Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Aug 1;12(8):e0182222.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0182222. eCollection 2017.

Nationally representative prevalence estimates of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men who have served in the U.S. military

Karen W Hoover  1 , Kevin L Tao  1 , Philip J Peters  1
Affiliations

Nationally representative prevalence estimates of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men who have served in the U.S. military

Karen W Hoover et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objectives: To estimate the number of men in the U.S. military who are gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men (MSM) to inform the development of military and other federal policies.

Study design: We analyzed data from the National Surveys of Family Growth to estimate the number of U.S. men who were gay, bisexual, or MSM, and who had served in the military, compared to those who did not serve. We stratified using hierarchical categories of gay, bisexual, and other MSM to compare proportions in the military and general population.

Results: We found that 4.23% of men self-reported as gay, bisexual, or other MSM among men who served in the military, compared to 4.14% among men who had not served (p = 0.93). When stratified, we found that 0.78% self-reported as gay among men who served in the military, compared to 2.12% among men who had not served (p<0.001).

Conclusions: The proportion of men who identified as a gay was lower in the military than in the general population. This finding might have been influenced by historical military policies related to sexual orientation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Percentage of men aged 18–44 years who self-reported as gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men (MSM) among men who served in the military compared to those who had not served in the military in the United States, National Survey of Family Growth 2002, 2006–2010, 2011–2013.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Burrelli DF. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell": The Law and Military Policy on Same-Sex Behavior2010 Augut 26. 2016; R40782:[1–22 pp.]. Available from: www.crs.gov.
    1. Gates GJ. Gay men and lesbians in the U.S. military: estimates from Census 2000: The Urban Institute; 2004 [cited 2016 August 26]. Available from: http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/alfresco/publication-pdfs/41106...
    1. Sinclair GD. Homosexuality and the military: a review of the literature. J Homosex. 2009;56(6):701–18. doi: 10.1080/00918360903054137 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Miller K, Cray A. The Battles the Remain: Military service and LGBT equality 2013 [cited 2016 August 26]. Available from: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbt/report/2013/09/20/74883/the....
    1. Gates GJ. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual men and women in the US military: Updated estimates 2010 [cited 2016 August 26]. Available from: http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/research/census-lgbt-demographics-....