How Many Queers, Did You Say?

Which of these men represents the gay 1.7 percent of the population of Dallas?

Okay guys, there's lots of loose chatter going on about the new report from the Williams Institute on the number of LGBT Americans.  And much of the chatter is being slung around by people who have never read the frickin' report.

Don't you be that dumb.  Here is a link to the 6-page PDF report itself, which contains lots of stats and charts.  Read it for yourself, bro - don't let other people tell you what it says.

And here's the institute's own summary of its findings:

Drawing on information from four recent national and two state-level population-based surveys, the analyses suggest that there are more than 8 million adults in the US who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual, comprising 3.5% of the adult population. There are also nearly 700,000 transgender individuals in the US. In total, the study suggests that approximately 9 million Americans - roughly the population of New Jersey - identify as LGBT. Key findings from the study include among adults who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, bisexuals comprise a slight majority (1.8% compared to 1.7% who identify as lesbian or gay); women are substantially more likely than men to identify as bisexual; estimates of those who report any lifetime same-sex sexual behavior and any same-sex sexual attraction are substantially higher than estimates of those who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. An estimated 19 million Americans (8.2%) report that they have engaged in same-sex sexual behavior and nearly 25.6 million Americans (11%) acknowledge at least some same-sex sexual attraction.

Also important to note:

• This is a survey of surveys, so to speak.  It's not a direct count.  It's a statistical best-guess of how many adults fall on this side of the rainbow - like so many other estimates in this world, it's playing with numbers, on a very high level of math - but not a direct count.  And the numbers given above totally ignore the thought that people under 18 also have an innate sexuality - as if nobody is "born that way," ya know?
• A lot of news stories on this topic are making reference to the Kinsey Report of 1948, which allegedly said that 10 perecent of men were homosexual.  But that's not what Kinsey said.  Read up on that too, and be informed.
• The Williams Institute is not a right-wing think tank, as some ignorant commenters have said.  It's part of the UCLA School of Law, and has published many, many reports on LGBT people.   For example, at the bottom of their homepage, you can find a clickable map with detailed demographics on gay couples in all 50 states, along with many other interesting reports.

And finally, I'll say this:  your Head Trucker is no mathematician, but some 15 years ago when I was living in a small city back east, I did a thought experiment - considering that the maximum number of guys who showed up at the bar on a big night probably represented only one out of ten or twenty gay men in the area, divide that number by the adult population - which gave me a figure of 2 or 3 percent gay.  Of course, that doesn't take into account closeted guys and all the other flavors of the rainbow. 

But it does explain why gay society is like a small town everywhere you go.  Even in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country at 6.3 million, bigger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined - yet in the gay community, you always find people who know somebody you know.  So we're not that big a chunk of the population.   (Pity.)

Bottom line:  When you consider all the pyschological and social complexities of fear and loathing, married bisexuals and closeted singles, transthis and transthat, late bloomers and liars and simple souls who really haven't a clue - nobody but God knows exactly how many gays there are in the world.   But before you get into a discussion on this point, at least be up to date on the facts.  I've made it easy for you here, so you got no excuse now, fellas.