Am I Gay Test or Quiz: Really?

Some people wonder, "Am I gay?" and "How do you know if you are gay?" and sometimes they follow this up by taking something like an "Am I Gay Quiz" that might be found online. But are "Am I Gay?" quizzes of any value? Is an "Am I Gay?" test accurate?

Am I Gay Test

In the 1950s and 1960s, anti-gay sentiment was rampant (read: Gay Discrimination and Stigma and How to Cope) and a "homosexuality test" was developed in Canada. During this test, subjects were made to view images ranging from innocuous to pornographic while their pupil size was recorded. It was thought that the pupils would dilate (get larger) in response to sexual interest in the image shown.¹

Funding for this test ended in the 1960s when it became clear that this test was scientifically inaccurate and based on faulty premises. Of the many problems with the test was the assumption that there were only two possible sexualities (heterosexual and homosexual) and that pupil dilation would, indeed, vary in heterosexual and homosexual populations.

It has since been recognized that there is no test that can ascertain a person's sexuality.

Am I Gay – Gay Rating Scales

One of the reasons there is no "Am I Gay?" test is because it is now recognized that there are many options for sexuality outside of just heterosexual and homosexual. In 1948, in fact, a rating scale, The Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale (often known as The Kinsey Scale), was developed by Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues Wardell Pomeroy and Clyde Martin. This gay rating scale put people into the following categories:²

• 0 – Exclusively heterosexual with no homosexual
• 1 – Predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual
• 2 – Predominantly heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual
• 3 – Equally heterosexual and homosexual
• 4 – Predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally heterosexual
• 5 – Predominantly homosexual, only incidentally heterosexual
• 6 – Exclusively homosexual

Rather than identifying people's sexuality, however, this rating scale was purely based on self-evaluation and people's ratings may change over time. There was never intended to be any such thing as an "Am I Gay? Test" for this rating scale.

Am I Gay? Quizzes Online

Unfortunately, many people take "Am I Gay?" quizzes online and think the results are accurate. This is not true. There is no way to measure a person's sexuality and only an individual can determine whether or not they identify as gay and what that means to them.

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