Alfred Kinsey conducted research to determine what percentage of the population was heterosexual and what percentage was homosexual. Why would he have avoided asking the question, "Do you identify as gay or straight?"A. He needed to justify his research by having lots of questions.B. He believed that sexuality is a continuum and wanted to classify people more precisely.C. He believed that people would lie to him and needed to be tricked into revealing that they were gay.D. He didn't really believe in sexual orientation, but saw "homosexual" and "heterosexual" as socially constructed and constantly changing.E. He thought that there would be a large number of transgendered people in his sample.

Kinsey quantified in his studies heterosexuality and homosexuality on a continuous scale from 0 to 6, specified in heterosexual and homosexual experience and reactivity in each story. 0 on this scale is assigned to individuals with exclusively heterosexual sexual contacts and experiences and 6 to exclusively homosexual individuals.

He proposed a model according to which there are many intermediate degrees between heterosexuality and homosexuality. This gradualness was embodied in what is now known as the Kinsey scale.