One of the largest and most obvious problems that hidden homosexuality creates is the unawareness of those around you that share your attractions - you don't know who's really gay. This leads to other problems of feeling alone or secluded, especially within the dating world. If you can't distinguish who's a homo, then it's going to be incredibly hard to find one to date or interact with on a fully mutually-aware basis.
I definitely don't have any tips on solving this issue; I can count the number of people I know (disregarding online) to be gay on just one hand, and I don't know any of them, not even as acquaintances. Still, thinking about this problem got me wondering about statistics - just how many people around me are gay?
In answer to this question, I researched a little online to find out about official statistics, and found a few sources on it.
According to the most popular study on this, conducted by the Williams Institute of the UCLA Law School in 2011, 3.5% of Americans identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. This is equivalent to roughly 11 million people.
Dashiell Bennet of the Atlantic Wire explained that this survey, asking the question: "Do you, personally, identify as lesbian, gay bisexual, or transgender?" was conducted in all fifty states with 200,000 respondents - a relatively large sample. The results were also remarkably consistent; all of the state polls average to 3.5%.
Ramon Johnson from About.com Gay Life explained, however, that these statistics aren't far from subjective, as the study itself - especially the nature of the question being asked - and participants' answers aren't entirely reliable. These surveys count on people to self-identify, which is complicated by individuals' denial or reluctance to admit their sexualities, or that their sexualities aren't able to be defined by "LGBT". He provided the widely accepted statistics of 1 in 10 to 1 in 20 Americans identifying as LGB.
Still, even though the total average for all Americans is 3.5%, it still came to my mind that a clearer and more accurate demographic picture might be possible. Such as that there's a difference in LGB population according to different ages. A different study conducted by the American Foundation for Equal Rights, on gallup.com, found (among the very similar total percentage of Americans that are LGBT) there is a differing proportion by age; i.e. younger Americans are more likely to be gay.
Here's the, essentially copy and pasted, data from the Wikipedia page, based on 2000 data of the American Community Survey. This gives a better picture for for the top ten LGB populations of certain cities and states.
BY CITY
- Top Cities Ranked by Population
| Rank | City | Percentage of City Population |
GLB Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| population | ||||
| 1 | New York | 4.5% | 272,493 | |
| 2 | Los Angeles | 5.6% | 154,270 | |
| 3 | Chicago | 5.7% | 114,449 | |
| 4 | San Francisco | 15.4% | 94,234 | |
| 5 | Phoenix | 6.4% | 63,222 | |
| 6 | Houston | 4.4% | 61,976 | |
| 7 | San Diego | 6.8% | 61,945 | |
| 8 | Dallas | 7.0% | 58,473 | |
| 9 | Seattle | 12.9% | 57,993 | |
| 10 | Boston | 12.3% | 50,540 | |
- Top Cities Ranked by Percentage
| Rank | City | Percentage of City Population |
GLB Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| population | ||||
| 1 | San Francisco | 15.4% | 94,234 | |
| 2 | Seattle | 12.9% | 57,993 | |
| 3 | Atlanta | 12.8% | 39,805 | |
| 4 | Minneapolis | 12.5% | 34,295 | |
| 5 | Boston | 12.3% | 50,540 | |
| 6 | Sacramento | 9.8% | 32,108 | |
| 7 | Portland | 8.8% | 35,413 | |
| 8 | Denver | 8.2% | 33,698 | |
| 9 | Washington | 8.1% | 32,599 | |
| 10 | Orlando | 7.7% | 12,508 | |
_______________________
BY STATE
- Top States Ranked by Population
| Rank | State | Percentage of State Population |
GLB Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| population | ||||
| 1 | California | 5.2% | 1,338,164 | |
| 2 | Florida | 4.6% | 609,219 | |
| 3 | New York | 4.2% | 592,337 | |
| 4 | Texas | 3.6% | 579,968 | |
| 5 | Illinois | 3.8% | 345,395 | |
| 6 | Ohio | 4.0% | 335,110 | |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | 3.5% | 323,454 | |
| 8 | Georgia | 4.3% | 278,943 | |
| 9 | Massachusetts | 5.7% | 269,074 | |
| 10 | Washington | 5.7% | 266,983 | |
- Top States Ranked by Percentage
| Rank | State | GLB Population | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of State Population |
population | ||
| 1 | District of Columbia | 8.1% | 47,651 |
| 2 | New Hampshire | 6.6% | 81,561 |
| 3 | Washington | 5.7% | 335,964 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | 5.7% | 361,898 |
| 5 | Maine | 5.2% | 66,295 |
| 6 | California | 5.2% | 1,895,792 |
| 7 | Colorado | 5.1% | 219,364 |
| 8 | Vermont | 5.1% | 31,050 |
| 9 | New Mexico | 4.9% | 99,085 |
| 10 | Minnesota | 4.7% | 231,215 |
___________________________
BY METROPOLITAN AREA
- Top Metropolitan Areas Ranked by Percentage
| Rank | Metro Area | Percentage of Metro Population |
GLB Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| population | rank | |||
| 1 | San Francisco | 8.2% | 256,313 | 4 |
| 2 | Seattle | 6.5% | 154,835 | 11 |
| 3 | Boston | 6.2% | 201,344 | 5 |
| 4 | Portland | 6.1% | 94,027 | 21 |
| 5 | Tampa | 5.9% | 119,044 | 16 |
| 6 | Austin | 5.9% | 61,732 | 29 |
| 7 | Denver | 5.8% | 99,027 | 19 |
| 8 | Minneapolis | 5.7% | 130,472 | 15 |
| 9 | Orlando | 5.7% | 81,272 | 24 |
| 10 | Hartford | 5.6% | 49,000 | 33 |
All this data allows for a clearer picture of LGB demographics. Urbanity and youth are typical characteristics of a gay person... though I would be remiss without mentioning that that's just a statistical generalization - not a stereotype. If you live in a small-town city, or even one that just wasn't listed above, it doesn't mean that there's no hope for finding any gay friends (or lovers) around you; I live just outside of Minneapolis and I was still surprised as to how much of the population in the metro area is LGB. As I mentioned earlier, I don't even know any other gay people.
So if it helps anyone, know that it's more than likely that you're not alone. If your sexuality is a secret, then at least be comforted by the fact that there are other people around who you share that secret as well.
I plan on editing and adding to the statistics on this post over time and as new data comes out.
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