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Marc2b -> RE: Study Says Gays are 1.7% of the Population (4/8/2011 8:09:47 AM)
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Random thoughts on the topic:
Transsexual Cavemen? Just what does a caveman drag queen look like? I think I smell a new Will Ferrel movie here.
I find the notion of people running around trying to count the number of gays silly. First of all, why does it matter? The answer, of course, is that some people (and I am NOT specifically accusing the researcher in question here of anything) want to use such studies to bolster their "homosexuality is abnormal/anti-god" bullshit desire to deny equal rights to other people. The idea is the low numbers "prove" the "unnaturalness" of homosexuality. Well the same argument about homosexuality's "unnaturalness" can be made against left-handed people or people of different races, etc. In the end it all comes down to human rights. In fact, while I use the term "gay rights" like so many others, it really should be called human rights because that is what it is ultimately all about. Homosexuals are human, and therefore are entitled to the same rights as all humans.
The study (or any such study) is itself of questionable veracity due to the reasons already mentioned. People will lie about such things when living in a culture and society that, while more tolerant than some societies, can still exert a lot of pressure to conform to the “normal.” A gay person who is born to tolerant and accepting parents is lucky and may have no qualms about being a open homosexual but imagine how the gay child of Christian Fundamentalists is going to answer such a question. If one of the Dugger children is gay, do you think they would admit it to a survey, much less publicly (and that’s assuming they have even admitted it to themselves)?
These differing levels of acceptance within our society can create skewed demographics in other ways. Twenty-five ago I worked for a taxi company that had about twenty employees. Twelve were homosexual making the heterosexuals like me the minority. If someone did a survey of us could they reliably concluded that sixty percent of all cab drivers are gay? Or that sixty percent of the people in our town were gay? Obviously not. The real reason for this skewered demographic was that word had spread in the local homosexual community that here was an employer whose only concern was that employees show up on time and do their job to the best of their ability. He didn’t give a rat’s ass who his employees may or not be fucking on their off hours. If one man’s acceptance and tolerance could create such a skewered demographic over-representing gays, then it should not be the least bit surprising that intolerance will lead to under-representation.
The irony here is that the only way a truly cross-sectional representative sample could be recorded is for society to be tolerant enough for gays not to have to worry about admitting their homosexuality… and if we ever reach that point, no one will care enough about “how many gays there are” for such counting to be considered necessary.
I should also note that, while many people would like to deflate the number of gays to advance a political/religious agenda, there are also people (gay rights groups themselves) who would like to inflate the numbers. The notion being, “see how many we are? That’s why we deserve our rights.” While this is an understandable tactic it is still intellectual dishonesty. It is also something of a self defeating position. Human rights should be based upon “humanness,” not on numbers.
Lastly, I would recommend the movie “Milk,” to everyone. Although I think Sean Penn is pretty much an ass in real life I have to give credit where credit is due and admit that he is one of our greatest actors. “Milk” is a well crafted, well acted movie about a man (far from perfect) who showed tremendous courage in standing up for what was right. If you enjoy movies about people fighting the good fight, you’ll like this movie.
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