Some 77 percent of Americans know a gay or lesbian person, a new CBS poll finds (in addition to some other stuff), an increase of 35 percent since 1992. Know what that means? That 23 percent of Americans either a) need to get out from behind a rock and start living a fuller life; or b) have never been to a Starbucks.
What 23% of Americans Aren’t Saying About Gays
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Cam
People don’t know whats in front of their faces. These are the same people that thought CLay Aiken was such a gentleman because he didn’t kiss and tell about his girlfriends, and that poor Anderson Cooper just hasn’t met the right woman yet.
SSCHIEFRSHA
And how exactly does the said 77% KNOW these homosexuals? Can they name five? And just glancing/passing them on the street does not count.
swarm
Of course it means they’re ASSUMING. Because you know as well as I do that most gay people are NOT OPENLY OUT in the mainstream of their circles of work, church, sports (lol, ok, well wherever). The BURDEN is not on the straight to develop gaydar, albeit mine’s pretty impeccable. Only from growing up in the life, tho. The BURDEN is on LGBT. I stipulate you take your life in your hands by doing so, yes.
Anyway, what it means is that gay people need to be OUT. And that queer blogs like this one need to stop bashing people like Adam Lambert who are.
(LOL @Cam who can never let an opportunity to talk about freaking irrelevant Clay Aiken fans go to waste)
How exactly is it Aiken’s fans “fault” for believing a LIAR like Clay Aiken? Or shall people go around calling everyone LIARS as much as possible to prove a point?
Zach
@swarm:
You don’t have to capitalize every second word to get your point across.
And there have to be some many many places in the Deep South where they still think that queers only grow in big cities.
Cam
@swarm: said..
(LOL @Cam who can never let an opportunity to talk about freaking irrelevant Clay Aiken fans go to waste)
How exactly is it Aiken’s fans “fault” for believing a LIAR like Clay Aiken? Or shall people go around calling everyone LIARS as much as possible to prove a point?
_________________
I never said it was their “Fault” I said that people don’t believe what is in front of their faces. Clay Aiken was a fairly feminine acting guy who was rich, famous, toured all over the world and yet never dated, never had a girlfriend, etc… ANY person, no matter how goody two shoes they are is going to EVENTUALLY date somebody. There is only so long that people can continue to delude themselves that somebody isn’t gay. Being a “Gentleman” is not the same thing as not dating or being celibate, but anybody who suggested on a blog like Queerty, that Clay Aiken was gay was innundated by angry Aiken fans. Again, people out in the real world do know gay people, they just refuse to believe it a lot of the time.
Wetterdew
When I was in eighth grade, I had to make a speech to my English class, and I spoke about gay-bashing in schools. I opened my speech by asking anybody who was gay or knew a gay person to raise his or her hand.
Two kids out of twenty-four raised their hands.
I told them that they all knew somebody gay–me, for one. The rest of the speech was mostly about how even if you don’t think you know a gay person, they hear what you say about them. My teacher gave me an A on the assignment and told me it was a major paradigm shift for the class. I only wish I could have given the speech earlier–this was only two months before middle school ended.
I’d really love to know the percentage of population that is gay. I’d also like to know how many people an average human meets in his/her lifetime (depending on where in the world it is, of course)–it would be quite shocking to get a rough estimate of how many gay people we come across over our lifetime.
Cam
@swarm:
Dude, relax, the Aiken fans are a perfect example. All the evidence in front of their faces, but refused to believe the obvious.
Scott
I’m gay and I’ve NEVER been to a Starbucks!
wannabegay2
starbucks joke: good one!
Layla
I think the problem is that a lot of straight people use a kind of confirmation bias when ‘spotting’ gays.
They come in contact with stereotypical members of our community and assume that’s the only kind of gay person out there.
What they don’t realize is that the femme women and butch men they come into contact with are just as likely to be gay. They just assume them to be straight.
*Note: I don’t have anything against butch women or femme men, I think they are just as an integral and beautiful part of our varied community as anyone else.
Lark
Poor @swarm and @cam are still traumatized by Aiken. Get over it ladies.
Greg Ever
Actually it’s an increase of 35 percentage points, not 35 percent. Going from 42% to 77% is an increase of 83%. (77 is 183% of 42.)
Andrea
@Cam:
Clay Aiken was and still is a gentleman. He still doesn’t kiss and tell. He’s been in a relationship with the same person for a few years now and he still keeps that part of his live private. As it should be. I say good for him because it’s not anyone’s business but his and his partners.
Owen
@swarm:
Clay was a liar because he was in the closet? Oh please. Isn’t that what being in the closet is – not coming out yet and not talking about it because he wasn’t ready? He came out on his time. Not when others thought he should. At least he is out now and living a great life.
He is also not doing what so-called Lambert it doing either. Which is to say on one hand that he is gay and proud of to be. Then on the other hand, stating that he may think about having sex with a woman if he’s had a few drinks. Either he is out as a gay man or he isn’t. I guess it depends on the day of the week with him OR which way he can get the most publicity.
I’m gay and it took me until I was 25 to finally feel comfortable enough to tell others. Fortunately I had and still have a great family that supports me and doesn’t think twice about it, but I guess then you could say I “lied” about it too then right? You’re wrong. Not talking about something is not lying. I’m honest about my life and it appears that so isn’t Aiken. I can’t say the same for Lambert.
Alexa
@swarm, get over yourself and buy a clue. While I would love everyone to be out as soon as they realize they are gay, sometimes it’s just not practical, and to call them liars is very harsh. Clay said in an interview a few days ago that he didn’t even tell his grandmother he was gay until just before he came out to the public two years ago. Growing up gay in a conservative Christian family in the south like Clay did is a lot harder than growing up in a liberal Jewish family in California like Adam did (and I only bring Adam up because you did, personally I am a fan of both of them).
@Cam, it’s true. As a Clay fan who always thought he was gay, it still boggles my mind how so many fans stuck their heads in the sand and refused to even consider the possibility he was gay. But it’s not just Clay, a friend is a Ricky Martin fan and she says many of them were the same way (though nowhere near as obnoxious about it).
Carole H
I have been a Clay Aiken fan from day one. I wondered if he was gay but didn’t care. Unless and until he was ready to publicly deal with it, it was none of my or anyone else’s business.
As far as I am concerned, one’s private life is their own life and no one is owed any explanation or details. Live and let live.
Never have I been so proud of anyone in my life as when Clay came out. He allowed the fans a couple of weeks to say anything they wanted to say and it was sickening. He took it all in stride even though it must have hurt him deeply as it did a lot of his fans.
Gay, straight, black, white or purple, in my opinion, Clay Aiken is one of the most honourable people you could possibly find. To know him, even from afar, is a great privilege and honour.