Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 7, 1994                   TAG: 9410070027
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON NOTE: ABOVE                                 LENGTH: Medium

STUDY: SEX IN AMERICA NOT AS EXOTIC AS WE THOUGHT

The 700-page study, titled ``The Social Organization of Sexuality,'' is believed to be the most authoritative overview ever of sexual practices in the United States.

It concludes that people have fewer sexual encounters, fewer partners and less exotic sex than reported in past surveys and in the mass media. Most people have sex about once a week on average, and a third of adults have sex only a few times a year or not at all.

Experts predicted the research would be a powerful tool for dealing with social, political and health problems related to sex.

The authors are sure to spark controversy with their relatively low estimate of the number of men and women who describe themselves as homosexuals or bisexuals and with their conclusion that the conservative sexual habits of most Americans minimize the danger of a heterosexual AIDS epidemic.

Even more controversial is their suggestion that the incidence of AIDS among homosexuals may actually decline because of increasingly conservative patterns of sexual conduct among gays and lesbians.

``This is going to be landmark data,'' said Debra Haffner of the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States.

Among the findings:

More than 80 percent of Americans had one sex partner or no partner in the last year. Of those who had only one sex partner, 63 percent reported that they were ``extremely or very happy'' emotionally - a satisfaction level 20 percent higher than that of people who reported having two or more partners.

Seventy-five percent of married men and 85 percent of married women say they have remained faithful to their spouses.

Eighty-three percent of males and 77 percent of women find vaginal intercourse the most appealing sexual act, and they include it in almost every sexual encounter. Oral sex occurs in only a minority of sexual encounters.

Only 1.5 percent of women and 2.8 percent of men say they are homosexual or bisexual.

Seventy-two percent of women who had abortions had only one, a strong indication that abortion isn't being used as an alternative to birth control, said sociology professor Edward Laumann, one of the study's authors.

The report was produced from lengthy interviews with 3,432 Americans aged 18 to 59. The margin of error for most data is 5 percent or less.