Amerins Still Greatly Overtimate U.S. Gay Populatn

Contents:

• WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY [UPDATED MAY 2023]
• AMERINS STILL GREATLY OVERTIMATE U.S. GAY POPULATN
• WHAT PERCENT OF THE POPULATN IS GAY? MORE THAN YOU THK
• HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?
• AMERINS VASTLY OVERTIMATE SIZE OF GAY POPULATN, GALLUP POLL REVEALS
• AMERINS HAVE NO IA HOW FEW GAY PEOPLE THERE ARE
• IS 10% OF THE POPULATN REALLY GAY?
• GAY AMERINS: GOVERNMENT BEGS LGBT POPULATN COUNT

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY [UPDATED MAY 2023]

The variants are more clive of all dividuals who are non-heterosexual and non-cisgenr stead of exclively applyg to people who are lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr. For example, one set of qutns may seek self-reported data on same-sex sexual experienc, while another set may seek data surroundg personal intifitn as lbian, gay, or bisexual. Other stat wh LGBTQ+ protectns, such as Massachetts and Colorado, also have higher timated populatns of gay, lbian, bisexual, and otherwise non-heterosexual dividuals.

AMERINS STILL GREATLY OVERTIMATE U.S. GAY POPULATN

As Gallup poted out s ial timate of the entire LGBT populatn 2012, "Exactly who mak up the LGBT muny and how this group should be measured is a subject of some bate, " and "there are a number of ways to measure lbian, gay, and bisexual orientatn, and transgenr stat. Are far lower than what the public timat, and no measurement procre has produced any figur suggtg that more than one out of five Amerins are gay or lbian.

Among polil partisans, Democrats and pennts timate that about a quarter of Amerins are gay or lbian, while the average approximatn among Republins is a b lower (18. It is, therefore, possible that Amerins' perceptns of the gay populatn may be fluenced by the greater reprentatn they see among young people.

Back 1948 sex rearcher Aled Ksey famoly suggted that 10 percent of the mal he'd studied were, quote, "more or ls exclively homosexual, " unquote.

WHAT PERCENT OF THE POPULATN IS GAY? MORE THAN YOU THK

Also, the Ksey Instute has - which is the legacy of Ksey - has stated very clearly that their view is that this was a kd of a polil cisn of gay activists the '70s.

And they took that rather obscure passage om a Ksey book, which was never tend to be an timate of the number of gay people the Uned Stat and kd of adopted for polil purpos. The most important takeaway isn’t a fal tally of the gay people society, but, rather, an unrstandg of the ways which surveys and other existg attempts to measure such thgs might be slightly misleadg.

“The rults show non-heterosexualy and anti-gay sentiment are substantially unrtimated existg surveys, and the privacy afford by current bt practic is not always sufficient to elimate bias, ” note the rearchers, who were jt lookg at the way surveys might unr-unt both homosexualy and attus toward homosexualy.

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?

Increasg numbers of populatn-based surveys the Uned Stat and across the world clu qutns that allow for an timate of the size of the lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) populatn.

Unrstandg the size of the lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) populatn is a cril first step to rmg a host of public policy and rearch topics. In measurg sexual orientatn, lbian, gay, and bisexual dividuals may be intified strictly based on their self-inty or may be possible to nsir same-sex sexual behavr or sexual attractn. Fdgs shown Figure 1 nsir timat of the percentage of adults who self-intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual across ne surveys nducted wh the past seven years.

AMERINS VASTLY OVERTIMATE SIZE OF GAY POPULATN, GALLUP POLL REVEALS

While the surveys show a fairly wi variatn the overall percentage of adults who intify as LGB, the proportn who intify as lbian/gay vers bisexual is somewhat more nsistent (see Figure 2). The Natnal Survey of Fay Growth found rults that were sentially the oppose of the UK survey wh only 38% intifyg as lbian or gay pared to 62% intifyg as bisexual.

The Natnal Survey of Sexual Health and Behavr and the Atralian Longudal Study of Health and Relatnships both found a majory of rponnts (55% and 59%, rpectively) intifyg as surveys show even greater nsistency differenc between men and women associated wh lbian/gay vers bisexual inty.

AMERINS HAVE NO IA HOW FEW GAY PEOPLE THERE ARE

The cens survey, for example, asks rponnts to choose which bt reprents how they thk of themselv: “gay or lbian”; “bisexual”; “somethg else”; “I don’t know”; or “straight, that is not gay or lbian. Over one-fifth of LGBTQ rponnts, or 21 percent, are gay, 14 percent are lbian, 10 percent are transgenr and 4 percent intify as somethg else. In the 1940s, the Ksey Report helped flate the size of the gay populatn people's mds: Aled Ksey mataed sexualy was fluid, claimg that 13 percent of men were "predomately homosexual" for at least three years between ag 16 and 55.

He also reported that at least 37 percent of men and 20 percent of women had some same-sex experience between the begng of adolcence and old the 1970s, the Natnal Gay and Lbian Taskforce cnched Ksey's data and touted the statistic that 10 percent of the populatn was homosexual. ) Many people are still closeted to some gree, but Gallup reports "no measurement procre has produced any figur suggtg that more than one out of five Amerins are gay or lbian.

IS 10% OF THE POPULATN REALLY GAY?

And 's among the most mon figur poted to popular culture as an timate of how many people are gay or what percentage of the populatn is actually gay or lbian?

Wh the bate over same-sex marriage aga an emergg flt le Amerin polil life, the answer as a surprise: A lower number than you might thk -- and a much, much, much lower one than most Amerins surveys nducted 2002 and 2011, pollsters at Gallup found that members of the Amerin public massively overtimated how many people are gay or lbian. By 2011, that misperceptn had only grown, wh more than a third of those surveyed now gusg that more than 25 percent of Amerins are gay or lbian. Only 4 percent of all those surveyed 2011 and about 8 percent of those surveyed 2002 rrectly gused that fewer than 5 percent of Amerins intify as gay or a misunrstandg of the basic mographics of sexual behavr and inty Ameri has potentially profound implitns for the acceptance of the gay-rights agenda.

On the one hand, people who overtimate the percent of gay Amerins by a factor of 12 seem likely to also wildly overtimate the cultural impact of same-sex marriage. On the other hand, the extraordary nfn over the percentage of gay people may reflect a triumph of the gay and lbian movement's s-long fight agast visibily and the closet. "We are a small mory, and we will never have full equaly whout the support of the majory, and a poll like that suggts the majory is extremely aware of their gay neighbors, workers, and iends.

GAY AMERINS: GOVERNMENT BEGS LGBT POPULATN COUNT

"In recent years, as homosexualy has bee ls stigmatized, pro-gay rights groups have e around to acknowledgg that a smaller percent of people intify themselv as gay than some of the early gay rights rhetoric claimed, based on Aled Ksey's 1948 report, "Sexualy the Human Male. " His survey rearch on non-random populatns the immediate post-World War II perd nclud that 10 percent of men "were predomantly homosexual between the ag of 16 and 55" and that 37 percent had had at least one homosexual experience their liv, but did not get to qutns of inty per se. Far om unrtimatg the ranks of gay people bee of homophobia, the figur clud a substantial number of people who remaed eply closeted, such as a quarter of the bisexuals.