Somebody tell Ellen DeGeneres to call off
the toaster oven campaign! According to Gallup poll numbers released
yesterday, much of the American public thinks that one in five people
are gay or lesbian. When the Gallup reporter told me the numbers on the
phone, I think she expected a cheer. Once I got past my first thought
(that all those groups called “One in Ten” will be needing new
stationery) this very smart reporter and I spoke about why perceptions
about our community could change so quickly.
“How many gay people are there?” is
one of the most common questions we get from media professionals and the
public. To me, it seems like a question that is vitally important yet
also virtually meaningless. We’ve long known that the old standby 10%
was steeped in assumptions. We also know that anti-gay organizations
love to distract from the real issues by debating how many of us there
are—as if being “only” 2% of the population means you don’t
deserve the same civil rights as other people. Most importantly, we
understand that sexual orientation is about many things, including
identity, behavior, perception and self-acceptance. Sexual orientation
falls along a spectrum and can be fluid over the course of someone’s
lifetime. As someone who enjoys living in a complicated (and
reality-based) world, I look forward to a Gallup poll asking “How many
people do you think are bisexual?”
Here’s the message I think the
community should be sending now that these numbers are the topic of hot
debate: “How many gay people are there?” is not the question at all.
What we should be asking is “So, how many of us are ‘enough’ to
deserve equal treatment?” It’s fairly obvious to the people around
us (more to some than others, perhaps) that there are a lot of us. Maybe
now, though people will realize that GLBT people—5%, 10%, 25%,
whatever—are worthy of equal treatment and civil rights protections.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to
predict that anti-gay groups will use these numbers to bolster their
arguments that we “recruit,” we are “overexposed” in the media,
or that the public has a distorted view of how many gay and lesbian
people exist. If they blame Ellen, it’s got more to do with the public
discussion that her coming out prompted than the comical incentive of
small appliances. Ellen’s coming out was a watershed event in an
amazing decade of continuing progress. Having just passed another
National Coming Out Day, we see more openly gay people in all walks of
life. As we approach another anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death we
can take heart in the impact of the The Laramie Project, now being
performed in colleges and high school theaters around the country.
So, once again, in the media and around
the dinner table, we’ll witness another “debate” about how many
gay and lesbian people really exist. In the meantime, we will just keep
moving forward with vigilance and courage. Eventually, we will reach a
time when it won’t matter how many of us there are, but that reality
is still a long way off.
My partner and I joked after I got off
the phone with the Gallup reporter that my reaction wasn’t what she
expected—instead of a cheer, she got a half-hour discussion on why the
number shouldn’t really matter.
The well-meaning perception I think we
will see from the non-gay people in our lives is that we would suddenly
feel validated that a random sample of people thinks we make up 20% of
the population.
What I do know is that the more people
see us, the more of us they realize exist. The more of us who come out
in real life, the more people will know there simply are lots of gay and
lesbian people. And what will matter is that we are treated as equals,
not percentages or numbers.
Cathy Renna is news media director for
the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, GLAAD.
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