# What percentage of people are LGBT? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 19, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973 "2008-04-19T03:33:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Charter\_Member1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Charter\_Member1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charter_Member1)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973/1 "2008-04-19T03:33:02Z")
Are there any specific numbers for the percentage of Gay males, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people in the population? (World population and if possible, Australia?) Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![shigyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@shigyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shigyu)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973/2 "2008-04-19T03:39:18Z")
Any statistics on this subject are rickety at best. Especially if you go by the general understanding that people are really all over the “spectrum”. (Why do “lesbian/gay/bisexual”, which are effectively the exact same thing, get lumped in with “transsexual”, which is something completely unrelated in every way?) ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973/3 "2008-04-19T03:49:05Z")
I still think that acronym sounds like a sandwich. ---
**Author:** ![JayRx1981](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/71e660/32.png) [@JayRx1981](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JayRx1981)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973/4 "2008-04-19T06:25:11Z")
Mmmmm…sandwiches. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973/5 "2008-04-19T12:06:15Z")
[QUOTE=shigyu] (Why do “lesbian/gay/bisexual”, which are effectively the exact same thing, get lumped in with “transsexual”, which is something completely unrelated in every way?) [/QUOTE] No, it’s not “completely unrelated in every way.” In our society, any deviation from the sexual norm has traditionally been lumped together as “queer” or any of its many synonyms. Plus, “LGB” people, having been through our own personal experience as sexual outsiders (I prefer “sexual outlaws”), have tended to be more sympathetic to transsexuals than the general public. So it’s included as a gesture of solidarity, for reasons ranging from psychological to ethical to societal to political. Perhaps we should also include people with fetishes, etc., as well as asexuals. ---
**Author:** ![Charter\_Member1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Charter\_Member1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charter_Member1)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973/6 "2008-04-19T12:44:26Z")
[QUOTE=shigyu] Any statistics on this subject are rickety at best. Especially if you go by the general understanding that people are really all over the “spectrum”. (Why do “lesbian/gay/bisexual”, which are effectively the exact same thing, get lumped in with “transsexual”, which is something completely unrelated in every way?) [/QUOTE] Why do you separate gay and lesbian, when just saying “gay” will incorporate both? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973/7 "2008-04-19T12:48:24Z")
No reliable numbers are possible. First off, people will (if interviewed) lie. There are ways around that. More central is the question of definitions. If I ask if you are gay, you might say yes, or no depending on what you think the word means. ---
**Author:** ![Charter\_Member1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Charter\_Member1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charter_Member1)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973/8 "2008-04-19T12:48:28Z")
[QUOTE=shigyu] (Why do “lesbian/gay/bisexual”, which are effectively the exact same thing, get lumped in with “transsexual”, which is something completely unrelated in every way?) [/QUOTE] Firstly the T is generally transgendered/transsexual not JUST transsexual. Secondly, What is your justification for lumping bisexual in with gay/lesbian but not lumping transgendered/transsexual in with them? ---
**Author:** ![JustThinkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@JustThinkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustThinkin)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973/9 "2008-04-19T13:54:11Z")
[QUOTE=Charter Member] Why do you separate gay and lesbian, when just saying “gay” will incorporate both? [/QUOTE] Some folks do, for the sake of convenience or for the comfort of the audience. Some older folk think “lesbian” sounds nastier that “gay” or don’t know what lesbian means. :rolleyes: This was more true in the 70s and 80s than it is now. I’m not sure, but I suspect (vaguely remember) the split came because the word gay came to be strongly associated with homosexual men. Homosexual women have always been more invisible to straight folk, especially when you factor in society’s inherent sexism. During the early gay lib efforts, lesbians fought hard to be recognized and included as a demographic with their own concerns, seperate from gay men. Labels mattered (and still do, I suppose). ---
**Author:** ![shigyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@shigyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shigyu)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973/10 "2008-04-19T14:21:52Z")
[QUOTE=Charter Member] Why do you separate gay and lesbian, when just saying “gay” will incorporate both? [/QUOTE] Do you know what quotation marks are for? I then said they were the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![shigyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@shigyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shigyu)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973/11 "2008-04-19T14:24:08Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] No, it’s not “completely unrelated in every way.” In our society, any deviation from the sexual norm has traditionally been lumped together as “queer” or any of its many synonyms. Plus, “LGB” people, having been through our own personal experience as sexual outsiders (I prefer “sexual outlaws”), have tended to be more sympathetic to transsexuals than the general public. So it’s included as a gesture of solidarity, for reasons ranging from psychological to ethical to societal to political. Perhaps we should also include people with fetishes, etc., as well as asexuals. [/QUOTE] Seems to me it just reinforces the stereotype that all “deviation from the sexual norm” is the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-are-lgbt/445973/12 "2008-04-19T15:37:55Z")
From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_sexual_orientation): > [@](#): > > The largest and most thorough survey in Australia to date was conducted by telephone interview with 19,307 respondents between the ages of 16 and 59 in 2001/2002. The study found that 97.4% of men identified as heterosexual, 1.6% as gay and 0.9% as bisexual. For women 97.7% identified as heterosexual, 0.8% as lesbian and 1.4% as bisexual. Nevertheless, 8.6% of men and 15.1% of women reported either feelings of attraction to the same sex or some sexual experience with the same sex. Half the men and two thirds of the women who had same-sex sexual experience regarded themselves as heterosexual rather than homosexual.