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Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

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Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#61

Post by lonelappde »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #59
djdidf wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your an urbanite you have a huge observational bias simply if you accept that rural homosexuals are more likely to migrate to the city. Reason for the migration include less discrimination, but also higher concentration (making hooking up easier). Therefore your perceived rate of homosexuality would be grater. For what it’s worth the self reported rate of 5 percent is the same when I first cared to look it up, abo…

I dislike to come across as overly sensitive, but I dislike how clinical sounding "homosexual" is. Just say gay people or LGBT. It isn't a condition. The DSM was wrong for a long period of time.

LGBT doesn't mean homosexual. Gay doesn't mean homosexual. Homosexual means LG.

Scientific terms are not value judgements.

Don't worry about how you come across, worry about how you are.

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#62

Post by devoply »

dahart wrote: post #54

> Americans' estimate of the proportion of gay people in the U.S. is more than five times Gallup's more encompassing 2017 estimate that 4.5% of Americans are LGBT, based on respondents' self-identification as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. I would have guess it was around 10%, because I’ve read that number from several sources before, so 4.5% is a surprise. Today I also learned that the 10% number I’d r…

Or that youth is experimenting before they decide one way or another.

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#65

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

lonelappde wrote: post #61
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dislike to come across as overly sensitive, but I dislike how clinical sounding "homosexual" is. Just say gay people or LGBT. It isn't a condition. The DSM was wrong for a long period of time.

LGBT doesn't mean homosexual. Gay doesn't mean homosexual. Homosexual means LG. Scientific terms are not value judgements. Don't worry about how you come across, worry about how you are.

To be fair, I think it can be difficult to appreciate how it sounds if you aren't LGBT. If you're straight, you haven't been exposed to being demoralized because of your sexual orientation.

I understand the perfectly valid scientific use of it-- I'm just saying that sometimes people weaponize it. When you come across anti-gay rhetoric, it almost never uses the word 'gay'. It has phrases like "the homosexual agenda". The wording is specifically chosen to imply the group is lesser than others.

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#66

Post by frittig »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #30
reaperducer wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporations are cashing in on the trend This is true. But it's also true that companies are afraid of being "corp-shamed" on the internet. No marketing or PR department wants to answer the question, "Why don't you support xyz!" on the internet. Steve Jobs didn't have a Reality Distortion Field half as powerful as Twitter.

I don't have any issue with companies taking no stand, so long as they don't have negative impact on the LGBT community through political contributions. Do people genuinely _expect_ Apple, et. al. to proactively support LGBT rights? I think it's asking a bit much, but also, I'm no marketing expert. I get that people want to associate with brands that they feel can 'get them'. And brands can freely choose what they id…

Apparently people expect the US embassy to fly the pride flag on the official flag pole.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/11/mike...

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#67

Post by beastlyDykes »

gus_massa wrote: post #39
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm now kind of curious if Hacker News has a policy on usernames (with respect to the standards applied to comments).

In somewhat similar cases, if the mods see it or if someone sends an email to the mods, the account got banned. hn@ycombinator.com

@webkike

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#68

Post by nvrspyx »

ambicapter wrote: post #36
throwaway5752 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think, "The level of influence that LGBTQ currently has in the American mind share far outsizes their population". They gained marriage equality only 4 years ago. They are underrepresented in Congress (10/535, about 42% of expected representation based on the 4.5% number cited in the article). Same sex relationships have only been decriminalized for less than 50 years. By any standards they are a historically opp…

> They gained marriage equality only 4 years ago. Gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts in 2004.

How obtuse. It’s clear they were talking about at the federal level, nationwide (i.e. 06/26/2015)

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#69

Post by sgentle »

codingslave wrote: post #6

If 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 menti…

I would be jaw-on-the-floor shocked if you were banned for your comment, and I think the suggestion otherwise gives your ideas a "too hot for HN" cachet that they haven't earned. There is no evil empire hunting down the renegade free-thinkers who dare to say that LGBT activism is disproportionately influential. If anything, that's the whole point.

"We're here, we're queer" isn't just a catchy rhyme, it's a statement of purpose: the problem isn't just discrimination and violence, but marginalisation. If you can treat a person as an outlier and the group they represent as a rounding error, it's easy to justify mistreating them. I mean, there are always a few angry weirdos who show up at the town hall, right? Just ignore them and they'll go away.

So why throw huge flamboyant parades? Why make flags and shirts and bumper stickers? Why force us to think about them? Well, I can probably name a bunch of groups that you aren't forced to think about, and are doing far worse because of it. That's activism. Being aware of something is a prerequisite to caring about it.

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#70

Post by nisuni »

codingslave wrote: post #6

If 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 menti…

Thanks for speaking out! I totally agree with you!!
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