A large
number of Americans are overestimating the size of the gay and lesbian
population, believing that it stands at 24 per cent, when just four
percent of people identify as LGBT.The
findings, from a Gallup poll, were conducted amid a growing tide of
support for same-sex marriage and legislation to protect the LGBT
community.But it suggests that public perception is very different to reality.
According to Gallup, just four percent of Americans self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
However, a third of people surveyed believed that lesbians and gays made up more than 25 percent of the population.
And
just nine percent of those in the survey correctly stated that they
thought the group made up less than 5 percent of the population, Bloomberg reports.
And even those who are against same sex marriage give inaccurate estimates about the size of the LGBT community.
The increased rights for gay, lesbian and transgender people have been pushed to the forefront over the past decade.
And as many states legalize same-sex marriage it has become an important issue.
In
a separate Gallup poll released Tuesday, the organization found a
'record-high' 60 percent of Americans favor the legalization of same-sex
marriage. At present, same-sex marriage is legal in 37 states in America. But 13 states have banned the union.
The
decision to legalize same-sex marriage has been made in different ways
-- by the courts, state legislature and by popular vote in places like
Maine, Maryland, and Washington. U.S. STATES WHERE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IS LEGAL Alabama, Alaska, California
Colorado, Connecticut, Florida
Idaho, Indiana, Iowa
Kansas, Massachusetts, Montana,
Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico
North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah,
Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin
Wyoming, Delaware, Hawaii
Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire
New York, Rhode Island, Vermont
Maine, Maryland, Washington
In
Florida, gay marriage is now legal statewide after the courts ruled
this year that the ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional and the
Supreme Court declined to intervene.Internationally,
Ireland just voted to legalize same sex marriage, becoming one of the
first country's to do so by a public vote.Leo
Varadkar, a gay Irish Cabinet minister said: 'We're the first country
in the world to enshrine marriage equality in our constitution and do so
by popular mandate. 'That makes us a beacon, a light to the rest of the world, of liberty and equality.'
A
spokesperson for Gallup said: 'Part of the explanation for the
inaccurate estimates of the gay and lesbian population rests with
Americans' general unfamiliarity with numbers and demography.' 'The
overestimation may also
reflect prominent media portrayals of gay characters on television and
in movies, even as far back as 2002, and perhaps the high visibility of
activists who have pushed gay causes, particularly legalizing same-sex
marriage.'
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