statscan's most recent estimates, Canada's total population as of January,
2004, was 31.7 million.) Statistics Canada looked at the sexual orientation
of Canada for the first time in its history, surveying more than 83,000
men and women between the ages of 18 and 59. It also found that another
0.7 per cent of the population considered themselves bisexual.
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- "I'm happy that they're finally asking the question
because I think one of the big problems we've had is our invisibility,
and I think it's important to have more visibility," said Laurie Arron,
director of advocacy for the gay-rights group Egale Canada.
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- At the same time, Mr. Arron contends that the numbers
are much lower than what he's seen elsewhere.
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- "We expected that the first time it happened. When
you ask somebody to reveal something in a survey for the first time, you're
going to get underreporting," he said. "Over time, as the question
gets repeated, we're going to see the number go up to where most studies
indicate."
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- The figure from Statscan comes at a time when there's
an increasing debate in the federal election campaign about whether gay
people should be allowed to marry.
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- Statscan asked people whether they considered themselves
heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual, rather than asking respondents whether
they had ever had a sexual relationship with someone of the same sex.
-
- Quebec reported the highest number of homosexuals or
bisexuals at 2.3 per cent, followed by British Columbia, New Brunswick
and Ontario.
-
- Statscan also said that more younger people reported
they were either homosexual or bisexual. Two per cent of the 18-to-34 group
self-reported as being homosexual or bisexual, while 1.2 per cent of those
between 45 and 59 said they were homosexual or bisexual.
-
- Vincent Dale, a senior analyst at Statscan, says the
overall results may have been different depending on the question.
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- "We know from other surveys that if we had asked,
'Are your partners of the same sex or the opposite sex' the number probably
would have been higher," Mr. Dale said.
-
- The 10-per-cent figure usually cited by the gay community
comes from research by Alfred Kinsey, who in the late 1940s and early 1950s
found that one in 10 men were homosexual.
-
- When a number is attached to a gay community, ideological
battles emerge, said Michael Botnick, a lecturer on sociology at the University
of British Columbia.
-
- "Clearly, from a right-wing perspective, they'd
like to see the numbers lower," he said. "From the more libertarian
perspective, they'd like to see the numbers more accurate, or higher. So
nobody's going to be satisfied."
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- Derek Rogusky, vice-president of family policy for Focus
on the Family Canada, said the Kinsey study has been challenged many times
for its poor research. The Statscan data, he said, speak volumes about
the issue of same-sex marriage.
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- "It's not a human-rights issue. It's a public policy
issue. I think that when we're talking about changing something so fundamental
to our society, as I believe marriage is, just for the sake of really such
a small handful of individuals, I think it causes us to stop and pause
and think about that," he said. "Is this really the direction
that we want to go to appease a few people?"
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- But Mr. Arron said it's unfair to think that people don't
deserve rights because their numbers aren't large enough. "I'm Jewish.
And I think it would be wrong to have the Charter protection taken away
from Jewish people just because they're smaller in number. The same goes
for gay and lesbian Canadians," he said.
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- Mr. Arron said that by asking the question of sexual
orientation in surveys, it reduces the stigma attached to being gay, lesbian
or bisexual.
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- "We need to have surveys like this so our communities
can be accommodated," he said.
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- - With a report from Canadian Press
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All Rights Reserved. http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040616.wxgay0616/BNStory/National/
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