Whoever thought Internet search engines would be engaged in a battle to the death to show how much they loved the gays?
Okay, “death” might be stretching it. But while The Google is merely changing a blue line to a rainbow line on certain gay-related searches, Yahoooooooooooooooooooooo has gone all out with its own Pride section, featuring gay news, a pride celebration locator, and a historical timeline of the gay civil rights movement.
But what are the other search engines doing? Bing’s got nothing, Ask.com doesn’t care, Mahalo is static, and Wolfram|Alpha “isn’t sure what to do with your input.”
Looks like Yahoo is the clear winner!
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
galefan2004
You would have to be an idiot not to cater to gays in the internet. Unlike the real world where we make up less than 10% of the population, I’m willing to say that gay men dominate the internet.
dgz
@galefan2004:
haha! tru.
oh, and we make up 4% of population; sorry to break it to ya. 🙁
(kinsey’s statistical methods were deplorable.)
galefan2004
@dgz: I include men that are willing to have sex with other men in there, so I don’t buy that its simply 4%.
TopherMP
4% is what they say, its probably closer to 50/50 if you include closet cases and victims of circumstance
galefan2004
@TopherMP: 4% is nothing more than the amount of estimated out and proud homosexuals in this country. It has nothing to do, at all, with how many there actually are that are not open and honest about it, and I’m willing to bet its a lot more than 4%.
dgz
@galefan2004:
no, that’s not correct. 4% includes all bi, and any who had any sexual contact with other men in the past (time windows differ from study to study). it’s an aggregate figure compiled from decades of international study. individual figures vary from 3-6%, but 10% is far outside the margin of error. errors in self-reported sexual history are usually accounted for.
then again, demographics are tricky, so i could be wrong. there’s a first time for everything 😉
yoko
Okay sorry that’s rubbish galefan2004, 4% of voters ticked gay/lesbian/bisexual when they voted in the 2008 presidential election. And then look at this from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com:
“Almost 10% of men who said they were straight had had sex with at least one man during the last twelve months, according to a new study carried out by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. 70% of them were married.” (Full study: http://www.annals.org/cgi/reprint/145/6/416.pdf)
Keep in mind that 6% of people in New York City claim to be GLB.
I know that this is just New York City, and the gays/bis gravitate towards the big cities. Either way, I think the true answer is almost impossible to to get from statistics at the moment. People lie all the time, ESPECIALLY when it comes to sexual matters. Nobody knows how many people are gay/bi.
galefan2004
@yoko: I didn’t bring the 4% number, so don’t try ascribing it to me. I don’t think for a minute its only 4% of the population that has ever had a same sex fantasy or same sex encounter.
dgz
@galefan2004: well, if that’s the definition of “gay…”
galefan2004
@dgz: In my opinion if you have done or thought about it once then you have probably done or thought about it multiple times, and yeah that is my definition of gay. Someone that has thought about being, or been with, the same sex is gay.
dgz
@galefan2004: okay, then i don’t disagree with your stance on the statistics. because by your definition, pretty much everyone is gay.
Greg Ever
Not only does Google have the rainbow line for gay-related searches, but if you use Street View on Google Maps along Christopher Street near the Stonewall, the little human figure that appears on the map is actually carrying a rainbow flag!
yoko
@galefan2004: Hey, sorry I meant to say DGZ.
schlukitz
I find it difficult to buy the 4% figure. I think that number is one that is pushed for by the radical religious riff raff to diminish our numbers and therefore make us appear to have less relevance in the scheme of things.
eagledancer4444
http://www.aolhealth.com/healthy-living/feature/_a/sex-secrets-all-men-keep/20090603111009990001 ;
According to McCarthy’s research,”The fourth most common sexual fantasy among straight men is sex with another male, especially receiving oral sex from a guy,” But the majority of men do not act on the fantasy.
In earlier studies, when looking at “straight” self-identifed men,and “straight” self-identified women, the fantasy of having a same-sex partner is also in the top 4. For gay and lesbians, having sex with a “het” partner is among the top 4. When it “comes” to sexual fantasy, apparently no one fits neatly into a box of straight/gay. And–I can hear it now–gay men protesting, “but I’ve never had a “straight” fantasy!” That reminds me so much of a woman’s boyfriend who shouted, “I’ve never had a same-sex fantasy” when I quoted the above stats over dinner one night…
As a sex researcher, one of the frustrations is Kinsey’s research focused on actual behavior, but didn’t look at what people would fantasize. If you had a guy who was married to a woman and only had sex with her, but fantasized always having sex with a man…how do you label him? Behaviorally he’s straight. That’s part of the limitation of behavioral studies.
This is the problem those of us who actually do sex research run into. Only looking at behavior doesn’t give you the “whole” picture, and only looking at the fantasy that isn’t acted upon leads to screwy stats. I should also share, as I do in lectures, the lowest stat for the G/L population was done by Batelle, and they concluded there was less than 2% in the general population. But if you look at their actual methods, they “cold-called” people randomly–they eliminated both coasts and only interviewed in middle-America==so much for SF, NYC, South Beach, and L.A.. They asked, “are you a homosexual?” They required addresses and social security numbers.
This is why it’s so critical to not just look at the results of “scientific studies” but also how they were conducted.
Also–never buy into the idea that “numbers” like these matter when talking about civil rights. Even if the “lowest” percentage were actually true–that’s not relevant when dealing with civil rights. I’m American Indian. We make up about one half of one percent of the American population. Do we deserve fewer rights because we are rarer than the finest diamonds? (well, ok, we wouldn’t be so rare if the europeans hadn’t brought over so many diseases…but that’s not the point of this post)–and people who are Jewish are about 2% of the American population. There are many extremists who preach those of us who are in minority populations “don’t count.”
dgz
@schlukitz:
i think that number is being pushed by competent researchers and statisticians who compile metaresearch.
i just don’t buy that there are more gays than americans of mexican descent, or of irish descent, or 2.5 times as many gays as asians. if there were 30+ million gays in the US, we wouldn’t have to ask anyone for our rights; we’d win every vote, every time. Lawd, San Fran is only 15% gay, and it’s the gayest place on earth. literally. but expand that to the greater bay area, and the figure falls far under 10%.
i’m gay, but i’m not going to skew facts to suit my agenda.
@eagledancer4444:
very good comments. i agree, the numbers don’t matter in and of themselves. i just get annoyed when other LGBTs use dishonest data to make a point, or to accuse every 10th straight person of being closeted. (and yes, i fully accept that “straight” and “gay” are social constructs that define people who fall somewhere in the range of least-bi.)
Andrew W
Just to get this back on topic: Yahoo is a portal rather than a pure search engine, with pages and pages of original content. It has everything from horoscopes to personals, so it ought to cover Pride as well. Pure search engines only aggregate data, so any gesture they make is out of genuine solidarity.
As for how many of the population is gay; it’s a completely unimportant question.
schlukitz
@dgz:
Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Drew
So although it’s great that Yahoo has put together what is a great page dedicated to the LGBT, it’s nice to see Google and Yelp actually take part in the parade in NY and Chicago. Maybe Yahoo needs to do a little more to make themselves seen in those markets where the Gay population seems to continue to thrive and make a splash. Just a thought!
yoko
@dgz: This was directed at you:
4% of voters ticked gay/lesbian/bisexual when they voted in the 2008 presidential election. And then look at this from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com:
“Almost 10% of men who said they were straight had had sex with at least one man during the last twelve months, according to a new study carried out by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. 70% of them were married.” (Full study: http://www.annals.org/cgi/reprint/145/6/416.pdf)
Keep in mind that 6% of people in New York City claim to be GLB.
I know that this is just New York City, and the gays/bis gravitate towards the big cities. Either way, I think the true answer is almost impossible to to get from statistics at the moment. People lie all the time, ESPECIALLY when it comes to sexual matters. Nobody knows how many people are gay/bi.
You really need to look at the bigger picture – what is the size of America’s closet? San Fran may be 15% GLB but what % is it closet? Over 12% of Seattle, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Boston is GLB, but how big is the closet of any of those cities? What proportion of the native residents of those cities are GLB? Do you ask about identity as GLB or about sexual behaviors and feelings? How can you make people feel that their confidentiality is 150% guaranteed? It can take a looong time for a psychologist to get their patient to open up about issues like this, so a piece of paper often doesn’t stand a chance. I find the 4% figure a little difficult to believe. Then again, I think the answer everyone should be giving is I DON’T KNOW.
John
@Drew: Agreed. I’ve worked at both of these companies. The encouragement & support are felt heavily at Google, year round. I was surprised to see Yahoo’s Pride section & although it’s great, I didn’t feel it was any sort of reflection on how the company operates or what they believe. From my perspective, Google far exceeds Yahoo in the workplace.
dgz
@yoko:
it’s a lot more complicated than that. 1st, all good studies use random, anonymous subjects. so getting them to “open up” is almost never a problem. people who don’t want to open up don’t tend to participate in sex studies inthe first place, so OVERreporting is a mirror problem.
second, you’re not taking into account straight men who are prostitutes, gay-for-pay, or men who’ve been incarcerated and engaged in male relationships as a last resort.
third, you’re citing ONE study from NYC. the 4% figure is an aggregate from studies all over the world. it shows up in more conservative countries and more accepting countries.
you’re right — we don’t *know.* as i said, demos are tricky. but until we know, we should use the most responsible studies and reliable data, not just data that reflect our hopes.