Posted on 05/21/2015 8:07:15 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
“We’re not a smart people,” says Ace, pointing to a similar but now outdated 2012 survey from Gallup.
The actual number of gays is around four percent, as best anyone can tell. What’s your guesstimate, America?
Fifty-three percent think gays compose at least 20 percent of the population. Huh. I don’t know what’s odder, the fact that this number has grown as the public’s paid more attention to gays over the past 13 years or the fact that guesstimates were already wildly inflated in 2002, before gay marriage had picked up national momentum. Logically, you would think the estimates would have been sharply lower as you go further back in time, when more gays were in the closet. Or, alternatively, you could argue that the estimates should be sharply lower now, as better information about gays has become more widely available. Instead ignorance abides — although maybe the source of the ignorance has changed. Maybe it used to be that people overestimated how many gays there were precisely because they didn’t know much about them and thought “20 percent” seemed like a reasonble-ish number, small enough to comport with gays’ status as a minority but large enough to comport with their visibility in celebrity culture. Now, Americans may have heard here and there that the actual number of gays is under five percent but they’re having trouble processing that figure because gays and gay-rights issues seem to be everywhere in media and on the news. Increased visibility may be overwhelming better information, ironically “confirming” the earlier 20-25 percent guesstimate.
There are demographic differences in the estimates too, of course:
You can see better access to information at work there in how postgrads are closer to the mark than high-school grads. On the other hand, it’s young adults who’ve grown up with plenty of access to information about gays online and on TV and they’re the most wildly wrong of any age group. Women have roughly the same access as men do and yet their guesstimate is nearly 10 points worse than men’s is. I think Ace’s theory about that is right on: It’s not so much access to statistical information that matters as personal exposure to gays. Women and young adults are almost certainly more likely to have openly gay friends than men and older people are; the more you’re surrounded by people who are gay, the more likely you are, it seems, to think gays are more prevalent in the population than they actually are. There’s a partisan difference too along those lines although it’s not as dramatic as you might think, with Democrats guesstimating that 25 percent of the public is gay and Republicans guessing 19 percent. If the basic theory here is true, that personal exposure produces higher estimates even as accurate information about gays becomes more widely available, then the numbers should actually keep increasing as gays feel more comfortable coming out to their friends. By 2030, maybe two-thirds of the public will guess that America is at least 20 percent gay.
And don’t forget, it’s in the interest of gay-rights activists to promote (or at least not contradict) the assumption that gays are more numerous than they are. That’s counterintuitive in the sense that constitutional protections for gays depend in part on their supposed status as a small, powerless, politically vulnerable group; the larger and more powerful they seem, the less they need the courts looking out for them. In reality, though, it may be that one reason support for gay marriage has spread as quickly as it has is that Americans are under the mistaken impression that it affects many more people than it actually does. The bigger the gay population seems, the less gay marriage seems like an otherwise ignorable boutique issue.
Here’s Ted Cruz deftly handling a snotty reporter who wanted to talk to him about some gay issues but most definitely not others.
Judging by the media you’d think 1 out of every 2.
only on TV
they count the bisexs, trannies etc. more than once?
People watch TV and movies where there’s always at least one gay character. That makes them think there are more gays than there are. My sister-in-law guessed 25%. She sits around and watched TV all day and all night when she’s not playing on FB.
Exactly. TV and film manipulation for political purposes.
2% of the population and keep in mind the libs define homosexual is ANY sexual contact during the person’s lifetime. So that includes molested people, women who may be a mom with three kids married now who had a drunk hookup with a roommate in college, etc.
It’s probably more like .08% of the population that’s actual Sodomites.
Also interesting that libs are all evolutionists and if evolution were correct homosexuals wouldn’t exist at all. that ‘gene’ would have been bred out as it prevents evolutionary success.
That explains so much!
Well, if the media would start each broadcast with "Well the stupid idiot in the White House F***ed up this part of the world today", I bet his approval ratings would be what they deserve to be, but because the media constantly and deliberately cover up all his failures, the public is misinformed.
An honest media would hammer his lies and failures and he would have been impeached by now.
Of all the people I work with and see on a regular basis - which just happens to be about 100 people. ... There is only 1 woman I’m 99% sure is gay and one guy I suspect (50-50) may be gay. Nowhere near 20%.
20%, only if you use Hollywood as your sample set.
Between 1.0 % and 2.0 % seems to be the most accurate estimate.
Probably the same 53% who voted for 0bama, think that 20% of Americans are homosexual.
Exactly. It’s almost impossible to watch any of today’s current tv shows without gays in them now. Irritating.
I’d be interested to know how many guys are actually gay. As a guy I can see how two women who are naturally feminine by nature could have a fling or even stay in a relationship like that - but men? It just goes against everything in my hard wired brain I guess.
Having said that; I don’t care what consenting adults do as long as it isn’t in my face which is why I am so irritated by what they are doing on tv these days.
CDC came out with a study on AIDS in 2013 IIRC...pretty definitive numbers based on reporting and tracking of AIDS cases...less than 2 percent of the population—gay males—were responsible for 63% of new AIDS cases.
Meaning total population of homosexuals (men and women) make up less than 4% of the entire US population.
33.66% if you include Hollyweirdos who go gay for pay.
And out of those, less than half even WANT to get married yet an issue that affects less than 1% of the population drives the news, corporate policy, and education agenda.
I am curious. Do you think we should see only information from writers who we agree with 100%?
Actual number probably 2% to 4%. Depends to some extent on definition.
What is really interesting is that few if any of those historically engaged in homosexual behavior would have considered themselves “gay” in today’s meaning of the term. In fact, most of those queer old Greeks would have been highly insulted.
The correct answer, of course, is about 3%.
But if you look at Republican advisers (most of them gay, by the way), you’ll find it’s closer to 70%.
So the question that I’d like answered is why it is SO HARD for Republicans to find straight advisers?
I teach college government. I ask each class what percentage of the population do they think is homosexual. VERY few estimate less than 10% while at least three-quarters of the students estimate anywhere between 20% to 30%.
I attribute this to homosexual propaganda in media and entertainment, that each show has at least one homosexual or homosexual couple and they are always happy, witty, well-adjusted, oh-so-nice and tolerant, never criminal, angry, incompetent or buffoonish.
They do tend to cluster in certain enclaves. Large cities are an obvious starting point and then certain professions act like magnets.
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