Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population
news.gallup.com
Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population
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Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population
#2[deleted]
Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population
#3Is it possible that what you're seeing in this data is less about inaccuracy and more about how comfortably out people are?
It says the estimates skew greater for younger people and women responding. Well are younger people and women more likely to know which of their friends are LGBT, because of a host of societal reasons that tend to influence men or older folks to wall off their feelings and communicate less about such things?
I'm just saying, having lived in more than a dozen locations in five states and a Canadian province for the past several decades, the 4.5% number feels low to me (as in, impossibly so).
Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population
#4Is it possible that what you're seeing in this data is less about inaccuracy and more about how comfortably out people are? It says the estimates skew greater for younger people and women responding. Well are younger people and women more likely to know which of their friends are LGBT, because of a host of societal reasons that tend to influence men or older folks to wall off their feelings and communicate less about…
4.5% self-report as LGBT. That's an important distinction to make, and I too would be surprised if it's accurate.
Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population
#5[deleted]
Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population
#6If you look at pride month and the level of marketing and news associated with it, one would estimate that the gay population is huge. Nearly every major corporation on linkedin has a rainbow logo, my uber the other day showed their ride path as a rainbow. The level of influence that LGBTQ currently has in the American mind share far outsizes their population, even now I am worried my account will be banned for mentioning this.
I have actually had many people from different walks of life mention this in the last month, people are taking note.
Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population
#7How can we be certain the "actual" U.S. Gay population is 4.5% of the population? We know not everyone who is LGBT is out or identifies on these surveys.
Sure, there's undeniably a large cap between ~20% and 4.5%. But it's kind of meaningless to say what the absolute difference is, if we can't be certain how many remain closeted.
Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population
#8The media skews everything. Almost every TV show has a homosexual character, a black computer programmer, and an ass-kicking female martial arts expert. Hollywood has to parade its ideals, after all.
And to some extent, it's showing you how urban sophisticates view their own world, amplifying the same skew.
I remember some really old poll from a NYC high school (decades ago) in which the students estimated the Jewish population of the US at 50 percent, and the black population of the US at 50 percent. Because that was very close to the surrounding neighborhood's actual demographics. Even math like to stay local.
Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population
#9Is it possible that what you're seeing in this data is less about inaccuracy and more about how comfortably out people are? It says the estimates skew greater for younger people and women responding. Well are younger people and women more likely to know which of their friends are LGBT, because of a host of societal reasons that tend to influence men or older folks to wall off their feelings and communicate less about…
> the 4.5% number feels low to me (as in, impossibly so).
I think it's contextual to location. A lot of LGBT people move to cities for acceptance. If you live in a big city, you're more liking to know relatively more LGBT people than if you lived in a rural or suburban area.
Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population
#10Is it possible that what you're seeing in this data is less about inaccuracy and more about how comfortably out people are? It says the estimates skew greater for younger people and women responding. Well are younger people and women more likely to know which of their friends are LGBT, because of a host of societal reasons that tend to influence men or older folks to wall off their feelings and communicate less about…
4.5% self-report as LGBT. That's an important distinction to make, and I too would be surprised if it's accurate.
Also, the "what's your estimate" question specifies "gay or lesbian", whereas the self-identity question apparently includes the B and T. Obviously this would make the high estimate for just "gay or lesbian" even further off, but it still doesn't say anything good about the article's conclusion.