So Now They Say The Numbers of LGBT Are Higher Than Thought, ReallY?
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When I heard a couple of decades ago that the latest estimate of LGBT in the US was 2-3% I laughed until I realized these numbers were coming from the people that wanted us to disappear, mainly the government and the Church, the two most powerful entities in the world. Then the numbers went to 5% and then10%. When you read something it is important that before you do you know who is writing it. If it's your enemy don’t expect nice things to be told about you. We fought this and when there were changes in the government because of the type of politicians we elected, yes gays elected as a voting block. They recognized there most be plenty of us. So first our power was recognized at the voting polls, then at the fighting fields in Iran and Afghanistan and the Supreme Court with the White House. For the changes we made happened with the recruiting help from our families and friends it was recognized there had to be plenty of more gays than we were given credit for. My personal number was no less 25% if we counted bisexuals. If we count transexuals the number I think is right is got to be higher because those numbers are very hard to obtained but we know they are here ( at least 2 million) and the numbers are strong.
Marina Pitofsky
At least 20 million adults in the U.S. could be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to a new report released by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
The report, released Thursday, analyzes data from the Census Bureau. It says approximately 8% of respondents to the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey said they were lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
That's approximately double prior estimates of the LGBT community’s size in the U.S.
“LGBTQ+ people are here – in every town, in every city, in each and every ZIP code. This data shows what we’ve suspected: our community is larger and more widespread than we could have known up to this point,” Joni Madison, HRC interim president, said in a press release on Thursday.
Charleigh Flohr, senior research manager at the HRC, explained to USA TODAY that the report is based on public data from the Household Pulse Survey administered by the Census Bureau, not the Census Bureau’s decennial census.
She said the results show that “researchers are starting to get better at researching the community" and that “society is growing more accepting of the community, and people are feeling like they're able to identify themselves in surveys and are able to be themselves in their daily lives.”
The report also says more than 2 million adults in the U.S. could identify as transgender, higher than previous estimates of approximately 1.4 million.
Bisexual people represent the largest contingent of the LGBTQ community, making up about 4% of respondents in the national survey, the report says.
Approximately 2% of participants also said they identify with a sexual orientation other than lesbian, gay, bisexual or straight.
Jay Brown, senior vice president of the HRC Foundation, told USA TODAY that those could include pansexual and asexual people, among others. The survey also did not include options to share other identities, such as being a non-binary individual, and more.
“We really do encourage folks who are collecting and allowing data collection efforts to make as many expansive choices as possible and capture the full breadth of the community because it's still a little unclear,” Brown said.
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But he added that the results show that “you can't ignore that we exist when we start showing up in these in these really powerful surveys.
“Despite all the things that are in front of us, we still feel like we can be more visible and more open about our identity in these surveys,” Brown said.
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