Extremely gay
How can a instinct of belonging be forged in a setting where one’s existence is forbidden? That is the question that LSE’s Dr Centner and his co-author Harvard’s Manoel Pereira Neto explore in their groundbreaking research into Dubai’s expatriate lgbtq+ men’s nightlife.
But it was not an easy topic to research. Dr Centner explains: “It's an illegal, or criminalised, identity and place of behaviours and practices, so in a very general sense, it's a taboo. And taboo subjects are very often under-researched, sometimes because people include a hard period gaining access, gaining that trust, but also because, even if people secure that access, there could be significant repercussions for themselves as researchers, or for the people who are the research participants.
“As two queer researchers, we were able to enter the worlds of relatively privileged Western gay expatriates. Secrecy is often the norm, but the field was familiar to us, through previous visits and research projects.”
These were indeed ‘parties’ ...[but] not bars identified as same-sex attracted. Not a available venue’s webpage uses the word ‘gay’ or related euphemisms, nor do they hint at targeting
Adult LGBT Population in the United States
This report provides estimates of the number and percent of the U.S. grown-up population that identifies as LGBT, overall, as well as by age. Estimates of LGBT adults at the national, state, and regional levels are included. We rely on BRFSS 2020-2021 facts for these estimates. Pooling multiple years of data provides more stable estimates—particularly at the articulate level.
Combining 2020-2021 BRFSS data, we estimate that 5.5% of U.S. adults name as LGBT. Further, we estimate that there are almost 13.9 million (13,942,200) LGBT adults in the U.S.
Regions and States
LGBT people reside in all regions of the U.S. (Table 2 and Figure 2). Consistent with the overall population in the United States,more LGBT adults live in the South than in any other region. More than half (57.0%) of LGBT people in the U.S. dwell in the Midwest (21.1%) and South (35.9%), including 2.9 million in the Midwest and 5.0 million in the South. About one-quarter (24.5%) of LGBT adults reside in the West, approximately 3.4 million people. Less than one in five (18.5%) LGBT adults reside in the Northeast (2.6 million).
The percent of adults who identify as LG
Many gay men grew up feeling ashamed of not conforming to cultural expectations about “real boys” or “real men.” Especially during middle and high educational facility, they may have been bullied or publicly humiliated because of their difference—made to feel like outsiders and not “one of the boys.” They may have found it easier relating to women than men, though they didn’t fully belong to the girl group, either.
Every homosexual man I’ve seen in my practice over the years has had a conflicted, troubled relationship with his own masculinity, often shaping his behavior in destructive ways. Writing for Vice, Jeff Leavell captures the dynamic nicely: “Queer people, especially gay men, are known for dealing with a slew of self-doubts and anxieties in noxious ways. Gay men are liable to sense incredibly insecure over their masculinity, a kind of internalized homophobia that leads them to idolize 'masc 4 masc', 'gaybros' and [to] shame and oppress femme men.”
Here we view one of the most common defenses against shame: getting rid of it by offloading or projecting it onto somebody else; in this case, one of those “femme men.” In effect, “masc” men who humiliate “femmes” restate the shame trauma of their
It’s official: Gen Z is extremely gay
The report also looked at how LGBTQ+ people are joined with the rest of population, finding that significant proportions of the populations have family members and close friends who are gay or lesbian (39 per cent) and bi (22 per cent). Slightly less people said they have a close confidant or family member who is trans (9 per cent), although Gen Z are more likely to than any other generation. Gen Z are also more likely to be aware of trans celebrities and have transgender acquaintances, which Stonewall suggests means that “the future is far more familiar and connected with trans people.”
Overall, the report paints a fairly positive picture of LGBTQ+ life in Britain, as a place where more and more people feel comfortable coming out and increasing numbers of straight people have close Homosexual friends – you would wish these trends mean that campaigns against our rights will eventually become less tenable (obviously, you’re less likely to support anti-trans legislation if your best comrade is trans).
While the report feels like a rare bit of good news for Britain’s Diverse community, it’s hard to square this with the figures, published yesterday, wh