Pew Research Center just published a massive study of LGBT Americans. There's a lot of interesting data on a variety of topics, like LGBT demographics, social acceptance, the coming out process, etc. A Survey of LGBT Americans | Pew Social & Demographic Trends - Page 1 Some interesting results: Interestingly, contrary to what the corporate media and mainstream society would have us believe, LGBTQ people do in fact put the issue of equality in employment ahead of the marriage equality issue. No surprise the Republican Party is at the bottom when it comes to being friendly toward LGBT people. A majority of gay men want to maintain a distinct gay culture, while a majority of lesbians want to simply assimilate into straight society. Bisexuals are split. Those of us on here regularly discussing LGBT issues online are in the minority. :eek: Here's an interactive feature letting you see over 300 different stories of LGBT people and at what ages they came out: LGBT Voices: The Coming Out Experience | Pew Research Center Personal Milestones in the Coming Out Experience | Pew Social & Demographic Trends Lots of interesting info at the links, I suggest checking this study out.
Interesting! I was surprised to see bisexuals were the majority in our community. And transfolk are the minority within the minority XD And wow, pretty shocked more LGBT people aren't online.... ---------- Post added 16th Jun 2013 at 10:10 PM ---------- Wishing there was a liiil more trans-specific information such as there is with LGB people....
Wow that's very interesting. Almost 3/4 of the bisexuals are women, which I'd say is quite statistically significant. I think this could point to at least one of the following possibilities: 1) Self-identified gay men are more likely to be actually bisexual 2) Self-identified bisexual women are more likely to be actually lesbian 3) The results are accurate. Thus, whatever causes people to be LGBT (genes/environment) is more likely to yield bisexuality in women than in men. #1 and #2 make sense if one considers the differences in how society looks at bisexuality in men and women. Generally, women receive less of a negative response for having that label. Thus, men that are Kinsey scale 4 might be more likely to identify as entirely gay if they feel they are forced to make a decision and want to avoid social stigmas.
I've read on several occasions mentions that females are typically more fluid when it comes to sexuality, but I think the real reason why we're not seeing more bisexual males isn't because they choose to identify as gay. Rather, I think most of the males that would "fit" the bisexual label will brush off that other side of them out of ignorance and consider themselves strictly as straight. We live in a heteronormative society where a lot of emphasis is put on the role of "Man" and what "Real men are like", any deviation is typically seen as bad, and so they perceive the deviation from this imaginary "Male role" as a threat and brush it off or conceal it.
Perceptions of discrimination and LGBT population were the most interesting to me, especially perceptions of discrimination. The discrimination numbers are still very high for this day and age.
I find it interesting that the median age at which the respondents knew for sure that they were queer is as high as it is. The community so often seems to focus on narratives where the person "always knew." I know that I personally have struggled with feeling less authentically queer, like I was really just a confused cis straight person, because everyone else seems to know from puberty or earlier.
Murikan - I think it's more likely that more bisexual men identify as straight, and strive to live heterosexual lives. This allows them to avoid the social stigma. However, it's also possible that some individuals who identify as gay are actually bisexual, but instead lean heavily toward men sexually and romantically. Thus, they just identify as gay because it's easier. I think the first group is the largest, and if there were some way to accurately account for everyone who is LGBT (whether they identified as such or not); then the numbers of bisexual men would begin to soar - as would the number of bisexual women. It's always been my feeling that if everyone in our society who was truly bisexual was revealed (whether they were fully aware of their bisexuality or not - this includes everyone that isn't 100% gay and 100% straight), then the number of bisexuals would likely out number those who are 100% homosexual. I think this is also one of the reasons we're seeing so many people who are young coming out as bisexual. As society becomes more accepting of gays and lesbians, it makes it inherently easier for someone who is bisexual to act on their same sex attraction and feelings.
Well bisexuals make up a plurality of the LGBTQ community because that category includes both men and women, whereas gays and lesbians are split up into separate categories. Altogether 55% of the LGBT community is LG, versus 40% B and 5% T. However I suspect Murikan is onto something with regard to why there are more gay men and bi women than there are bi men and lesbian women. Well the LGBT community is already a small percentage of the population, and the T part of that community apparently makes up only 5%, thus it would be difficult to come up with a representative sample of T people for a survey like this. Small sample sizes lead to big errors.
Some of it seems... off. And their separation of gay men and women, but their lack of separation of bisexual men and women...
