# US adults think a quarter of Americans are gay/lesbian
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-adults-think-a-quarter-of-americans-are-gay-lesbian/583464
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 27, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-adults-think-a-quarter-of-americans-are-gay-lesbian/583464 "2011-05-27T18:52:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Docta\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Docta_G)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-adults-think-a-quarter-of-americans-are-gay-lesbian/583464/21 "2011-05-28T19:17:53Z")
US adults think all kinds of stupid shit.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-adults-think-a-quarter-of-americans-are-gay-lesbian/583464/22 "2011-05-28T20:46:14Z")
A lot of people (including Kinsey) place too much emphasis on behavior. People who have sex in prison are not routinely considered gay, yet many of us were definitely gay long before ever acting on it (just as most people are straight before ever acting on it). I know that I’m in a tiny minority of people who are exclusively gay, with no hetero desires or experiences, but there are huge numbers of people with varying amounts of bisexuality. It’s extremely difficult to quantify or qualify them.
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### Author:  [@Implicit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Implicit)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-adults-think-a-quarter-of-americans-are-gay-lesbian/583464/23 "2011-05-28T21:00:47Z")
[Innumeracy](http://www.amazon.com/Innumeracy-Mathematical-Illiteracy-Its-Consequences/dp/0809058405) is an epidemic.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-adults-think-a-quarter-of-americans-are-gay-lesbian/583464/24 "2011-05-28T23:22:35Z")
> [@Lamia](#):
>
> I think 10% is too high if it’s supposed to be just gay man and lesbians, but if bisexuals are included then I could believe it’s even more than 10%.
But then you get into the sticky situation of deciding who’s a bisexual and who isn’t.
Yeah, the question will never be answered.
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### Author:  [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-adults-think-a-quarter-of-americans-are-gay-lesbian/583464/25 "2011-05-28T23:39:44Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#):
>
> FWIW, the overestimate is larger among Democrats than Republicans.
That doesn’t surprise me. You tend to focus on whatever is on your radar screen, so to speak, so you assume that the perception is more common than reality. Since there are probably more out gays who are Democrats, it’s not surprising that Democrats assume that there are more gays than the actual statistics show.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2011, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-adults-think-a-quarter-of-americans-are-gay-lesbian/583464/26 "2011-05-29T10:20:19Z")
> [@Lamia](#):
>
> I think 10% is too high if it’s supposed to be just gay man and lesbians, but if bisexuals are included then I could believe it’s even more than 10%.
>
> The library world is fairly gay-friendly though, so I’d expect there to be a larger than average number of LGB people working in libraries.
That’s pretty close to the Doper numbers, based on the people who answered these [two](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=609699) [polls](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=610147). And I consider this place to be gay friendly.
Unfortunately, that’s the only useful data I got out of my poll. I was hoping to see if more gay guys would be able to stomach straight sex than lesbians, and how all of them compared to the obvious trends in the straight thread.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2011, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-adults-think-a-quarter-of-americans-are-gay-lesbian/583464/27 "2011-05-29T10:50:09Z")
Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
> [@](#):
>
> U.S. adults, on average, estimate that 25% of Americans are gay or lesbian. More specifically, over half of Americans (52%) estimate that at least one in five Americans are gay or lesbian, including 35% who estimate that more than one in four are. Thirty percent put the figure at less than 15%.
A bunch of bamboozling numbers.
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