DEFINING THE RESEARCH POPULATION
A related issue to the use of language and categorisation is definition – who, in a research
context, is authentically LGB or T? Methodology should, therefore, give some attention to
how LGBT people are defined and seek to understand the rationale for preferred
definitions. The issue is particularly problematic, as the notion of what makes a person
‘gay’, ‘lesbian’, ‘bisexual’ or ‘transgender’ can, of course, be framed in any number of ways.
Kinsey et al. (1948), for example, employed a behavioural definition for lesbian women
and gay men in the United States. In this early work, 4 per cent of the respondent sample
reported a lifelong pattern of same-sex sexual behaviour, whilst 10 per cent engaged in
same-sex sexual behaviour for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55 years,
and 25 per cent of the sample engaged in more than one same-sex sexual experience
between the same ages. Similarly, the more recent UK National Survey of Sexual Attitudes
and Lifestyles (National Centre for Social Research 2000) asked whether respondents had
had a same-sex sexual partner in the last five years and in their lifetime. These definitions
are based upon narrow interpretations of sexual behaviour – who does what with whom –
and thus fail to address the notion of sexual identity or desire, which is far more complex.
DEFINING THE RESEARCH POPULATIONA related issue to the use of language and categorisation is definition – who, in a researchcontext, is authentically LGB or T? Methodology should, therefore, give some attention tohow LGBT people are defined and seek to understand the rationale for preferreddefinitions. The issue is particularly problematic, as the notion of what makes a person‘gay’, ‘lesbian’, ‘bisexual’ or ‘transgender’ can, of course, be framed in any number of ways.Kinsey et al. (1948), for example, employed a behavioural definition for lesbian womenand gay men in the United States. In this early work, 4 per cent of the respondent samplereported a lifelong pattern of same-sex sexual behaviour, whilst 10 per cent engaged insame-sex sexual behaviour for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55 years,and 25 per cent of the sample engaged in more than one same-sex sexual experiencebetween the same ages. Similarly, the more recent UK National Survey of Sexual Attitudesand Lifestyles (National Centre for Social Research 2000) asked whether respondents hadhad a same-sex sexual partner in the last five years and in their lifetime. These definitionsare based upon narrow interpretations of sexual behaviour – who does what with whom –and thus fail to address the notion of sexual identity or desire, which is far more complex.
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