February 15, 2013

"LGBT Percentage Highest in D.C., Lowest in North Dakota."

"All states are within 2 percentage points of the overall national average of 3.5%."

A Gallup poll, with the question asking how "you, personally, identify," so there could be regional variation in how likely people are to "identify" — as opposed to actually be — L, G, B, or T.

63 comments:

Oso Negro said...

But where's the "Q"?

Ann Althouse said...

"But where's the "Q"?"

My question too!

Methadras said...

Q? As in for queer? Wouldn't that be self-evident somewhere in the L or the G? or is it now being defined as anyone outside of the norm of society? If that's the case, why is this even a recognized attribute of sexuality? This is getting dumber by the day to be honest.

el polacko said...

there will never be a way to count the percentage of gay folks. there are so many men "on the down low" who have sex with men but still consider themselves to be straight...and others who may have sex exclusively with men or are a little bit bi one way or the other but just don't like to place themselves into any particular category and those who simply would not discuss their sex lives with any pollster or the government...or would lie. we'll always just have rough...VERY rough...estimates that tack to the low percentage side of what is the reality.

edutcher said...

According to Wiki (I know...), there's:

a "U" for "unsure"; a "C" for "curious"; an "I" for "intersex"; another "T" for "transsexual" or "transvestite"; another "T", "TS", or "2" for "Two‐Spirit" persons; an "A" or "SA" for "straight allies"; or an "A" for "asexual". Some may also add a "P" for "pansexual" or "polyamorous", an "H" for "HIV-affected", and/or an "O" for "other", "F" from Fetish
so we've also got CUITAPHOF2.

Anybody wanna bet a lot are just trying to be hip?

el polacko said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
el polacko said...

p.s....i thought i read recently that the highest (self-reported) number of gay folks reside, not in san fran as one might assume, but in houston. don't recall any mention of d.c...but, considering the large black population there, there's undoubtably lots of that 'down low' activity goin' on.

Mark said...

Most states appear to have at least a couple % of people who were not willing to say either yes or no.

Kind of a problem if you are trying to define absolute % of straight vs. Not-straight and yet states like Mass have as many 'no answer' as LGBT identified.

I would guess that looking at the 'answers No' category as the more valid one of the two stats displayed.

Bob R said...

I'd assume that there would be more variation in "identification" than in actual practice, so I'm surprised that the 2% variation in the state-by-state average is as small as it is. If you are gay and live in a small town the number of potential partners is small or nonexistent. Straight people leave small towns to find compatible mates, gay people have far more motivation to do so.

There are about 10 people per square mile in North Dakota, so about at the national average that comes to about .35 people to caver LGBTQWERTY. Not a lot to go around.

Unknown said...

Wiki could cover all the permutations with Q right?

Titus said...

No linky Mary.

Known Unknown said...

Columbus, Ohio has a very sizable and visual gay community. Oh, and a large Somalian population, too.

They get along swell.

Michael K said...

Laguna Beach and Belmont Shores/Naples in Long Beach are big gay communities. One reason is that there are many small expensive houses in both areas and, like San Francisco, that draws gays who have no children and like stylish locations. Maybe that will change with "gay marriage" but I doubt it.

Roadkill said...

Edutcher points out that "P" is for pansexual or polyamorous. Well, fine, but what about Pedophiles and Pederasts? Don't they deserve some public recognition and affirmation of their identity in the alphabet soup rubric of sexual preferences?

madAsHell said...

Maybe it's the proximity to hard work vs. hand outs?

Sam L. said...

ShouldN't it be LGBTQWERTYUIOP[]

The rest of the top row needs to be in the game, too.

Henry said...

Anybody wanna bet a lot are just trying to be hip?

Uh huh.

Gib: [slams Lance against a wall after a conversation with the Sure Thing] You told her I was a virgin?
Lance: So I exaggerated a little. Girls like virgins. They find them a challenge.
Gib: She thought I was gay!
Lance: It's a bigger challenge.

edutcher said...

Roadkill said...

Edutcher points out that "P" is for pansexual or polyamorous. Well, fine, but what about Pedophiles and Pederasts?

"S" for Stereosexual (thank you, Victor Buono).

"K" for Kids or "N" for NAMBLA?

chickelit said...

Roadkill said...
Well, fine, but what about Pedophiles and Pederasts? Don't they deserve some public recognition and affirmation of their identity in the alphabet soup rubric of sexual preferences?

Laws vs. traditions, Roadkill.

Pedophiles and pedarasts are still outside the law. The other alphabetic "characters" are outside of tradition, but because traditions are passed down within families, and because there is a war on traditional families, only law will prevail.
Give it time.

chickelit said...

I don't watch a lot of network TV but I was under the impression that 1 in 10 people were G or L.

chickelit said...

Certainly within the Althouse commentariat the, the number seems to be about 1 in 10.

Maybe Althouse should do a pole.

Unknown said...

No poles please.

bagoh20 said...

I bet the highest concentration of lesbians is in the hobby/vocation of dog rescue. I'm swimming in them. Most of them I love, but I think my chronic bachelorosity is due to this problem with time management.

Titus said...

Chick I think that depends where you live.

1 in 1000 in North Dakota
1 in 8 in Boston.

bagoh20 said...

Dog rescue is double bad for a single guy: Most of the women are gay, so they won't put in a good word for you with the ladies, because first, your competition, and second, they don't want you busy with silly romance when you could be helping them with their dogs.

Help! Help! I'm being repressed! Come and see the violence inherent in the system.

Rescue

Anonymous said...

The black scruffy dog is adorable.

William said...

Some years back I attended a wedding in a small town in North Dakota. The wedding photographer seemed to be gay. I couldn't help but wonder who he was gay with and why he chose to live in a small town in North Dakota. You just know there had to be a complicated back story.

Paul said...

"LGBT Percentage Highest in D.C.".

No doubt... no doubt at all but I understand San Francisco is 1/3 gay?

So are you sure it's only 3.5 percent in D.C.?

I say this cause D.C. is such a freak show.

Lydia said...

The media have done such a good job that "U.S. adults, on average, estimate that 25% of Americans are gay or lesbian."

Chef Mojo said...

Who the fuck cares? I sure don't.

Jason said...

The Federal government grants benefits to same-sex spouses of federal employees. #adverseselection

bagoh20 said...

Inga, I rescued him from death row at the pound. Can you imagine that they would have just killed him. What a waste. He was as adorable as he looks there. He always slept on my chest. Good ending: He got adopted by a famous actor/director, and now lives the good life in Beverly Hills in an amazing huge mansion with his own butler. A dog's life.

miss j said...

Well, it doesn't ask for how one identifies to other people but how one identifies, personally.

Could one identify, personally, as X without being X? That seems to require an irrational sense of self.

Could one knowingly be X (and hence able to answer the question in the affirmative) if one did not identify, personally, as X? I do not see how.

I would imagine that if one did not identify, personally, as X then one does not know they are X (if they are indeed X).

The meaning of X does not matter.



effinayright said...


"Pedophiles and pedarasts [sic]are still outside the law."

Well, why should they be? Isn't a "child" a pederast or pedophile who just doesn't know it yet, and who needs to have his consciousness raised by getting a good butt-shupping?

Smilin' Jack said...

"All states are within 2 percentage points of the overall national average of 3.5%."

It's nice to see something good about North Dakota. Even if it's only 2%.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

chickelit said...

...law will prevail.

Assumes facts not in evidence.

Jim in St Louis said...

Silly poll- silly question--silly results.



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McTriumph said...

3.5% is a lie, the science was settled in the 1970s, the real percentage is 10, maybe as high as 15. My professors were very sure of this. They were also sure Kansas City would be under a foot of ice and the world population explosion would starve us all. I some times wonder if I should petition the university for a refund for those "science" classes.

Franklin said...

We spend a lot of time and energy talking about 3.5% of the population.

Franklin said...

We spend a lot of time and energy talking about 3.5% of the population.

Skyler said...

It's only 3.5% in the estimate for the real world. On tv it is more like 70%.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I had a wild crush on Barbara Grucci when I was in third grade. Then it was my third grade teacher. In fourth grade it was Lauren Vanner and then my world exploded into tiny bits when Miss Peponi became Mrs. Connolly.

I didn't ask for any of that heartache. It just happened to me along with lots more of the same.

Four decades later it still amazes me they might all have been dudes.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Although I guess the odds are pretty much against it.

Tank said...

The truth is that about 2 to 2 1/2 % of people have always been gay.

That's why the amount of time discussing gay issues, compared to its importance, is so bizarre.

Gay marriage - perhaps the most discussed totally unimportant issue today.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I was in my early twenties and I knew this guy. We had a class together in college and we even worked the same job. Nice guy. We were friends. I thought it completely obvious he was gay but nobody else seemed to think so.

Anyway, he got me to go to a gay club with him and we got very messed up and on more than just booze. We had fun.

Later that night he poured his heart out. He told me he loved me. The real thing. Ever since he saw me at school. He offered to blow me and said I didn't have to do anything in return. He just wanted to.

I gave that offer a great deal of consideration, especially in my state of extreme intoxication. I was never that great with women, anyway. What was I clinging to? What did I have to lose? And truth be told, I was desperately horny, not having had a girlfriend for over a year or two and there were absolutely no prospects.

Well, the story ends with me turning him down with a sincere apology.

It wasn't like I was leading him on, or anything. But there are some lines a man does not cross.

PWS said...

Isn't identifying what determines "actually" being? Aren't sexual preference and gender identity are on a spectrum?

You can have sex with someone the same sex as you (once or x times) but still identify as straight. There isn't a well-defined objective standard.

Renee said...

I was always under the impression of 1 in 10 growing up, the name of the local gay radio programming on WFNX was '1 in 10'. then in college I was told it was more like 1 in 7.

Identity and behavior are totally two different things, lots of people have had a same-sex experience. Many of them would never see themselves as gay or bisexual.

Some people do cross that line, I guess.

It must be annoying for single people, if they never had a long term relationship or not be one in a long time to have their orientation questioned.

Anonymous said...

How many identified as QWERTY?

ricpic said...

Mitchell the Bat has integrity. Or as hatboy would say: You bigot!

jr565 said...

Edutcher points out that "P" is for pansexual or polyamorous.

So now polyamory is an identity?
Is legalizing polygamy far behind?

Where, I wonder, would people like Inga fall on the hate sphere when it came to denying people their right to get married as polyamorists.

jr565 said...

I like when people are more than one letter of the community. THey are both gay and polyamorousa and also transexual. They are more gay than the average gay. I want people though who identify with ALL the letters at once, if that's even possible.
Maybe someone split personalities one of whom is gay, the other of whom is a lesbian, and the third personality thinks they are transgendered so goes through a sex change. Now every time they shift in personalities the gay guy is now a woman and the lesbian is now a guy and want to change their sex to match what they think they are.

jr565 said...

Also I love how pansexuality is attraction to both males and females but also those who are neither (!)

Bisexual people are attracted sexually and romantically to both males and females, and are capable of engaging in sensual relationships with either sex. Despite being able to form meaningful, lasting relationships with both sexes, bisexual individuals may, to a small or large degree, have a preference for one sex over the other.

Similarly, pansexual people may be sexually attracted to individuals who identify as male or female; however, they may also be attracted to those who identify as intersex, third-gender, androgynous, transsexual, or the many other sexual and gender identities. The latter distinction is what draws the line between pansexuality and bisexuality. People who self-identify as pansexual do so with purpose, to express that they are able to be attracted to various gender and sexual identities, whether they fall within the gender binary or not.

The degree of specificity to attraction to a non existent gender is hilarious.

Inter sex is a gender? Androgyny is a gender now?

jr565 said...

What do you call someone who is attracted only to people who they think are transgendered but in fact are not?
i.e. that woman looks like a dude! Thats hot s/he must have had a sex change. Oh wait, she's just very mannish? Never mind!
What could these people do prior to sex change operations?

jr565 said...

Can you get a sex change to become a hermaphrodite?
If so I'm sure there will be people attracted to it who get their own letter designation.

Rooted in Him said...

The original 10% number for male homosexuals was generated by the Kinsey Reports staring in the in 1940's.

Efforts to "clean-up" the data were made (about 300 people chosen when 1000 is the usual number for statistical significance; and 25% of the men interviewed were prisoners and 5% male prostitutes). However, the Kinsey Institute has continued to claim that number.

Most of the surveys that I have seen in the last 20 years seem to find numbers around the 3.5% number referenced in the article.

Since a key characteristic of actual science is that other researchers can use your methods and reproduce yours results, it would appear that, at the least, Kinsey got it wrong and, at worst, that he was not doing science.

The numbers become important for bean-counters. Are there almost as many LGBT's (10%) as African Americans (about 13%, latest census)? Or as many LGBT's (3.5%) as Asian-Americans (4.7%)? Or Jews (about 1.5%)?

Shanna said...

10% sounds about right for DC. Why is this news?

jr565 said...

Rooted in him wrote:
Efforts to "clean-up" the data were made (about 300 people chosen when 1000 is the usual number for statistical significance; and 25% of the men interviewed were prisoners and 5% male prostitutes). However, the Kinsey Institute has continued to claim that number.

Kinsey was a fraud. Or at least his extrapolation about the number of gays was fraudulent.

Anonymous said...

Two percent of the population are these folks and we're turning society, our laws and our religions upside down to accommodate them? The worst kind of madness and bullshit.

Paddy O said...

How do we know if people lie on a survey like this?

Gospace said...

A little late to jump in, but I was out camping, not connected to the internet.

I lvoe seeing the 10% (or higher) homosexual figure thrown out by people. Anytime I hear someone state this un conversation, i ask them, "How many people do you know?" followed by "How many people do you know that are gay or lesbian?" The average person I've asked over the years knows less then a handful out of the several hundred people they know. The only ones above this are people who are homosexual, and one or two people who hang out with homosexual friends.

Think of your own life. How many homosexuals do you actually know? Consdiderably less then 10% of the people you know.

hamcentral said...

@althouse

Can you please ban anyone who makes a keyboard joke in the LGBTQ posts?

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