According to the Wall Street Journal with data from Facebook itself, nearly 70 percent of users of the social media have at least one gay, lesbian or bisexual friend — and that just the ones who are actually ‘out’ on Facebook. Not all Facebook users disclose their sexuality, and leave the “interested in” field blank, so the percent could be higher.
This finding is notable for showing that Americans are in fact becoming more comfortable with LGB people and families, and comes at a wonderful time for equality, what with DOMA and Prop 8 being repealed.
Obviously, not every American is on Facebook, but with 195 million users in the U.S. and Canada combined, that is still a lot of people. Also, not everyone who are “friends” on Facebook are actually friends, but many are of course, and at least this 70 percent of people are not big homophobes who see an LGB user and unfriends and blocks them.
This finding also echoes a recent Pew survey released earlier this month found that 87% of Americans now personally know someone who is gay or lesbian — up from 61% in 1993.
So to any one heteros out there without a gay friend yet, there’s only one thing you’ll need to know that would make you want to befriend us:
h/t: Passport
yaoming
I didn’t know you had to state your sexuality to join FB.
Tackle
Ok… So with this news we should jump up and down and do cartwheels
hyhybt
Given how many gay people there are, how many Facebook friends many people have, and the extreme unlikelihood that most people check through the descriptions for everyone they add, the remaining 30% is disturbingly high.
hyhybt
@yaoming: You don’t have to. But if you fill in the description fields, there’s one for what sex you are and one for who you’re interested in.