LGBT
Related: About this forumWould you agree with this statement.
There are seven million two hundred ninety-one thousand LGB people in America.
fishwax
(29,146 posts)William769
(55,124 posts)The CDC says that 2.3% of Americans are LGB and if you take the population I am guessing is at about 317 million, that's how I came up with that number.
This is one time I will strongly disagree with the CDC.
Link to the article. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/15/gay-lesbian-bisexual-cdc-survey/12671717/
Grant you They are going by what people told them but I know the older generation does not give out that information as freely as the younger generation would.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Considerably more, IMO.
DonViejo
(60,536 posts)theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)I'd say the number is much closer to twice that.
William769
(55,124 posts)CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)On my block, in Oklahoma City, the heart of gay america, there is one lesbian couple and one single. In my neighborhood there are at least two or three gay men I know of. My best friend is bi but currently involved in a gay relationship. I prefer to believe the old M/J statistics of about ten percent. I have known many gay and lesbian folks throughout the years all here in one of the most oppressive states in the union.
William769
(55,124 posts)CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)I had seen that stat released the other day and disagreed at the time so i wanted to share my, admittedly anecdotal, evidence as to why I too disagreed.
randys1
(16,286 posts)just confused people
But, as to the number, has to be more, hell, there are that many Gay people on HGTV
Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)The CDC might say that LGB people are 2.3% but that relies on self-identification and there's loads of men (for example) who are sexually attracted to other men but don't identify as gay for various reasons.
I would think the real number was at least double that and possibly quadruple that once you include all the "straight except for Brad Pitt" (or whoever). From my personal experiences, the M/J figure of roughly 10% sounds about right.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)...sexual orientation. Not every place is open minded and some can be downright dangerous.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)... that it's even possible to conduct an accurate survey. 10-20 years from now I think you'd find the results would be very different.
Fearless
(18,421 posts)Maybe 7 million are gay male. Maybe 1/2 are out.
William769
(55,124 posts)Fearless
(18,421 posts)It could really vary quite a bit... especially in the bisexual category. It still behooves a bisexual person greatly to just say they're straight to pass in society. Plus most people don't count "that one time" I was attracted to a person of the same sex as making them bisexual.
One thing I've always been profoundly good at was figuring out closeted guys. (Much to my own detriment I might add!!) There are people out there would could be having sex with a member of the same sex right now and still consider themselves straight. Who knows how many of them there are. (In my experience, way way too many!)
William769
(55,124 posts)Been there and done that with many throughout my life.
Fearless
(18,421 posts)When I was first out and building confidence and so forth, it made it easier really. I really can pick them out with near 100% certainty. They tended to be shy about it and not more "out there" than I was at the time. So it was easy and they tended not to be clingy.
Buuuut, as time went on, I was still very able to pick them out, only now I was confident about my sexuality (not merely just accepting it) and they weren't the type I was looking for. The problem is however that I'm very attracted to "traditionally" masculine guys... sports, cars, the outdoors, etc... though not beer guzzling and ubermasculine... and less so attracted to the rest (I hate stereotyping people, but it's preference). So who tries to be masculine and such... the closeted gay guy. Thus the problem that I get into sometimes. He's really hot.. but turns out he's in the closet and I'm looking for something long term now. So frustrating!!
William769
(55,124 posts)When I was younger and living in Miami, I felt like a kid in a candy store. I had more home runs than strikeouts with straight men.
Call it curiosity or whatever but a straight man was not that hard to get.
I don't like to stereotype either but when you describe it as a preference, there is not much else you can do.
Fearless
(18,421 posts)And I was the same throughout college. Granted I lived in a very liberal part of the nation. I could still fall into that trap if I wasn't careful.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)That's a sincere question.
William769
(55,124 posts)Does not hide who they are, if asked will answer honestly. I don't mean someone needs to go screaming through the neighborhood that they are LGBT but are not afraid to identify as a LGBT person. I hope that makes sense.
For the record, in my younger years when I was in Law Enforcement back in the 80's, I was closeted, to the extent in many situations I would have lied that I was a Gay man. I still feel ashamed today that I did that but I did so out of survival in my career (in that same situation today, I would be out).
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Even now, being out can be dangerous. It can cost people their jobs, their families, even their lives. Everyone's situation is different. The only closeted LGBTs for whom I have no sympathy are the hypocrites who are out there campaigning against LGBT rights or are campaigning for our enemies, like the LCRs do.
What gets me, I guess, are the folks who aren't even out to themselves. I've known people in relatively long term gay relationships who would deny that they're gay. That takes a level of denial I simply can't comprehend.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)1.6%???
Riiiiiiight.
http://time.com/2987183/gay-census-bisexual-cdc/
U.S. Census Bureau Finds 1.6% of Adults Identify as Gay
Dan Kedmey
July 15, 2014
Another 0.7% identified as bisexual, and 1.1% said "something else" or didn't answer
For the first time in 57 years the U.S. Census Bureau has surveyed adults on their sexual orientation, and the results published Tuesday show that 1.6% of adults aged 18 or over identified as gay, while another 0.7% identified as bisexual....
William769
(55,124 posts)theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Bull hockey! (Bullshit is sooooo overused.)
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)This study hits a bit closer to the mark. For many folks sexuality is fluid and how they might declare on some census or survey would lead to wildly inaccurate results.
http://mic.com/articles/67401/how-many-lgbt-people-in-the-u-s-it-s-a-harder-question-than-you-think
So What Do We Know?
Gary Gates of the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law estimates that about 3.8% of adults identify as LGBT, and that's about 9 million Americans. Even more interesting, 8.2% of Americans have reported same-sex sexual behaviors and 11% acknowledge at least some same-sex attraction. These are no small numbers and remember that even these numbers don't tell the whole story of nonstandard sexual identity, but they do give us a rough idea that about 1 in 10 to 20 people (5-100% of the population) are gay, have gay feelings that they don't express, or are otherwise not strictly heterosexual...