Most people guess a much higher percentage, and if the poll was restricted to the under-30s, the number would likely be at least twice as high. The poll is a few years old now, but it points out that most Americans over-estimate the number of gays and lesbians in the population:
The American public estimates on average that 23% of Americans are gay or lesbian, little changed from Americans’ 25% estimate in 2011, and only slightly higher than separate 2002 estimates of the gay and lesbian population. These estimates are many times higher than the 3.8% of the adult population who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in Gallup Daily tracking in the first four months of this year.
The stability of these estimates over time contrasts with the major shifts in Americans’ attitudes about the morality and legality of gay and lesbian relations in the past two decades. Whereas 38% of Americans said gay and lesbian relations were morally acceptable in 2002, that number has risen to 63% today. And while 35% of Americans favored legalized same-sex marriage in 1999, 60% favor it today.
The U.S. Census Bureau documents the number of individuals living in same-sex households but has not historically identified individuals as gay or lesbian per se. Several other surveys, governmental and non-governmental, have over the years measured sexual orientation, but the largest such study by far has been the Gallup Daily tracking measure instituted in June 2012. In this ongoing study, respondents are asked “Do you, personally, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender?” with 3.8% being the most recent result, obtained from more than 58,000 interviews conducted in the first four months of this year.
H/T to Gari Garion for the link.
This is just solid proof that if a narrative is pushed hard enough it normalizes. When every other story is about the alphabet people (no, not google et al) you think that they represent a greater portion of the population. It isn’t true, but that isn’t the point. Raising the profile and acceptability is the point. I have nothing against the alphabet people, but it is absurd how it has expanded of the last few years from Gays and Lesbians (are lesbians not gay?) to LGB, to LGBTQLMNOPect. Ridiculous, this isn’t human sexuality any more, this is mental gymnastics and trying to find more outrageous examples of the absurd. One of the latest is the woman who married a spirit. And they are writing a book together! If that isn’t a real indication of some mental illness, I don’t know what is, but because it has sexuality overtones she is allowed to run free, and not be caught in the butterfly net and placed in a padded room.
Thinking you are fat and starving yourself is a mental illness, thinking you are a woman when you are a man gets you hormones and surgery. And people don’t see the similarity and the problems with this.
Comment by Dwayne — February 17, 2018 @ 14:04
I settled on using the “LGBT” tag, but apparently it’s grown a lot longer – http://quotulatiousness.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP.jpg
Comment by Nicholas — February 17, 2018 @ 15:20