US LGBT community features nearly 9 million--report

The research functions as a fresh endeavour aimed at LGBT well-being in accordance with a recommendation by the U.S. Health and Human Services(HHS) and the Institute of Medicine at the National Academies last week.

Research details
Conducted at The Williams Institute, of the University of California, Los Angeles(UCLA) School of Law, the research based itself on the average of results from nine surveys in the United States.

The intriguing information was released on Thursday by a California demographer Dr. Gary J. Gates, who was the primary author in the study. He confirmed that 3.8 percent of the United States' adult population comprises the LGBT community.

“Better data can provide the building blocks for critical information to understand the lives of the 9 million LGBT Americans who have been historically marginalized in both society and research,” said Gates.

The Williams Institute is a leading think tank that specializes in research involving "sexual orientation, gender identity and affiliated law and public policy issues".

Bisexuals a majority
The researchers analyzed results of surveys performed and inferred that over 8 million adults in the United States identify as either lesbian, gay or bisexual, and 700,000 as transgender.

Deeper study reveals bisexuals to form the majority with 1.8 percent winning over a gay population of 1.7 percent.

Nearly 0.3 percent Americans have been estimated to be transgenders.

Bisexual males have proven more shy in admitting to their sexual orientation as compared to their counterparts.

According to another rough estimate, 19 million American adults (8.2 percent) confessed to have indulged in same-sex encounters at some point in their lives. 11 percent experienced carnal desires for same-sex individuals.

Dr.Gates, in a telephone interview, communicated that individuals should be inquired of their sexual orientations in any kind of survey, not necessarily on sexual themes. It is only then, he thinks, one can pinpoint the elusive size of the homosexual community.

“The number matters,” he said. “An unfortunate part of our political system is that you don’t really count unless you’re counted. LGBT Americans still are not routinely counted. That allows legislators and policymakers to say they really don’t matter much, because if they did, we’d have this data.”