Made some edits: stacked bars, and an adjustment to correct for likely underreporting. Data from [https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1695.html](https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1695.html), from the 2015 survey of 16500 military service members for health-related data conducted by the DoD. Chart created using Datawrapper.
The Villae People knew what they were doing
1. The Navy is even gayer than I expected.
2. The Air Force is significantly less gay than I expected.
“In the Navy, you can sail the seven seas…”
What about the bubbleheads? Let’s see the bubbleheads.
Suddenly “In The Navy” by The Village People is playing in my head LOL
We lost the discussion on the previous version. It’s OK– half of it was jokes. But I’ll copy over my comment with respect to about three people asking “why”.
> The Navy is the branch with the longest continuous deployments. Once assigned to a ship, a sailor will be there for years, with some stay in port maybe every few months.
>It therefore self-selects men who don’t have/want families.
>This is discussed in the 1993 book “Conduct Unbecoming”, which documents the history of gays in the military up until that time. It also discusses how the the USS LaSalle was known as the gayest ship in the navy (“The Great White Whore of the Arabian Shore”), by self-selecting men who didn’t mind being a long way from home.
![[OC] Gay & Bisexual Men in the US Military, by Branch of Service](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2qcxy6tnn8of1-1240x1024.png)
8 comments
Made some edits: stacked bars, and an adjustment to correct for likely underreporting. Data from [https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1695.html](https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1695.html), from the 2015 survey of 16500 military service members for health-related data conducted by the DoD. Chart created using Datawrapper.
The Villae People knew what they were doing
1. The Navy is even gayer than I expected.
2. The Air Force is significantly less gay than I expected.
“In the Navy, you can sail the seven seas…”
What about the bubbleheads? Let’s see the bubbleheads.
Suddenly “In The Navy” by The Village People is playing in my head LOL
We lost the discussion on the previous version. It’s OK– half of it was jokes. But I’ll copy over my comment with respect to about three people asking “why”.
> The Navy is the branch with the longest continuous deployments. Once assigned to a ship, a sailor will be there for years, with some stay in port maybe every few months.
>It therefore self-selects men who don’t have/want families.
>This is discussed in the 1993 book “Conduct Unbecoming”, which documents the history of gays in the military up until that time. It also discusses how the the USS LaSalle was known as the gayest ship in the navy (“The Great White Whore of the Arabian Shore”), by self-selecting men who didn’t mind being a long way from home.
My cousin’s son is gay and served in the Navy.
Comments are closed.