LGBT Americans Surveyed on Experiences

A recent Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends report on the survey, "Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, and Transsexual (LGBT) Americans: Attitudes, Experience, and Values in Changing Times" found that the majority (92%) believe that they are more accepted in society today than in the past ten years and anticipate that their acceptance will grow over the next ten years. The survey was conducted from April 11 through 29, 2013 of a nationally representative sample (1,197 individuals) of self-identified LGBT Americans adults by landline or cell phone. 

When asked about their experience with discrimination aimed at them due to their sexual orientation or gender identity presently or in past years, the majority (58%) said that they have been subjected to slurs or jokes and 39% said that they have been rejected by a friend or family member. About one third (30%) of respondents report being threatened or physically attacked and 29% said that they have been made to feel unwelcome in a place of worship. Slightly less than one quarter (23%) of respondents report receiving poor service in a restaurant, hotel or other place of business and 21% said that they had been treated unfairly by an employer. 

themostsearched.org offers a learning module, "Age and Attitudes about the Rights of Homosexuals: A Data-Driven Learning Guide" that investigates trends in attitudes regarding the rights of homosexuals in the United States from the early 1990s through 2007.

Read more:
http://www.pewresearch.org/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/06/13/a-survey-of-lgbt-americans/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2013/06/SDT_LGBT-Americans_06-2013.pdf
http://themostsearched.org/
http://themostsearched.org/resource/3237 

3.4% of Americans Identify as LGBT

In the largest single survey that targets LGBT Americans, Gallup finds that 3.4% of the adult population in the United States identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.  This survey of more than 120,000 US adults is consistent with smaller research studies that found 3.8% self-identified as LGBT.

One salient trend in the data reveals the marked difference in sexual orientation within different age groups. As seen in the graph, 6.4% of the youngest age group (18-29) identified as LGBT, while each successive age group was less likely to do so (only 1.9% of those 65 and older identified as LGBT).  In addition, men and women have interesting disparities, with women ages 18-29 being much more likely to identify as LGBT (8.3%) than men of the same age (4.6%).

Another salient part of the research comes from race and ethnicity; Hispanics, Asians, and African-Americans are much more likely than their non-Hispanic white counterparts to identify as LGBT.  3.2% of non-Hispanic whites identify as LGBT, with 4% Hispanic, 4.3% Asian, and 4.6% African-American responding likewise.

Gay Men More Likely to Have Survived Cancer

A new article in the journal Cancer finds that gay men are nearly twice as likely to report being cancer survivors than straight men are. However, sexual orientation is not part of cancer surveillance information, so researchers relied on self-reported health from the California Health Interview survey. As a result, it is still unclear why there are a disproportionately high number of gay cancer survivors. Either gay men are more likely to develop cancer in the first place (as some media headlines have seemed to suggest) or they are more likely to survive a cancer diagnosis. The BBC explains that "further research would be needed to determine if homosexual men were actually getting more tumors or had greater survival rates." The authors of the study, however, seem to lean towards the idea that gay men are more likely to get cancer than straight men (or than lesbian women, who have no significantly higher rate of cancer than straight women). The article notes that HIV infection -- substantially higher in gay men -- can lead to increased susceptibility to cancer and that HPV infection -- also high in gay men -- can lead to anal cancer.

Among those men who did survive cancer, there was no statistically significant difference in self-reported health between homosexual men and heterosexual men. However, bisexual women were 2.0-2.3 times more likely to report poor or fair health than heterosexual women.

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