At a point in American history where every other headline and proposed law seems to center around protecting the legal rights and enhanced privileges of those citizens who choose to wear (if not actually advertise)
the actual number of such individuals is consistently over exaggerated.
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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/americans-have-no-idea-how-few-gay-people-there-are/257753/
Americans Have No Idea How Few Gay People There Are
Garance Franke-Ruta May 31 2012, 2:17 PM ET
Surveys show a shockingly high fraction think a quarter of the country is gay or lesbian, when the reality is that it's probably less than 2 percent.
On the other hand, the extraordinary confusion over the percentage of gay people may reflect a triumph of the gay and lesbian movement's decades-long fight against invisibility and the closet.
"My first reaction to that, aside from a little chuckle, is that it's actually a sign of the success of the movement for L**T rights," said Stuart Gaffney, a spokesman for the group Marriage E******y USA. "We are a small minority, and we will never have full e******y without the support of the majority, and a poll like that suggests the majority is extremely aware of their gay neighbors, coworkers, and friends."
Overall, "U.S. adults, on average, estimate that 25 percent of Americans are gay or lesbian," Gallup found. Only 4 percent of all those surveyed in 2011 and about 8 percent of those surveyed in 2002 correctly guessed that fewer than 5 percent of Americans identify as gay or lesbian.
The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, a sexual orientation law think tank, released a study in April 2011, the analyses suggest that there are more than 8 million adults in the US who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual, comprising 3.5% of the adult population.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/0... (
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Our country's actual major minorities, on the other hand, who, if anything, exercise less political power, comprise, respectively:
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The total population of Hispanic and Latino Americans comprised 50.5 million or 16.3% of the national total,
while Black or African American alone, represent, percentage wise, 13.1%.