Gay People Really Make Up 3.5% of the Population?

[natina]

Do Gay People Really Make Up 3.5% of the Population?

After years of wild guess and flawed estimations, Gallup has attempted to get some hard data on just how many gay, lesbian, and bisexual people there are in America. So how good are their are numbers?
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The polling company took state-by-state surveys of all 50 states and District of Columbia, asking one simple question: "Do you, personally, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender?" With more than 200,000 responses over the course of six months, this is a pretty large sample for a seemingly simple question that has yet to be definitively answered. Gallup also found that outside of a few outliers, the results were remarkably consistent across the entire nation. Averaging all the state polls together gives you a nationwide average of 3.5 percent, and every state in the union (but not D.C.) is within two percentage points of that average. That's also right around the margin of error for the polls.
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Does that seem right? Well, no one really knows, honestly, because no one has ever attempted a true census-like survey of the whole nation before. As many LGBT writers and activists have pointed out, for years many simply just went with a guesstimate of around 10 percent of the country being not straight; a number that probably seemed way too high or way too low depending on where you lived and who you hung out with. In a previous Gallup poll young people and women have even guessed that the number could be as high as 30 percent, proving that people aren't really good at estimating these kinds of things.
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The survey also counts on people to self-identify, which can complicate the results in all sorts of ways. Respondents might be gay, but not out (even to themselves), and they're far more likely to come out if they live an area where there are a lot of other gay and lesbian people. Or maybe they simply don't see themselves in terms of L-G-B-T definitions.
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Take D.C., which is the lone major outlier, with more than 10 percent of the population identifying as LGBT. But D.C. is really a city, with a single urban population, not a state, which contains a mix of rural, suburban, and urban areas, so you'd be better off comparing its results to those Boston, Atlanta, and Denver than Massachusetts, Georgia, or Colorado. (D.C. also had the survey with the smallest sample size and the biggest margin of error.) Still, Andrew Sullivan argues that politics has a particularly draw for young gay people, but again—personal experience does not equal hard data.
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There's also the matter of Gallup itself and whether any survey can accurately measure this particular statistic. Asking people to honestly self-identify with anything isn't never easy, and identity is something a lot of young people still struggle to answer to themselves, let alone a Gallup call center employee. Of course, that's a methodology issue that no census could solve, so any attempt to measure the population this way is going to be imperfect.
But as one expert points out, this study is still significant, because these aren't just updates to old data—this is completely new way of looking at the numbers, and it will be important to see if they shift overtime as new polls are taken. Then again ... this is also the same polling company that, one day before the 2012 presidential election, said Mitt Romney was in the lead. So your mileage may vary.

http://news.yahoo.com/gay-people-rea...GF0ZWQ-;_ylv=3

[natina]

What Percentage of the Population Is Gay?
In his 1948 book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Alfred Kinsey shocked the world by announcing that 10% of the male population is gay. A 1993 Janus Report estimated that nine percent of men and five percent of women had more than "occasional" homosexual relationships. The 2000 U.S. Census Bureau found that homosexual couples constitute less than 1% of American households. The Family Research Report says "around 2-3% of men, and 2% of women, are homosexual or bisexual." The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force estimates three to eight percent of both sexes. So who's right -- what percentage of the population is homosexual?

http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=71624


Homosexuals: The Terrible Truth
http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=73827

[natina]

What Percentage of the Population Is Gay?
http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=69844

[Molly D'Vyne]

I think depending on the definition of "straight", the percentage for "not straight" could be a lot higher. (Especially considering that a lot of people consider being attracted to trans women something that falls into the "not straight" category)

[bluesoul]

I think depending on the definition of "straight", the percentage for "not straight" could be a lot higher. (Especially considering that a lot of people consider being attracted to trans women something that falls into the "not straight" category)

+1. i honestly came here to post just this.

[bunzy]

I think depending on the definition of "straight", the percentage for "not straight" could be a lot higher. (Especially considering that a lot of people consider being attracted to trans women something that falls into the "not straight" category)

Those are the ones that didn't come out of the closet yet, they date transsexuals yet they say they're straight.

[robertlouis]

I think depending on the definition of "straight", the percentage for "not straight" could be a lot higher. (Especially considering that a lot of people consider being attracted to trans women something that falls into the "not straight" category)

I'd agree with that up to a point, Molly, but it also goes to show that the stark definitions of straight and gay are totally inadequate when it comes to assessing all the tribes and traits that constitute human sexuality.

The over-simplification of sexual types is yet another way that society and religion choose to divide and rule by making people fear what's different or strange. The world would be so much better if people could embrace others regardless of their choices and above all their natures. We're born the way we are and we can't help it.

[Ben]

Do Gay People Really Make Up 3.5% of the Population?

After years of wild guess and flawed estimations, Gallup has attempted to get some hard data on just how many gay, lesbian, and bisexual people there are in America. So how good are their are numbers?

I've always heard the numbers 1 percent and 10 percent bandied about. I think 10 is too high. And 1 percent seems too low.
3.5 percent sounds about right.... I mean, too, does that include or exclude bisexuals?.... I tend to see myself as being bi.

[wiltthestilt]

I've always heard the numbers 1 percent and 10 percent bandied about. I think 10 is too high. And 1 percent seems too low.
3.5 percent sounds about right.... I mean, too, does that include or exclude bisexuals?.... I tend to see myself as being bi.

It would have to exclude bisexuals. My opinion is the majority of the human race could be bisexual under certain conditions, though I can't prove that conclusively.

Homosexuality, among both men and woman, is not unusual in my opinion. Homosexuals, on other other hand--those who either lack interest in members of the opposite sex or strongly prefer members of their own sex--are unusual. There is nothing wrong with being unusual, but it is odd that people who lack interest in propogating their DNA still exist. If homosexuality is genetic, why wouldn't that trait have long since gone extinct? I'm not aware if there are any animal species in which members consistently select against the opposite sex.

So, I would say the 3.5% of people who are truly homosexual sounds about right in so far as I can tell.

[Molly D'Vyne]

It would have to exclude bisexuals. My opinion is the majority of the human race could be bisexual under certain conditions, though I can't prove that conclusively.

Homosexuality, among both men and woman, is not unusual in my opinion. Homosexuals, on other other hand--those who either lack interest in members of the opposite sex or strongly prefer members of their own sex--are unusual. There is nothing wrong with being unusual, but it is odd that people who lack interest in propogating their DNA still exist. If homosexuality is genetic, why wouldn't that trait have long since gone extinct? I'm not aware if there are any animal species in which members consistently select against the opposite sex.

So, I would say the 3.5% of people who are truly homosexual sounds about right in so far as I can tell.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. I've often wondered if homosexuality within humans and other animals is something we've developed to help control population growth. As something tied to our genetics, and something that is present in so many species... the theory makes sense.

I've personally observed the "most people are bi under the right circumstance" thing myself, but then again it also depends on how you draw the line between straight and bisexual. This is why I'm increasingly becoming a fan of using the terms androphilia, gynephilia, and ambiphilia instead of gay, straight, bi, etc.