Search Here

A new study, based on interviews conducted with more than 121,000 people across USA has revealed that about 3.4 percent population across U.S identifies itself as a part of the LGBT group.

The study, apparently the largest ever to have aimed at counting the nation's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population certainly shook up some stereotypes with the release of the Gallup survey on Thursday. The study revealed that LGBT identity is highest among those who are younger, non-white and less educated, according to a report in USA Today.

"It helps to counter what I think are some inappropriate stereotypes of the LGBT community," says the report's lead author, demographer Gary Gates of the Williams Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles, according to the report.

"If you spend a lot of time watching network television, you would think most LGBT people are rich white men who live in big cities. These data suggest the LGBT community reflects more of the diversity in the U.S. population."

According to the USA Today report, the revelations of the study include:

•  4.6% of blacks, 4.3% of Asians, 4% of Hispanics and 3.2% of whites identify themselves as LGBT.
•  LGBT identification is highest among those with some college, 4%. Among those with a high school education or less, 3.5% identify as LGBT, compared with 2.8% of those with a college degree and 3.2% of those with postgraduate education.
•  Younger Americans, ages 18-29, are three times more likely than seniors ages 65 and older to identify as LGBT (6.4% vs. 1.9%).
•  Among ages 18-29, 8.3% of women vs. 4.6% of men identify as LGBT.
•  More than 5% of those with annual incomes of less than $24,000 identify as LGBT, compared with 2.8% of those who earn more than $60,000 a year.

The survey "reaffirms what we already were seeing in our community. The American public will find those statistics surprising, but we know from our work on the ground that that is actually very consistent," says Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the Family Equality Council, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that represents LGBT families.

Gates says that perhaps the educational and economic data could be influenced by the difference between people who identify as lesbian and gay and those who identify as bisexual or transgender.

"Oftentimes surveys show higher fractions who are white or have higher levels of education, but they are just measuring the L and G. Gallup puts everyone together," he says.

In the current study, adding one more question as to what exactly the participants identified themselves as (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) was too costly for now.

Nonetheless, the survey does suggest an underestimation of those who are still closeted, according to sociologist Brian Powell of Indiana University in Bloomington.

"The 3.4% figure is right on target on how people define themselves, but it may underestimate greatly people who have had same-sex relations," he says.

Gates added that at this point in time, it is not important to convince people that there are a lot of LGBT people in America. What is needed is to tell them what the real lives of LGBT people are like.