Posted on 05/27/2011 12:37:02 PM PDT by markomalley
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. adults, on average, estimate that 25% of Americans are gay or lesbian. More specifically, over half of Americans (52%) estimate that at least one in five Americans are gay or lesbian, including 35% who estimate that more than one in four are. Thirty percent put the figure at less than 15%.
Just your best guess, what percent of Americans today would you say are gay or lesbian? 2002 and 2011 Trend
The findings, from a Gallup poll conducted May 5-8, 2011, mark the second time Gallup has asked Americans to estimate the gay population. In 2002, Gallup used two separate questions to ask Americans to estimate the percentage of gay men and lesbians. At that time, Americans estimated that 21% of men were gay and that 22% of women were lesbian. Twice as many did not offer an opinion as do now.
There is little reliable evidence about what percentage of the U.S. population is in reality gay or lesbian, due to few representative surveys asking about sexual orientation, complexities surrounding the groups and definitions involved, and the probability that some gay and lesbian individuals may not choose to identify themselves as such. Demographer Gary Gates last month released a review of population-based surveys on the topic, estimating that 3.5% of adults in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, with bisexuals making up a slight majority of that figure. Gates also disputes the well-circulated statistic that "10% of the males are more or less exclusively homosexual."
Americans' current collective estimate -- which is substantially higher than Gates suggests -- is likely driven more by perceptions and exposure than by scientific measurement or reality.
(Excerpt) Read more at gallup.com ...
Indeed, if anyone judges by the amount one sees of it in the pop-culture sphere, you’d think 75% of the country is gay. Would love to see a Japan-style tsunami come in and wash Hollywood and its degenerate perverts out to sea.
Ok. I have always tried to stick up for polls especially when FREEPERS only believe the ones that fit the agenda. However, I am calling this BS!!!! There is no way that 25 percent of the United States is homosexual. That would make about 75 million. Sounds a bit exaggerated by about 50 million or even more.
Ok. I did not read your post until after I posted. You have a point when they ask folks what percentage do you believe is homosexual. With Glee and other programming I can see that folks believe that there are more homosexuals than reality.
Ridiculous!.....this is crappola trying to support the homo agenda!
"Not that there's anything wrong with that!"
homosexuals in the US is around 1%.
That would only be 3 million in the U.S. I believe that 3 million are in Hollywood alone. lol. I would think the number is probably closer to 7-10 million. I mean they are EVERYWHERE. Don’t forget the Hair Salons where a 1/2 million are in those alone. It is an epidemic that we better find a cure quick. Stop the Gay Agenda NOW before it is too late!!!!!!
“people’s perceptions are shaped by what they are exposed to...”
Good point. Homosexuality has gone from “the love that dare not speak its name” to “the love that won’t shut up.”
Lots of noise and lots of fawning media preaching lead to this gross overestimation.
My guess would be its less than 5%.
I think the real reason is to try and argue the mantra of “everyone is doing it” in the sense that plenty of people commit the homosexual behaviors, therefore people don’t need to care about their agenda. This argument is a bad red herring if I ever heard one.
That's why citizens think there's so many of them. Private citizens who watch an above average amount of TV also feel there's more crime than there is.
Advertising works ...
That's what our MSM does - they advertise FOR gays, FOR liberals, FOR abortion, and AGAINST conservatives. I'm sure people are stunned to find out there's so many Republicans too...
From the number of stories about gays - it's easy to see how people think they're 25% of the population - rather than the more realistic 2% ...
Last I checked, SF was around 15%. Recent British study (largest ever done - +30,000 responded) showed about 1.5% including bi-sexuals. We just have so many of them on TV and in films that we think there are a lot more of them then there really are.
Out of over 150 first and second cousins, I have exactly 1 gay relative.
I would agree with that general statement. I have had a similarly hard time simply coming across actual people who were openly homosexual in my lifetime, this included attendance at certain places that would be fairly accepting of homosexuality as well. I would guess it was probably fewer than one percent of all people I have associated with or known.
I was gonna say the # of sodomites and homosexuals in the US are around .9%.
That is nowhere near the 25% number, but it is not insignificant. If the number were evenly spread across the country (which is a big if, given that most openly gay people are city dwellers) it would mean that about 1 out every 20 people you know is either gay or bisexual.
Just looking at my facebook friends (most of whom I am at least an acquaintence of/former classmate of in real life)...there are about 3 or 4 out of 150 who are gay and admit to it on their FB page. I may suspect at most, 2 more. So max is 6 out of 150, or around 4%, probably less.
The MSM and Hollywood over-represents gays.
Private citizens watching an above average amount of TV also feel there’s more crime than there is, more liberals, fewer black criminals, and scary conservatives behind every tree.
Advertising works ... Culture lies told often enough start to feel true...
From the number of stories about gays - it’s easy to see how people think they’re 25% of the population - rather than the more realistic 2% ...
This result is unsurprising. The “news” and entertainment media promote faggotry almost incessantly.
THey have a weird definition of the word “mean”. What percent value did they apply to the “more than 25%” group, to get a “mean” of “24.6”? For the rest, you could pick the midpoint, so for example 10-15% would average to 12.5.
So what did they do, assign 62.5 to the last group?
THe survey is designed in a way that skews the average up. note first that the smallest number is “less than 5%”. IF they take 2.5% as the average, that is HIGHER than what one study shows the actual number to be. So even if you don’t think ANYBODY is gay, your “count” will be higher than a study suggests for reality.
Meanwhile, the last group is “more than 25%”. If you just weren’t sure, and were randomly guessing numbers between even 0 and 50%, a majority would guess “more than 25%”, because it is such a large group.
I assume they throw out the “no opinion”.
Anyway, running the numbers, it looks like they used “40%” for the “more than 25%” number to calculate their “mean”, assuming they did their mean in the normal fashion:
(4*2.5 + 9*7.5 + 17*12.5 + 9*17.5 + 17*22.5 + 35*40)/91 = 24.51%
That formula also gets you “21.4” for the 2002 numbers. I have no idea why they think that “40%” is the correct number to use for the “more than 25%” group.
Oddly, that same equation gives “21.45” for the 2002 women’s number, not the 22 they got. Which means that in reality, they have clearly used some other numbers to represent each of the groupings.
“You can fool some of the people all of the time” - and they vote Democrat.
I wouldn’t discount the real possibility that most americans have no idea what “percent” really means, and think that 20% sounds really low.
There is a gay guy at my wife’s work. So far as I can tell, this is the first gay person she has ever really known (I’ve known a few, and worked with a few).
I would bet that if you asked most people what percent of people they KNOW are gay, the number would be extremely low. I just think people are stupid when it comes to measurements and estimations.
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