How gay is RPC?

Greengoop said:

Historically we’ve been quite a gay community, so I’m not surprised that there’s still only 55% straight (actually more surprised since the majority are “str8”)

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How old are you again, Mr. Rayman History Major?

dr_st said:

How old are you again, Mr. Rayman History Major?

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I might answer that question sometime in the future!

I'm not saying this because of the results of this poll, but I'm sure the ratio 85 straight / 15 LGBTI (approx.) is even small. We are taking into account only democratic countries, where there may still be stigma for coming out, but you also have to take into account many, many countries where many people are in the closet because coming out as anything other than heterosexual would mean some punishment or even death given the legal unprotection. I mean, it isn't credible that in the vast majority of countries in the Middle East or Africa the ratio is not 85:15. I would say that the LGBTI percentage may be around 20-25%...

DaveRattlehead said:

I'm not saying this because of the results of this poll, but I'm sure the ratio 85 straight / 15 LGBTI (approx.) is even small.

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That depends on whether the ratio is computed only over democratic countries or whether it's some attempted projection (if so based on what data and what model?)

IMO, It's more complicated than that, because a lot of these preference/identities are a spectrum, and cultural differences not only affect how comfortable people feel about presenting themselves, but even how they actually feel about themselves.

I think it’d be better if they did that survey in countries where LGBT is legalised and not looked down on, as people may lie in these surveys in countries with low press freedom.

dr_st said:

That depends on whether the ratio is computed only over democratic countries or whether it's some attempted projection (if so based on what data and what model?)

IMO, It's more complicated than that, because a lot of these preference/identities are a spectrum, and cultural differences not only affect how comfortable people feel about presenting themselves, but even how they actually feel about themselves.

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I seem to recall that 85:15 includes countries in which it's practically accepted and in which it's partially accepted. Of course, these kind of polls don't make sense in countries like Iraq, Iran, Syria, Palestine... Although I insist, I think that ratio is still small and I'm sure we are going to see something similar to what happened with the percentage of left handed people, since the stigma is getting gradually removed.

Actually, a quick Google search seems to confirm this:
-According to NBC, 30% of GenZ identifies within the LGBTI collective.
-On CNN they point to 28% of GenZ adults.
-On the other hand, in this other article, which takes into account other countries where it is not so well regarded, the ratio is 17%, quite close to the 85:15 we were talking about before. And of course, previous generations feel even less identified.

I think it is also interesting to emphasize that being gay/lesbian/trans/queer/other (or even questioning heterosexuality) doesn't imply feeling identified with the collective. There are many people with this sexuality who think that they just “happened” to be this way and do not have to feel part of a community, either because they see it as too stereotypical, because of internal conflicts, etc. Even so, if we take this group of people into account, I don't think the ratio will change too much.

DaveRattlehead said:

Although I insist, I think that ratio is still small and I'm sure we are going to see something similar to what happened with the percentage of left handed people, since the stigma is getting gradually removed.

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I think that in many, if not most, Western countries, the stigma has not only been removed, but it became quite fashionable to identify as "non-conforming", especially among young people.

Hence, I theorize that we are seeing an overshoot, and the actual ratio (if it can be measured at all) will normalize to something less than claimed in those NBC surveys.

The reason I say "if it can be measured at all" - it is because, unlike right/left-handedness which is quite binary, the very nature of defining all those 1.4 million different "gender identities" makes them fluid by definition, so depending on how broad or narrow you wish to make your view, and what criteria you use, I imagine you can get any number from 90% "straight" to only 10% "straight".

There is definitely a fashion element to the equation. Just like repression and cultural pressure in some parts of the world may cause that percentage to be "artificially" suppressed, active promotion in mainstream media will likely increase it.

Pew Research found in 2022 that about 5% of young adults identify as transgender. Gender dysphoria is obviously a real thing, but are 5% of all people naturally transgender? That's a question worth asking.

And like dr_st said, that is true of most "non-conforming" identities. A significant number of young people now identify as "neurodivergent". While it's probably a good thing not to hear "autism" used as an insult anymore, it has now become very fashionable to associate oneself with it, even though it remains a neurodevelopmental disorder that I'm sure most clinically diagnosed autists would prefer not to have to live with.

So, yeah, I also believe that we're observing an overshoot. That doesn't negate the reality of the condition for many, but it is a stark reminder of how easily influenced we are as a species.

I consider myself somewhere on the ace spectrum. Not really interested in intimacy,. But I'm not a celibate.