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Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

news.gallup.com

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Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#71

Post by vinay427 »

mynameishere wrote: post #8

The 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…

I'm not sure what ideals "Hollywood" is parading. You'd have a hard time finding a non-stereotypical character played by someone of one of various minority ethnicities, for example.

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#72

Post by masonic »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #16
wool_gather wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe a minor point, but I think sexual fluidity remains under-addressed by these polls. Some people are, for all intents and purposes, identifying as LGBT during, say, their college years, but then go on to settle down with an opposite-sex spouse. If the person once identified as LGBT, but doesn't today, is it based on what they "actively" are? Or if you ever once identified as LGBT, for purposes of polling, you rem…

  sexual fluidity
Based on your context, "sexual preference fluidity" would be the appropriate term.

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#73

Post by belorn »

sgentle wrote: post #69
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…

Marginalisation is the big problem. An other community comes in mind that is currently only allowed to congregate in small designated reservation where the general public is warned of their presence. The size of that demographic is estimated to be bigger than the LGBT community and yet holds no political influence and I doubt there has been a single US presidential candidate in history that given them positive focus on the political agenda. Most seems happy to regard them as a few weirdos that can be kept out of sight and mind from the rest of society. LGBT activism and in particular the pride parade are good examples of how to break out of such public perception.

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#74

Post by mikedilger »

trackofalljades wrote: post #3

Is 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 30% figures others have mentioned seem high to me (as in, impossibly so).

I left the US in 2005. My gay friends and many in the gay community in S.F. estimated amongst themselves at the time that about 10% of people were gay or lesbian, while the general public estimates were more like 4%. They estimated higher because they knew people who were not out of the closet. But even the gay community didn't think it so high as 30%.

I gather that there is some kind of virtue signal "brownie points" thing going on in the US now (from what I read, I'm not there and perhaps I've been mislead, If I'm wrong I'm wrong, no offense intended) which makes people behave in ways designed to signal virtue to each other for social brownie points, and perhaps this is what is contributing to these high estimations. This new social norm disproportionally affects younger people and women.

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#75

Post by parineum »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #65
lonelappde wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 preferred word of the ingroup will become the insult from the outgroup while the ingroup settles on a new term and round and round.

You can't really expect the written word to use the current preferred term.

The problem is never the words, it's the person behind them.

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#76

Post by BorRagnarok »

That must be because of the over promotion of LGBT then.

Also look at this: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/24/lgbtq-a...

"Young people are growing less tolerant of LGBTQ individuals, ... , a survey released Monday shows."

Because the promotion and attention seeking is everywhere, people think it's everywhere. That's why we're starting to see it backfiring now. And, lots of parents just don't want that message broadcasted to their kids all the time, at least not until they're a certain age. Parents realize the whole 'having a weewee doesn't make you a boy' story can be extremely harmful to young children. And so they teach their children to ignore those influences when they encounter them. That starts to reflect now in polls and attitudes.

I bet on the LGBT community to start fighting even harder for tolerance again though, because the activists (who do all the speaking) seem to be quite incapable of self reflection and self examination.

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#77

Post by stevenicr »

djdidf wrote: post #47
trackofalljades wrote: post #3

Is 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…

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…

The second thing I thought / wondered... 'do most people underestimate how many rural or and suburban people are out there?' - if most people polled are from well internet-connected areas and skew mostly urban cities, it might not be overestimating for the area as opposed to underestimating the amount of people that are not city dwellers. Maybe another poll is needed or has been done. /random-thought

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#79

Post by djdidf »

Grue3 wrote: post #78

Alternative headline: Gallup greatly underestimates US Gay Population.

Sure, but you better have research to back it up. Gallup has theirs.

Honestly I don’t know why 5% is controversial. It’s one in twenty. 25% would be one in four. Do you really know one in four homosexuals unless you live in, say, San Fran?

Re: Americans Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population

#80

Post by djdidf »

Geimfari wrote: post #40
mynameishere wrote: post #8

The 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…

I would actually be interested in seeing a crude analysis of this, because I don't know if there is a skew or if we just tend to notice the things that break our expectations. There are a few recent shows where a gay character is a part of the core ensemble, but I'm not sure gay characters are overall more than 1 out of every 30.

Few shows have casts in the 30s. It’s almost unheard of.

What modern show doesn’t have a gay character within its main cast?

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