U.S. national health survey estimates gay population at only 2 percent

[Jingthing]

Well, I haven't bought into the very dated "One in Ten" meme for many years now. I think it's more like 2 to 3 percent occurrence in general populations globally. We've discussed before the social/cultural factors in EVER getting fully accurate details on numbers. BUT, the USA is a good test case, being the population is so large. the culture has changed to the degree that many more people would be willing to be honest on a survey, it is so ethnically diverse, and the concept of gay sexual orientation is well understood.

So -- there it is -- 2 percent.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr077.pdf

Among U.S. adults aged 18 and over, 97.7% identified as straight, 1.6% as gay or lesbian, and 0.7% as bisexual.

Maybe you don't believe it, but in my view, it's not a problem not being 10 percent.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Jingthing

[Scott]

When I was younger it seemed like it was more like 10% after the bars closed on Saturday night.

[Jingthing]

Indeed but that was quite a queer sampling method.

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

[Jingthing]

Are the smaller numbers good?

Are they bad?

I think the gay civil rights movement is mature enough now to deal with the truth, whatever it is.

The 1 in 10 thing might have helped as propaganda at one time.

I don't think it was done maliciously.

And that, too, has policy implications. As The Atlantic noted, "people who overestimate the percent of gay Americans by a factor of 12 seem likely to also wildly overestimate the cultural impact of same-sex marriage." At the same time, this "may reflect a triumph of the gay and lesbian movement's decades-long fight against invisibility and the closet." Despite its limitations, the CDC survey represents a small victory in the fight against the invisibility of the way sexual orientation and health interact.

http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/07/how-many-lgbt-americans-there-are-depends-on-what-you-ask/374495/