'3 to 5 percent of the general population'

Back to Alex Ross' book -- nearing the end -- I'm not sure what to do with this information:

"Homosexual men, who make up approximately 3 to 5 percent of the general population, have played a disproportionately large role in composition of the last hundred years."

Ross doesn't attribute this flatly stated fact, and it's not buried away in the notes at the back of the book, so who knows where the 3-5 percent figure comes from. (That's lower than the 10-percent estimate often miscellaneously cited, but again, it's weird to just drop this information into the text and move on.)

Moving on, he lists the 20th century composers who are/were gay or bisexual. I guess the point is to lead into a long discussion of Britten and to some extent, how his operatic work was shaped by his unusual sexual proclivities.

Whether 20th century music was more dominated by gay/lesbian composers than in previous centuries, who can say? Ross doesn't attempt to.

Last point here: It's striking how much space Ross devotes to Britten, compared with other post-war composers. He glides quickly past some other luminaries such as Boulez without much comment (other than to generally categorize them as not appealing to a wider public).