Only 3.4 % of population self identify as gay

Andrew Malcolm:

A massive new survey published this morning reveals that only 3.4% of American adults publicly identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, with the highest percentage coming among the younger, less-educated non-whites.

The new Gallup Poll of more than 121,000 adults, the largest of its kind on record, wass conducted during the past four months. It finds the percentage of self-reported LGBT Americans to be much smaller than a general impression derived from their presence in popular culture and their perceived influence in liberal American politics.

The special report found 3.4% of adult Americans publicly reporting themselves as personally identifying with those categories, 92.2% saying they do not and 4.4% refusing to say or claiming not to know.

Given the stigma often attached by some to those categories, some unknown portion of the Didn't Say's and No's presumably are choosing to remain in the closet, holding down the LGBT number somewhat.
...

The largest percentage (4.6%) came among blacks, followed by Asians (4.3%), Hispanics (4%) and non-Hispanic whites (3.2%).

Results showed that a larger percentage of women, especially younger women, reported themselves as LGBT (3.6%) compared to men (3.3%).

And Gallup reports those publicly asserting to be LGBT tend to be younger, less-educated and less wealthy than the rest of the population.

Among those making less than $24,000, 5.1% reported being LGBT, compared with 3.5% earning between $24,000 and $60,000 and only 2.8% who earned more.

The more education respondents had the less likely they were to report being LGBT. Those with some college education (4%) or some high school (3.5%) came in under those with college diplomas (2.8%) or a post-graduate degree (3.2%).

East and West coast residents tended to report being LGBT more (3.7% and 3.6%, respectively) than those living in the Midwest (3.4%) or the South (3.2%)....

This may explain why they have had so little success in referendums on gay marriage.  The groups have made progress against workplace discrimination, but the most surprising data to me was the higher concentration in low paying jobs.  I suppose the wealthy gays are just more visible.  They tend to contribute handsomely to Democrat politicians, and push their agenda through work in the entertainment industry.   Their influence there is disproportionate to their numbers in the population as a whole.  Not all gays are Democrats.

There is a story told by the late Molly Ivins about a gathering of gays in Texas where people were discussing coming out of the closet.  It finally go around to gays from Midland and Odessa.  They were asked if they feared discrimination if they were openly gay.  The response was no, they just did not want anyone to think they were a Democrat. That may explain the lower numbers in the South.