I used NO "anecdotes"; I posted factual history.....try reading some. I will happily supply you with a book list. :-)
The word "anecdotes" in this sense means "case histories" or "true stories"-- even if the anecdotes are true, they are not necessarily representative of the larger trends in a group of people such as the nation of the USA. A valid study has to have a large sample of people, a representative cross-section of society, be conducted scrupulously, and have equally scrupulous data analysis. Even then, the conclusions are tentative until the study is replicated more than once. Knowing some gay people is not a representative study.