[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Jamie89

Do you not think it's more to do with people being more comfortable in coming out though Tozzie, and also discussing their sexuality, whereas before it was much more difficult for people? And also more representation of gay people in media etc... rather than there actually being more gay people?

Considering it was actually illegal to be gay in the not too distant past I'm willing to bet that is correct

[Tozzie]

Originally Posted by Jamie89

Do you not think it's more to do with people being more comfortable in coming out though Tozzie, and also discussing their sexuality, whereas before it was much more difficult for people? And also more representation of gay people in media etc... rather than there actually being more gay people?

I don't know Jamie, perhaps. My husbands uncle was a gay man who sadly kept his sexuality a secret until shortly before he died which I found very sad, he must have thought his sexuality wouldn't be accepted by us and that hurts because he was still Uncle Tommy no matter what his sexuality, we loved him.

[Jamie89]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

Considering it was actually illegal to be gay in the not too distant past I'm willing to bet that is correct

Exactly. I find it impossible to believe that the numbers of people actually being gay (not just coming out) could fluctuate because of social influence... the whole 'promoting gayness' thing for example seems nonsensical to me. We'd see dramatic shifts in the numbers of gay people over time and across different cultures if that were the case and it just isn't (never mind the fact that everyone gay/bi/straight just knows that their sexuality isn't chosen anyway - so the people who make arguments like that must know that too (unless they're saying they chose to be straight).

[Jamie89]

Originally Posted by Tozzie

I don't know Jamie, perhaps. My husbands uncle was a gay man who sadly kept his sexuality a secret until shortly before he died which I found very sad, he must have thought his sexuality wouldn't be accepted by us and that hurts because he was still Uncle Tommy no matter what his sexuality, we loved him.

Yeah that is really sad, I think a lot of people would have been in similar situations to him too. I know someone in his mid 70''s who's gay and only recently came out to his friends, it was a different time back when he was younger.

[Tozzie]

Originally Posted by Jamie89

Exactly. I find it impossible to believe that the numbers of people actually being gay (not just coming out) could fluctuate because of social influence... the whole 'promoting gayness' thing for example seems nonsensical to me. We'd see dramatic shifts in the numbers of gay people over time and across different cultures if that were the case and it just isn't (never mind the fact that everyone gay/bi/straight just knows that their sexuality isn't chosen anyway - so the people who make arguments like that must know that too (unless they're saying they chose to be straight).

Todays society is trying to tell us we can choose our sex relating to a person who does not identify themselves as having a fixed gender. I can't get my head round that.

[Jamie89]

Originally Posted by Tozzie

Todays society is trying to tell us we can choose our sex relating to a person who does not identify themselves as having a fixed gender. I can't get my head round that.

Do you mean like gender fluidity? I think with something like that noone is really saying they are choosing their biological sex, but they see gender as being different to sex and believe they can cross between both genders (I think, tbh I don't fully understand everything to do with that either, but it seems to be more about gender expression, rather than actually choosing what sex to be).