Amerins Still Greatly Overtimate U.S. Gay Populatn

Contents:

• WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY?
• AMERINS STILL GREATLY OVERTIMATE U.S. GAY POPULATN
• HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY?

In his 1948 book, Sexual Behavr the Human Male, Aled Ksey shocked the world by announcg that 10% of the male populatn is gay. A 1993 Jan Report timated that ne percent of men and five percent of women had more than "ocsnal" homosexual relatnships. Furthermore, many people have trouble admtg their homosexualy to themselv, much ls to a rearcher.

But when Gallup asked Amerins for their bt timate of the Amerin gay and lbian populatn, the rults ma all the figur mentned above look nservative. In Augt 2002*, Gallup asked Amerins, an open-end format, to timate the percentage of Amerin men and the percentage of Amerin women who are homosexual. In fact, roughly a quarter of the public thks more than 25% of men and 25% of women are homosexual.

AMERINS STILL GREATLY OVERTIMATE U.S. GAY POPULATN

Male rponnts tend to give lower timat of both the male and female homosexual populatn than female rponnts do. Somewhat tertgly, both sex believe there are more homosexuals the oppose sex than their own sex. Before the 1980s, the few reprentatns of homosexualy popular culture tend to nsist of potentially dangero social viants (thk Norman Bat Psycho).

Sce then, however, the portrayal of gay characters pop culture have bee far more numero and mostly posive.

In the last 10 years, the number of Amerins sayg they feel homosexualy should be nsired an acceptable alternative liftyle has gone om 38% (June 1992) to 51% (May 2002). "Seeg ourselv reflected posively enurag gay people to e out, " said Cathy Renna, news media director for the Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn (GLAAD). " If you doubt that Ellen, Rosie and others have had an effect on Amerins' acceptance of homosexualy, nsir this -- MTV and Showtime are about to lnch a ble channel directed at the homosexual market.

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

Whether creased acceptance of homosexualy has led to an upsurge the number of posive media portrayals of gay characters or vice versa, one rult seems to be that Amerins now tend to overtimate the gay populatn Ameri.

While most expert timat place Ameri's homosexual populatn at 10% or ls, Amerins tend to gus that the number is higher, around 20%.

*Rults based on telephone terviews wh 489 (for those timatg percentag of lbian women) and 518 (for those timatg percentag of gay men) nducted May 6-9, 2002.

5% of Amerins are LGBT, based on rponnts' self-intifitn as beg lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr.

In 2002, Gallup asked Amerins to timate the proportn of men and women who are gay or lbian, rpectively. 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.

" Th, Gallup's methodology is not the only way to timate the percentage of the populatn that is gay or lbian. 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. This analysis foc on whether people around the world thk that homosexualy should be accepted by society or not.