7 ms·
4.5% self-report as LGBT. That's an important distinction to make, and I too would be surprised if it's accurate.
by m0th87 7y ago
4.5% self-report as LGBT. That's an important distinction to make, and I too would be surprised if it's accurate.
- wool_gather 7y agoAlso, 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.
- JMTQp8lwXL 7y agoMaybe 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 remain in that category for life?
- meruru 7y agoNot a minor point at all. I think sexual fluidity is one of the most relevant aspects of sexuality and I would love to see it measured. Labels like "Gay" and "Bi" are way too simplistic.
- fuzz4lyfe 7y agoThe medical terminology is better, its often "Men who have sex with men" or something similar that removes the need to understand the subjects mental state and simply focus on the important clinical data.
- meruru 7y agoThat's better, but doesn't separate men who have sex with manly men from those who only have sex with traps. It also excludes those who don't have sex at all for one reason or another.
- masonic 7y agosexual fluidity Based on your context, "sexual preference fluidity" would be the appropriate term.
- meruru 7y agoWhat's the ambiguity here? For self-identity matters we already have the expression "gender fluidity".
- notJim 7y agoIt's risen by 1 percentage point since 2012 when they started tracking this, and for millennials, the number is around 8.2%. They don't seem to have data for zoomers yet. [1] This would suggest (imo) that 4.5% is in fact a significant underestimate, but I don't know necessarily that it's as far off as 20% [1]: https://news.gallup.com/poll/234863/estimate-lgbt-population-rises.aspx?g_source=link_newsv9&g_campaign=item_259571&g_medium=copy https://news.gallup.com/poll/234863/estimate-lgbt-population...
- brandmeyer 7y agoIts also important to remember that as humans we tend to vastly over-estimate the incidence of relatively rare things. We tend to think that something happens based on how often we encounter it, without considering the total number of encounters. 4.5% is about 1 in 22. 8.2% is 1 in 12. Even accounting for the fact that most LGBT people are as private about their sexuality as straight people are, its often enough that you're likely to encounter LGBT people on a frequent basis.