gaywrites:

A couple of days ago, we talked about the new Gallup poll that estimated about 3.4% of Americans are LGBT. The consensus seems to be that it’s a very low guess, but what can you do?

In response, the Huffington Post published this column about why exactly we try to measure the number of LGBT people in the country. For instance, 3% of the population could certainly change the outcome of the election. Another thing to consider is how valid the Gallup report really is; there are some questions about whether people of a certain race, class or age group are more likely to identify as LGBT than others.

A tidbit regarding the election angle:

Once we get beyond the basic results, we still don’t know precisely how many people are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Results from younger people show that once we factor in people’s reluctance to identify themselves, the percentage is probably above 5 percent. It seems reasonable to me to assume that the total number, while unknowable, is probably 5 to 10 percent of the population. Even with the low estimate, this is still 15.5 million Americans, and up to 31.1 million at the high estimate.

But should these numbers matter at all? Would marriage equality cease to matter if gays were 1 percent of the population?

Rights are not bestowed by group membership (though we often find people willing to deny rights to individuals because they are members of a group). That is what the concept of “individual rights” is all about. They belong to the individual. And, in the United States, it is supposed to be individual rights that undergird our legal system.

This well-researched piece gives a lot of insight into how we measure how many of us there are, and why that matters. Give it a read and let me know what you think. 

handprintedheart:

When civil rights are up for vote.