The Centers For Disease Control conduct a large scale survey called the National Health Interview Survey. This year for the first time it included questions about sexual orientation. The results produced a lower count than gay rights advocates were expecting and some of them are now challenging the accuracy of the survey.
Gay rights groups dispute federal survey’s estimate of population
Gay rights activists are distressed over the results of the first large-scale federal survey measuring sexual orientation in the United States, which last month reported that less than 3 percent of the population identifies as gay, lesbian or bisexual.
They contend it is a gross undercount and are particularly upset because they worked for years to get sexual orientation added to the 57-year-old National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), the government’s premier measure of Americans’ health status and behaviors. Now, the activists worry that the results will reduce the urgency of their causes and give fodder to their political foes.
“The truth is, numbers matter, and political influence matters,” said Scout, director of the nonprofit CenterLink Network of LGBT Equity, who goes by only one name. “If we really are 2 percent versus 4 percent, it means people are going to say, ‘okay, I’m only going to care half as much,’” he said.
Scout and others believe that the survey, which is administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is flawed. They point to other surveys, including some scholarly papers and less prominent government studies, that peg the number at closer to 4 percent. The CDC is investigating why its figures, particularly for bisexuals, differ from those in the other surveys.
Obviously number counts have a political impact. The incidence of gay, lesbian and bisexual persons in the population has been a subject of debate for many years and will continue to be. Up until now most of the studies that have attempted to investigate the issue with various approaches have been conducted on a fairly small scale. This is not an issue unique to the LGBT community. There have been similar issues raised by women's groups about surveys dealing with
the incidence of sexual violence. A large survey conducted by the FBI is seen as reporting lower figures than several other surveys.
Surveys like this are polls. They record people's answers to prearranged questions. They cover a broad range of topics from political opinions to health history. Surveys on similar topics seldom ask the same questions in exactly the same way. They use different methods of interviewing and approaches to sample selection. They simply are not exact science. The nature of the topics being surveyed and people's attitudes and feelings about the topics can have a significant impact on the results.
There are few topics more touchy and controversial than anything to do with human sexuality. Kinsey was the pioneer who first ventured into a loaded field of inquiry. His results were shocking to a public that was accustomed to everybody pretending that they always behaved just like they were told to do in Sunday School. In the almost 80 years since be began his efforts, American society has become more open about sexuality, but only by a matter of degree.
On LGBT issues there has been rather amazing progress in recent years, but there are still many places and communities where being openly gay, lesbian or bi is certainly not a comfortable experience and some where it is likely not safe. No matter how questions are asked it is impossible to elicit honest responses from everybody who experiences some degree of same sex attraction. There are also people who are psychologically in denial about the subject.
The problem with counting sexual orientation is that it is a characteristic that isn't subject to an independent means of objective verification. If a survey is looking at a medical condition like diabetes, there are clinical test for verifying a diagnosis. If somebody chooses to answer that they are straight, there is no clear cut objective means of proving or disproving that.
If I had personal information that I believed it was vital for me to keep secret, which I do not, then I expect that I would be reluctant to reveal that to a government survey. We have seen enough recent revelations about the doings of the NSA to give one pause.
What people are being asked about is self identification. That ultimately is a choice that people get to make for themselves. I grew up in a era when gay witch hunts were all to common. It is a complicated and difficult subject. There is not likely a way to get a perfectly correct result. The best that can be done is to compare the results of different surveys using different methodologies and think in terms of a range of possibilities.