4%

Has entertainment and public media gone overboard on LGBT? If I asked you the percent of people in the US who identify as LGBT, what would your answer be? When asked in polling what percent of the population is LGBT, people usually estimate between 20-25% of the population. The truth is that the actual number of LGBT is around 4%. That is it. Yet it seems to me that the amount of media and entertainment coverage of LGBT issues and lifestyle is slanted so that you would think the LGBT is well over that perceived 25%. I think it is way overdone and has grown tiresome.

Time to insert my Seinfeld disclaimer i.e. "not that there is anything wrong with that". Seriously, I don't have an issue with LGBT. I am probably more liberal than most on this site in my social views. I think people are free to live their life in whatever manner befits them. I don't judge, admonish or avoid people who I know and work with who are LGBT. My rant here is I am tired of LGBT being pushed at me in the public media on what seems like a daily basis. It is so pervasive it feels promotional and disproportionate to the amount of coverage and exposure that 4% of the population should be getting.

Does anyone else feel the same? Are you tired of LGBT being "pushed" at you? Or am I in my own 4% or less of the population in this view?

Could it be because the % is higher in the entertainment business?

Could it be because the % is higher in the entertainment business?

I have no doubts about that. My guess is the % is closer to double digits in the entertainment industry, perhaps higher. I don't think the % is that high in the news and related media.

Could it be because the % is higher in the entertainment business?

Part of it is this, I think.

The other part of it, in my opinion, was highlighted by Dave Chappelle in his recent standup special. He said that the unspoken rule in showbusiness is that you can't offend what he calls "the alphabet people." I think the LGBT community routinely criticize books, shows, and films for not having enough representation. So there's pressure there.

I am of a like mind. I have no issue with a persons orientation. I have very good friends who realized they were gay and I am happy they are happy. But, I do agree, the entertainment industry would have one think that a high proportion of the population is gay. In fact they influenced me into thinking it was 5 to 10 times the 4%.

A co-worker and I were somewhat discussing this topic a while back when Randall's father was gay on This Is Us. It didn't really feel like it had much to do with the storyline of Randall and his father, but it was a way to bring an LGBT character into the show. As we have all said, not that there is anything wrong with it, but at times in shows it can feel pushed in there to ensure representation.

I think it's an interesting conversation.

I guess I'm watching different programming than the rest of you, because I don't feel like anything is being forced on me. Rather, I feel like a part of the community that has been largely ignored and dismissed for decades is actually being portrayed in entertainment.

There's a lot of "get off my lawn" in this thread, if you ask me.

It's always fascinating to me to see the majority complain about the minority.

Has entertainment and public media gone overboard on LGBT? If I asked you the percent of people in the US who identify as LGBT, what would your answer be? When asked in polling what percent of the population is LGBT, people usually estimate between 20-25% of the population. The truth is that the actual number of LGBT is around 4%. That is it. Yet it seems to me that the amount of media and entertainment coverage of LGBT issues and lifestyle is slanted so that you would think the LGBT is well over that perceived 25%. I think it is way overdone and has grown tiresome.

 

Time to insert my Seinfeld disclaimer i.e. "not that there is anything wrong with that". Seriously, I don't have an issue with LGBT. I am probably more liberal than most on this site in my social views. I think people are free to live their life in whatever manner befits them. I don't judge, admonish or avoid people who I know and work with who are LGBT. My rant here is I am tired of LGBT being pushed at me in the public media on what seems like a daily basis. It is so pervasive it feels promotional and disproportionate to the amount of coverage and exposure that 4% of the population should be getting.

 

Does anyone else feel the same? Are you tired of LGBT being "pushed" at you? Or am I in my own 4% or less of the population in this view?

Who said their population is less than 4% and how did they determine this number is accurate? Keep in mind, there’s no telling how many people out there haven’t told a soul they are gay because of posts like this that are still prevalent to this day.

I guess I'm watching different programming than the rest of you, because I don't feel like anything is being forced on me. Rather, I feel like a part of the community that has been largely ignored and dismissed for decades is actually being portrayed in entertainment.

 

There's a lot of "get off my lawn" in this thread, if you ask me.

 

It's always fascinating to me to see the majority complain about the minority.

Exactly.

“Tell those 4%ers to shut the hell up!!!!!”

:lol2: :lol2:

Let me know when we can really talk about what is being pushed on us these days........

Who said their population is less than 4% and how did they determine this number is accurate? Keep in mind, there’s no telling how many people out there haven’t told a soul they are gay because of posts like this that are still prevalent to this day.

That was my next question... Where did the 4% come from? And that number obviously doesn't account for people who are gay and either not out, or only out to a very few people.

I guess I'm watching different programming than the rest of you, because I don't feel like anything is being forced on me. Rather, I feel like a part of the community that has been largely ignored and dismissed for decades is actually being portrayed in entertainment.

 

There's a lot of "get off my lawn" in this thread, if you ask me.

 

It's always fascinating to me to see the majority complain about the minority.

I can't speak for anyone else, but please don't take my comments as a complaint, as much as it is just an observation.

I took a human sexuality class in college, which counted towards my minor in Psychology, and there was a lot of interesting discussion in that class. One take away that I always remember is basically the heterosexual vs. homosexual scale and how there really are no true 0's or true 10's.

For starters I have no way of knowing what the percentage might be. I really can’t even begin to guess. For every gay person that is out, I’m very certain that there are many more that aren’t and lots of times because they’re in a straight marriage and feel that they can’t be free to help us wage what that true percentage might be.

The Cincinnati Pride festival years ago only attracted a very small amount of people, and I’d welcome all of you to attend just to see what those numbers are now. I’ve been to all kinds of events at Sawyer Point/Yeatman’s Cove over the years, and never have I seen the amount of people attend events like the numbers I see at the Pride Festival. The estimate now has swelled to about 90,000. True not everyone who attends are gay as there are also tons of representation from parents of gays that want to show their support.

While the numbers of attendance are now incredibly huge, I still think about all of those closeted gays who wouldn’t be caught dead attending. Married or not there are also tons of gay people who don’t feel like they want to be so out and waving flags, and they keep their lives very private and don’t feel the need to be officially out about it.

This can be due to a number of reasons such as they don’t feel like their workplace is one that could be very acceptant, or perhaps the neighborhood they live in. Even with society thankfully showing more acceptance these days, so many people still experience a sense of fear that they might welcome adverse reaction from family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors if they revealed their true selves.

With that said I grew up knowing that I was gay and how society felt about it. I next to never felt that I had a voice to say anything, and keeping that under wraps was such a lonely place to be, and especially during my teen years. I rarely sensed anything from T.V. programming other than a few obvious actors such as Paul Lynde, and even then is was still under hushed circumstances.

The pervading thought is that all gay men are flamboyant and that certainly anyone could tell if someone was gay, but for every flamboyant homosexual there are so many who are not. Same with woman. Sure there’s a lot of tom boyish lesbians, but there’s also the tag of lipstick lesbians regarding women who you couldn’t tell just by looking at them.

I would never suggest that straight people just go away and quit pushing their “straight agenda”, because I’m well aware that there are more straight people than gay, but it sorta bugs me to hear straight people say that they’re fine with people being gay, but please don’t push the topic on me so much because I don’t really care to hear about it. I’ve spent my whole life having to swallow the world being so hyper straight making me feel that I have no place in this world. As I grew older I came to realize that there are way many more gay people in this world then people know and for there to be so many and very little representaton within the culture was disturbing and not a true representation of reality.

If you see more and more representation these days it’s a combination of true reality finally showing its face, and without the help of understanding straight folk it could very possibly never happen. It’s been a case of people finally understanding because now they know family and friends who are gay and it’s not such a frightening thought to them considering they’ve had the benefit of acutally talking the topic with them to a point that it becomes a big nothig burger when they begin to realize that a gay person didn’t choose to be gay, and that there have always been homosexuals, and there always will be, and that we’re not all the freaks that people have been lead to believe we are, and that in many way we’re just as down to earth as anyone else and share many of the same interests etc. I don’t do my gay laundry, I just do my laundry.

Also when you see more of it on T.V. it’s also a bit of a backlash that says that now I have a voice I’m really really going to use it because I’m never going to go back into that suffocating closet ever again, and that the journey to really live in a free accepting culture has just begun, and to make it a solid reality we can’t just go away because some straight folks are uncomfortable about it. We are going to make sure that people realize that we exist and we are a true reality and representation of a significant portion of our culture and not just an insignificant freakish footnote that we need to be ashamed about.

One thing for certain about the gay culture that in the past always seemed to join in secrecy in back alley bars that seemed creepy and weird is because they had no other choice, but now gay folks are feeling more accepted in anybody bars, and gay bars are now showing up on Main St.

Growing up all I really wanted was to be apart of the real world rather than having to separate myself from it to go into my exclusive gay world. Some gays’ behaviour has been seriously affected by all of those years living in the shadows that they think that’s the only way to live and I feel sorry for them because all of that living in the shadows wasn’t there choice to begin with, and it was just a necessary evil because society wouldn’t allow any other way.

Bottomline is that homosexuality is a true reality, and finally the strides we have made to make this clear are starting to pay off, and because some straights are feeling too uncomfortable about being made aware of us is no reason to apologize for just being ourselves. We’ve had to live in an exclusively straight world all of these years and in many ways suffer through that in our suffocating closets that by comparison we really can’t feel sorry for straight people who suffer so much because now they have to consciously realize that we exist, and more so than they ever cared to know.

What is that percentage? I don’t even care because there’s no true way of knowing, but I do know that we’re certainly significant enough not to be suppressed. Even the very few asexual people in this world need not be suppressed. Imagine a 17 year old kid telling his or her friends that they have no sex drive whatsoever, and just see how they might be shunned and considered to be weird. We are all who we are. Straight people didn’t wake up one day and choose to be straight, and neither did gay people. We’re all just a true reality of humanity, straight and gay, and I’m very thrilled now to be living in this era where I can finally see with my own two eyes that we can all get along and understand each other. What my true hope is that one day we solidly see that the whole topic is seriously a big nothing burger and that we live in a culture that no one feels that they are being suppressed just for being who they are, and loving who they love.

I can't speak for anyone else, but please don't take my comments as a complaint, as much as it is just an observation.

Mine was an observation and complaining. :lol2: