Perhaps we should put her in charge of counting LGBT people.
People ask it all the time: “How many people are gay?” (Yes, I know, it’s LGBT. But let’s face it, for most people one syllable always trumps four.) The truth is, no one really knows.
Many people default to the most widely repeated number, one in ten. Taken from Alfred Kinsey’s studies in the ‘40s and ‘50s, it’s one of those numbers that’s been repeated so often it’s taken on a life of it’s own. Unfortunately, like the idea that the Dallas Cowboys are “America’s team” or peoples kidneys are being stolen, it’s just not true.(1) Love it or hate it, this 10 percent number has been debunked time and time again as an accurate reflection of America’s LGBT population.
For one thing, Kinsey himself was a practitioner of atypical sexual practices. Hate to say it, but he seems to have had an agenda.(2) Part of it being that since 10 percent is a fairly large number, it makes it “more acceptable” for people to be LGBT. Because let’s face it, if it’s a discount you can get at JC Penney, it’s got to be good.
So what is the number, then?
It looks to be closer to 3.8 percent, or about 1 in 25.(3) This is based on a UCLA study in 2011 that showed about 9 million people identifying themselves as LGBT. Of course, even this number seems to be fungible when you change the definition of gay.(4)
For instance, if you’re asking if people identify with one of the LGBT labels, the number stays near 4 percent. However, if you define it as having same-sex attraction or behaviors, the number goes back to near one in ten.(3) You say to-MAY-to, I say to-MAH-to, let’s all get flippin’ confused.
It also, of course, varies by where you live in the country. Some states and cities have more LGBT people than others. As you might expect, some places are just loaded with LGBT people, like Atlanta and South Dakota
Huh?
Yep, according The Williams Institute -- the researching bunch at UCLA -- about 1 in eight people in Atlanta are LGBT. Third only to San Francisco and Seattle. And in South Dakota, 4.4 percent of the state’s population identify themselves as LGBT, putting them eighth out of the 50 states.(6)
Didn’t see that coming, did ya? We’re everywhere!
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, Georgia’s largest city isn’t having that gay of a time. For when you consider actual metropolitan areas, Boston now takes third on the list and Atlanta isn’t even on there.(6) Don’t have a gay ol’ time in Georgia’s bigger‘ burbs, I guess.
Still, I think the presence of so many LGBT people in non-stereotypic areas is a good thing. Kentucky at no. 12, Kansas at no. 20 - that blows my mind - clearly, no matter where you live in the country there are plenty of LGBT people willing to be identified as such.
Better -- as I’ve noted in other columns -- as LGBT people get more accepted in society, more people will become comfortable with LGBT labels.(5) There is some proof this is already happening as a recent poll found Americans think 25 percent of their neighbors are LGBT.(7)
No wonder the closet was so full.
Yes, in just half-a-century we’ve gone from not even existing to taking up a quarter of the seats in the Taco Bell. Clearly, this is ridiculous. Most LGBT people know better than to eat Taco Bell. (Like most mammals.)
How in the world is this one-in-four number possible? Do Americans have a latent ability that lets the average American know when people are gay when even they themselves don’t know? Now that’s gaydar. They should put these people to work scanning for stealth bombers.
The truth is, the numbers within the survey don’t draw a complete picture about why people perceive more LGBT people than there actually are. For while “those with lower incomes, the less educated, women, and young people give the highest estimates,” nothing else really stands out.(7)
For instance, people identifying themselves as “liberals,” “moderates” or “conservatives” all fall less than three percentage points from one another, averaging 24.8 percent. Even social conservatives think more than one in five people is LGBT. Whether this is fear of being overrun, expanding social networks, or accidentally watching “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is hard to say.
So, to sum up: There don’t appear to be as many LGBT people as many people assume there are. But there do appear to be more than there used to be, as people broaden their understanding of their own thoughts and behaviors. Especially in places where you might not think there are that many LGBT people to begin with.
Clear as mud.
Clearly, what’s needed is some type of official count of the LGBT people in this country. Some type of - what’s the word? - census. That would be great…and there’s no plans for it to happen.
Currently, the official U.S. Census doesn’t ask about LGBT status. Yes, they do try to identify same sex couples, but their methodology is so scattershot that they had to revise it from 900,000 to 650,000. (8)
This is a margin of error of nearly 40 percent. My daughter does better than that.(9) When corporate bean-counters are off by that much they get fired. Clearly, better information is needed.
Or not. Because even though LGBT concerns and issues are of increasing importance to many Americans, “Currently there are no plans to add questions on sexual orientation to the Census Bureau's main demographic surveys,” said one official at the U.S. Census Bureau.(10)
Thanks for caring. Maybe we should ask my daughter to do it when she’s done counting parking spaces.
As always, however, there is hope, oddly enough from that same U.S. Census Bureau. “Questions are generally added to our major surveys as information is needed to satisfy legislative requirements, or fill a programmatic need at a federal agency,” said an official at the U.S. Census Bureau.(10)
Now, was this a different official? Yes, and you should always be wary when this happens, as when one parent says ‘Yes” and the other says “No.” They’re going to have to work it out between themselves you get anything. (With luck, that never means Taco Bell.)
In the end, however, I’d like to think the key words in that second statement are: “need at a Federal agency.” As more and more Federal government programs and systems have to deal with the recognition of same-sex marriage, I would think this data is going to be key. Data that you can only get by actually asking people.
And that’s something I’m 100 percent sure of.
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REFERENCES
1) Top 10 Urban Legends & Myths
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-urban-legends-myths.php
1a) People should not feel bad about assuming this one in ten number is true. If Americans have proven to be adept at anything, it’s believing anything that is repeated enough times.
1b) What they should feel bad about is acting on those things. Stop being afraid of lizards in the sewers, Coca-Cola and wandering surgeons.
2) 10% of Americans are gay -- urban myth explored
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/huston/060314
3) Gay Population Statistics: How Many Gay People Are There?
http://gaylife.about.com/od/comingout/a/population.htm
4) Isn’t fungible a great word? Seriously. It means: “able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable.”
https://www.google.com/search?q=definition%3A+fungible&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS504US507&oq=definition%3A+fungible&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.6586j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
5) Not that labeling’s necessarily a good thing or a less confusing one. As I’ve noted, just trying to define what those labels mean causes many people’s heads to explode. (http://rainabowe.weebly.com/2/archives/09-2013/1.html) But for the purposes of counting people, it does make things a bit less confusing. It’s why I don’t tell my daughter the giant handicapped spaces in the parking lot only count as one.
6) LGBT demographics of the United Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_demographics_of_the_United_States
7) U.S. Adults Estimate That 25% of Americans Are Gay or Lesbian
http://www.gallup.com/poll/147824/adults-estimate-americans-gay-lesbian.aspx
8) Census Bureau revises down same-sex couples figures
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/27/us/census-same-sex-couples/index.html?_s=PM:US
9) Assuming she can stop when she runs out of fingers and toes.
10) Does the LGBT community count? Not on the census
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=214775