Sexual Behaviour in Britain, published by Penguin Books in 1994, remains the most comprehensive study of national sexual attitudes and lifestyle. This was the survey that the Thatcher government refused to finance and was rescued by the Wellcome Trust. And a welcome report it was! Until that study was done, the best data available was the Kinsey Report of 1953. That report estimated that some 10% of the population was homosexual. That figure never rang true in medical practice and the Wellcome Report explained why.

Surveying nearly 20,000 randomly selected Britons, the Wellcome researchers concluded that only 6.1 % of men and 3.4% of women had had any homosexual experience at any stage in their lifetime (p226). These statistics may be an underestimate, given people’s reluctance to be honest in these matters, though great care was taken in the research method. The figures may also have changed in the past 10 years, presumably due to changing cultural mores, rather than changes in biological or genetic causes.

The incidence of bisexuality reported by them was huge. They concluded that 90.3% of that 6.1% of men had also had a female sexual partner, which would leave 0.6% of men being exclusively homosexual. 95.8% of the 3.4% of women had claimed also to have had a male partner, which would leave 0.14% of women being exclusively homosexual (p.211). Barely 1% of men and less than 0.25% of women described their sexual experience as either mostly or exclusively homosexual (p.183). The Report concluded that exclusively homosexual behaviour is rare (p227). They also noted that for many, homosexual experience was youthful and transitory, and unlikely to lead to a permanent behaviour pattern (p.226) and that the high prevalence of bisexual behaviour among homosexuals was well-documented (p211).

A recent article in the Times, written by a lesbian, said, “Thousands of gay women have had relationships with men and some may not rule out the possibility of falling in love with a man in the future. But ask a gay woman to define herself as lesbian or bisexual is difficult. To opt for what may be the more honest answer of ‘bisexual’ could be viewed as some kind of betrayal, a refusal to stand up and be counted.”

Genetic studies, for all their ambiguity, have ruled out the idea of a gay gene determining orientation. The report before Synod did not mention the significance of twin studies. Identical twins are genetically “clones” of one another, having an identical genetic make up. If sexual orientation were genetically determined, they would both exhibit the same orientation. But studies have shown that they do not. There may be a genetic or other biological disposition towards homosexual relationships in some people. We don’t know. But homosexuality is clearly not genetically determined.

We may therefore be very mistaken to speak of sexual orientations rather than sexual behaviours. When we start talking about behaviour, we might then note that some sexual behaviours can be deeply addictive. While some people seem to move from one type of sexual experience to another, others get hooked in a serious way.

For some, the use of pornography may come to dominate their lives. It may be a preference for violent pornography, which grips their imagination and drives the person to fulfil their desires. Promiscuity, sado-masochism, and the use of prostitutes can all become addictive behaviours.

The chemistry of falling in love is a sort of addiction. Many of us are happily addicted to our spouses, though the addiction needs to be constantly fuelled to be kept alive. Adultery is addictive. Few people embarking on an adulterous relationship find it is a ‘take or leave’ matter that they can easily walk away from. You cannot sit down with these people and have a sensible chat about the damage they will do, such that they say, “You are quite right. I will stop it at once.” They are hooked and get an intense thrill from the encounter. The more they see the person, the more their desires are stirred up.

Then there is that powerfully addictive and disturbing preference for sexual intimacy with children. Having engaged in sexual acts with children, paedophiles always remain vulnerable to repeating such behaviour.

We engage in addictive activities at our peril. Yet no one considers any of these behaviours to be ‘orientations’.

The language of preference, of learned behaviour patterns and addiction makes much more sense of the observed realities of sexual behaviour than talk about orientation.

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