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Only one in 100 Britons is gay despite long-held myth

Roger Wilco said:
It might be interesting academically, but why does it matter politically? Is a group that is 1% of the general population less deserving of protection from unfair discrimination than a group that is 5% or 20%?
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I think that's exactly what they're driving at. 10% is a substantial number, and too many to be a small and insignificant fringe.

But if you can prove only 1% of the population is gay, then you can make it out to be a tiny group of deviants that's too minuscule to matter. It's also too small of a bloc to be politically valuable. Who's going to waste time pandering to 1% of the population for votes?

Those are all some cynical ways you could look at it.
 
Roger Wilco said:
It might be interesting academically, but why does it matter politically? Is a group that is 1% of the general population less deserving of protection from unfair discrimination than a group that is 5% or 20%?
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How many does it take, Ad-mir-al?!?! :klingon::klingon:
 
What's funny about this is that the anti-Gay people I know would be more likely to think that 99% of Britons are Gay. :rommie:
 
RJDiogenes said:
What's funny about this is that the anti-Gay people I know would be more likely to think that 99% of Britons are Gay. :rommie:
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With the way things have been turning out lately most of the anti-gay people are probably gay themselves. :rofl: Ken Mehlman anyone?
 
I'm fairly certain that most of my extended family thinks I'm a homosexual. I'm keeping it that way so I don't get any annoying "did you see that cute girl?" remarks or "have you met so and so?"
 
^ Well if you ever do decide to switch sides... ;) And I wish that trick worked for me. Despite my being out, my grandmother still asks why I am not married yet. She gets it but still thinks that I should be with someone, man or woman.


And Roger Wilco is right... sadly. :(
 
sidious618 said:
I'm fairly certain that most of my extended family thinks I'm a homosexual. I'm keeping it that way so I don't get any annoying "did you see that cute girl?" remarks or "have you met so and so?"
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Careful, if they think that way long enough they'll start trying to hook you up with other men. One way or another you'll have to step out of the straight closet and admit you're not gay.
 
RJDiogenes said:
Why sadly? That's good, isn't it? Also, kind of inevitable.
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You are correct. For us to make any sort of headway as a group we will need the help of heterosexuals. Our numbers alone are not great enough to sway politcs in our favor. But the sad part is the fact that so many of my own people are willing to sell us down the river just to maintain their own self-loathing attitudes. If we can't even convince ourselves then how effective are we going to be at convincing others. Not only are we fighting hate from the rest of the world, we are also fighting our own.
 
Part of the problem I see is making the distinction "our own" and "them" as if homosexual people are different people than heterosexual people. Or that there is only straight and only gay. There are bisexuals and there are people who fall on either side of the bisexual line, leaning more towards one or more towards the other.

I'm straight and I have no homosexual leanings but I'm also open minded to see that homosexuals aren't some "other" people who need to be classified different beyond whatever valid reasons there are. Politically, socially, economically, all those "-ally" should not be a distinction even though they are.

People take one or at best two aspects of someone and make it what that person is. Gay, straight. Black, white. Male, female. Or straight male or black lesbian. It makes a division that's completely arbitrary and unnecessary. Plus you're in a sense de-humanizing anyone you catalogue like that.
 
^ You are right. But at the same time it just does not work that way for human beings. We find it neccessary to categorize things so we can understand them. It is a part of our nature. And each group also tends to perpetuate the categorization with the intention of making themselves seen and heard. It is ultimately a cyclic response, one that will take time and effort to lay to rest.

But hopefully one day, we as a society will stop seeing each other's differences. Maybe then we can stop organizing them into groups. I think it would be nice to wake up one morning in a world where people see me as AstroSmurf, the Artist or AstroSmurf, the Talker rather than AstroSmurf, the Gay. Until then I will begrudgingly wear the moniker with the hope of changing things for the better. (It scares me to think that I will seen as the poster child for the gays in America. I have never made a very good one. I don't like Madonna.)
 
There's two kinds of people in this world: Those who believe in dividing people into groups and those who don't.
 
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