Dating Site Statistics: Gay Sex is Surprisingly ... Uninteresting

There are two fascinating items in the news today that once again illustrate how silly and misguided the religious right's anti-gay agenda really is. First, we find that gay dating is remarkably unremarkable, and second, we learn that in the Netherlands, the legalization of gay marriage had virtually no effect on the country.

The first news comes from OKCupid.com, the new "high tech" dating site that appeals to the young tech-savvy crowd. In addition to connecting people with their soul mates, OKCupid has published a fascinating series of articles about the statistics of dating. For example, they're the ones who discovered that Atheists get more first dates, and that Atheists score higher on writing skills.

The newest study from OKCupid is even more fascinating. They compared gay-versus-straight dating habits, and found that contrary to popular myth the two groups are almost indistinguishable. Among their findings:

• Gays are not interested in dating straights. Virtually no people (men or women) who identified as gay ever searched for straight people.
• Gay people are no more or less promiscuous than straight people. They report almost the exact same numbers of partners. Not just sort of close, but almost indistinguishable numbers.
• The public perception of "reckless sex" by gays is due to a tiny minority (about 1 in 50) gay men who report 23% of the total sex by all gays. Although OKCupid doesn't say so, there is probably a similar number of heterosexuals who also have a disproportionate amount of reckless sex.
• Lots of straight people report having gay sex or being interested in it.

In other words, when it comes to gay dating and sex, there's nothing to report. It's all quite ordinary.

The second bit of news is there's nothing to report about gay marriage in the Netherlands. According to an article in the LA Times, ten years after gay marriages were legalized in the Netherlands, nothing interesting has happened. Gays get married, but that's about it.

• Heterosexuals did not turn away from marriage.
• Child molestation didn't increase.
• The country wasn't isolated or boycotted by the international community.
• Civilization didn't end.
• God ignored it.

Like the data from OKCupid.com, the Netherlands shows that gays are just ordinary people with ordinary love lives. They live ordinary lives like everyone else, with the same hopes, fears, joys and sorrows as straights.

Ironically, if not for the religious right, there would be no issue with gays. All of the problems regarding homosexuality are caused by anti-gay laws, prejudices and discrimination. If the religious right would just shut up and leave gays alone, our gay friends and relatives would simply be normal members of society, doing exactly the same things that the rest of us do.