Percentage of gay men in the USA

[sickofcrohns]

This NY Times article is pretty interesting: a statistical look at how many out and closeted gay guys there are in each state in the USA.

It's likely that the % of the population that is gay is the same in other countries, though the % closeted is probably different.

 

[nogutsnoglory]

Thanks for sharing the article. Its interesting that they focused on gay men and not lesbians too. Personally I am skeptical over most LGBT statistics because its a hard population to track given that a huge percentage are closeted.

They used to say 10% of the population is gay but I think that is way too high. My guess is its between 3-5% of the overall population. I don't see why it would vary by country but certainly the level of tolerance helps to determine the percentage of those who come out and live authentic lives.

Also, Facebook is not a good measure because many of the gay people I know don't list orientation or relationship status and I know straights who joke about being married to a pal of the same gender on Facebook (this was more the case in high school).

 

[SarahBear]

There no way that article is even close to being accurate. To gain insight into the amount of closeted gay men, they're basing their statistics off of google searches for gay porn, when it's a proven fact that many straight women respond to this type of porn as well. I'd guess the tolerance spectrum is the only thing with any hope of being accurate (although most people in WV I know are very accepting - but I am in the capital city and most of the people I know fit into the same age group).

 

[MikeinBklyn]

The problem is that society is so worried about keeping stats on the gay population. Who should care about how many gay, Jewish, black, asian or any other group there are in a society? My feeling is that there are a lot more gay people in this world than the mainstream would like. We are all the same, period.

Good Luck

 

[sickofcrohns]

If we don't keep good stats, we won't know where the services for those populations are needed. For a look at a first world country in exactly that situation, take France. The official "égalité, liberté, fraternité" line has been taken so literally that France does not ask questions about race or religion on its census, even though it is thought to be home to the largest number of Muslims in Europe, many of whom are visible minorities. Result = lots of underserved areas, no affirmative action programs, and an increasingly segregated society. IMO, better to know who is where and ensure that each population has the services it needs.

 

[nogutsnoglory]

I agree with both of you actually. On one hand it shouldn't matter who someone is, we should all be treated fairly. On the other hand since our society tends to side with majority privilege, it is important to track minority populations for services that are needed.

I think it's much easier to track demographics like race because that can't be hidden, whereas many can and do avoid being open about sexual orientation for obvious reasons. I suppose you could have the same issue with polling on religious groups because minority religious groups subject to discrimination may find many of its members not being honest about their faith so as to avoid undue discrimination.

 

[sickofcrohns]

You should have heard me and one of my best friends expressing frustration at the last census here in Canada. (For the record, I hate what's being done to StatsCan -- I was almost unspeakably angry when the government basically forced the head of StatsCan to quit -- and, yes, the new data is basically garbage).

Our particular beef, aside from all of the data quality issues mentioned in the articles I linked above, is that being Jewish is counted as a religion and not an ethnicity. We are both from small towns (her in the USA, me in Canada) and never felt particularly religious, but have experienced our share of antisemitism, etc. We are invisible minorities (and, of course, I'm doubly so, with the Crohn's -- another thing that tends to fall through the cracks when surveys about disability are done).

Anyway, just the way things are phrased can cause really inaccurate results.

My 2 cents.

 

[nogutsnoglory]

That's definitely a challenge with Judaism, it is a religion because it's a belief system and people can convert to it but the majority of members are of the same ethnic heritage. While all Jews, those born or those who converted are subject to discrimination as a minority, only the ethnic portion shares the health issues that plague many Eastern European Jews, fun conditions like crohns and Colitis which is exponentially higher In the Jewish community. I can definitely see an issue in terms of stats collection and monitoring the population for health trends.