Who We Are...
The survey began running on the Web in early February of 1999 and continued through to the end of July. The results you see here are based on 1,316 replies, all received via e-mail.
This is hardly a scientific survey. For one, it was limited to the Internet, which means it did not reach a broad cross section of crossdressers. Internet users tend to be white, middle class, from the United States and middle age. Furthermore, I was told that "Yes/No" questions are not considered to be statistically valid, although I am not sure why.
When I evaluated the data from the survey, I only counted questions where a response was actually entered. In most cases, people did not answer every question. So even though I received 1,316 replies, sometimes only 800 or 900 people answered a specific question. You will see notation such as "(n=945)". This indicates how many people were being counted for a specific question.
Additionally, I tried to count surveys that made sense for a question. For example, when evaluating the results for a question about a person's relationship with their wife, I only counted surveys where the submitter also indicated they were married. In other words, responses to several questions had to be consistent, otherwise the survey was ignored for that question.
The results are grouped into six sections, the same as the survey itself. A copy of the survey questions as they appeared on the Internet can be found here, but please note that I am no longer taking submissions.
Here is a sumamry of some interesting findings:
- Four out of five crossdressers began crossdressing by the age of 12.
- Only 52% of those who responded actually crossdress to the extent of presenting as woman: clothing makeup and so on.
- Two-thirds of those who responded are either married or in a relationship with a significant other. One-third are either divorced or going through a divorce.
- Among those who are married or in a significant relationship, three out of every four has told their partner about their crossdressing. Within that group, three out of five say their partner is supportive.
- Only 48% identified as heterosexual. The remaining 52% said they were either bisexual or heterosexual but wanted to explore their sexuality. This is a much smaller percentage identifying as heterosexual than is commonly believed.
