Let me throw a hand grenade into the LGBT community: I have found that there are 4 times as many gay male artists as lesbian artists who show in contemporary art galleries.

How did I arrive at the number “four”?  One way I prepare for my monthly LGBT gallery tours in Chelsea – at this point I’ve led 85 completely different such tours in 8 years – is to systematically ask just about all of Chelsea’s 300 galleries what gay or lesbian artist exhibits they have coming up in the next few months.  The vast majority of galleries are happy to comply with my request, and, when I compile my list, it is remarkably consistent: four times as many men as women each year.  Of course, I don’t end up showing that many more male artists on my LGBT tours.  Often I show even numbers of gay male-to-lesbian artists, and occasionally more lesbian artists than gay male ones, but usually it ends up being two or three gay male artists for every one lesbian.  And once in a while I have to scramble to find just one lesbian artist currently showing.

Why the discrepancy?  No one will ever know in any kind of scientific way, as counting numbers of gay people is inherently prone to reporting error.  But I do want to conjecture.  And at the end of this blog, I welcome your thoughts.

Theory 1: There are more gay men in the world than there are lesbians

In the gazillion gay pride marches I’ve attended in New York City, there are at least 4 times as many men marching as women, maybe even more than that many.  Go to any gay pride march and count for yourself.  Also, on average I’ve noticed there to be considerably more gay men than lesbians in the building of NYC’s LGBT Center.  Since it’s pretty certain there’s a biological basis for sexual orientation (whether due to genetics, or intra-uterine hormones, or some other factor or combinations of factors) it’s plausible that nature creates more gay men than lesbians, due to whatever mechanism it uses.  That being said, I’ve personally encountered a LOT more bisexual women than bisexual men, and I would hazard to guess that if you combine the number of gay & bisexual women, it may be about the same as the total number of gay & bisexual men.

Theory 2: There are more OPENLY gay men in the world than there are open lesbians

Maybe it’s just that gay men are more open about their orientation than lesbians, and therefore galleries are undercounting the number of lesbian artists they have.  Why would men be more “out”?  Perhaps it’s that male sexuality is more “hunter”-like, and therefore more visible, the evidence being that there are far more gay male bars than lesbian bars, and LGBT singles chat-rooms are likewise dominated by gay men.  If it is the case that gay men are more likely to be “out” than lesbians are, it would be ironic, as society imposes a far greater stigma on male/male sex than they do on female/female sex.  The Bible’s proscriptions against homosexuality, for instance, are all about men, not women.  And the Nazi’s pink triangles were worn only by gay men, not lesbians.  Perhaps it’s the more direct persecution against men that causes that gender to more actively respond, and therefore be more open.

Theory 3: More male artists than female artists, regardless of orientation, show in galleries

The current ratio of male-to-female artists in contemporary galleries is about 2-to-1, and this ratio shrinks every year.  In my lifetime, I’m pretty sure the ratio will even out entirely.  Female artists have made dramatic strides over the course of the last few decades, and even more so over the last several centuries.  At the Metropolitan Museum, the male/female artist ratio is probably more than 99-to-1.  Even in the Museum of Modern art it’s probably at least 20-to-1.  Of all the theories I’m proposing, this one is the one I am the surest about.  It pretty definitely explains about half of the discrepancy between numbers of gay male and lesbian artists.  But it doesn’t explain all of it.

Theory 4: Gay men are more predisposed to work in creative fields than lesbians are

This one is the diciest theory.  At the risk of being accused of stereotyping, there does seem to be a gravitation towards creative occupations by gay men, who are disproportionately represented in fields such as fashion design, interior decorating, and hair styling.  Lesbians are more likely to make their mark in fields such as the military and city management, which are considerably less aesthetic.  And yes, there are plenty of gay male soldiers, as well as lesbian hair stylists,  But let’s face it: often times the stereotypes do hold, at least on average.  Maybe, just maybe, there’s more of a predisposition – whether biological or cultural – on the part of gay men to work in the arts.  And maybe not.

Theory 5: I’m a gay man, so I notice gay male art more than lesbian art

I know a lot of you are thinking that there are just as many lesbian artists as gay male artists showing at the galleries, but that because I’m a gay man, I notice gay male art more.  Though I’ll never be able to convince those people otherwise, I know this is not the case.  For one thing, the way I find out which artists are gay or lesbian is by asking the galleries in advance of the season, not by basing it on the art that I see.  And when I ask the galleries, I always inquire about their gay AND lesbian artists, also including the words bisexual and transgender.  Besides, only a fraction of the art created by gay & lesbian artists that shows in Chelsea even has gay content – most of it you wouldn’t know about the artist’s orientation just by looking at the art, except that I know in advance by asking the galleries.  If anything, because there is a relative “shortage” of lesbian art, the gallery owners see me making a little dance of joy when they tell me about a lesbian artist exhibit coming up, so that I can include it on my upcoming LGBT tour.  Relatively speaking, gay male artists are a dime a dozen.  Albeit a very beautiful, very exquisite dime.

What are your thoughts about anything I’ve said?

Rafael Risemberg, Ph.D.
Founder and Director
New York Gallery Tours