A just-released Gallup survey says Americans “greatly overestimate” the number of their fellow citizens who identify as “gay” or lesbian, mistakenly believing about 23 percent of the population fits this category.
The truth, however, is that number is far lower.
The National Health Interview Survey, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project, found in an extensive research paper in 2013 less than 3 percent of participants labeled themselves as “gay,” lesbian or bisexual, Breitbart reported. Of this figure, only 1.6 percent in this same survey self-identified exclusively as “gay” or lesbian.
Gallup’s survey, however, shows Americans by and large are fooled into thinking the “gay”-lesbian population sits in the double-digits.
From its poll, Breitbart reported: “[A]ll available estimates of the actual gay and lesbian population in the U.S. are far lower than what the public estimates and no measurement procedure has produced any figures suggesting that more than one out of five Americans are gay or lesbian. The widely off-the-mark nature of Americans’ estimates is underscored by the finding that in the most recent update, from May 6-10, only 9 percent of Americans estimate that the gay and lesbian population is less than 5 percent, where Gallup’s tracking figure would put it, while at the other end of the spectrum, 33 percent estimate it as more than 25 percent.”
Gallup found younger Americans in particular put the numbers of “gay”-lesbian Americans higher than older Americans, and women do similarly.
