Together, these studies have surveyed over 100,000 people and are weighted for age and location so that they will accurately 'represent' the population and prevent skewing of data. The claim is entirely debunked by more than two decades of large representative studies in multiple countries, which have shown that gay men typically have 10-20 sexual partners in their lifetimes. :29-33 It was not a random sample and it was never intended to be representative of the wider male homosexual population or even representative of gay men in San Francisco. About 25% of the men were prostitutes, which further exaggerates the reported high number of partners. The statistics are cherry picked from a 1978 Bell & Weinberg book which surveyed highly-promiscuous San Francisco Bay Area men in the 1970s, most of whom were rounded up from gay bathhouses ( sex clubs), cruising spots (hookup spots), porn stores and gay bars.
This article debunks misleading statistics claiming that large portions of gay men have 500 or 1000 sexual partners or simply hundreds of partners.
