Buzzfeed recently partnered with research firm Whitman Insight Strategies to conduct a wide-ranging poll of LGBTQ Americans. Some of the results were a bit surprising–for example, nearly half of those surveyed (46%) identified as bisexual, and if the findings are accurate, we don’t have nearly as much sex as straight people think.
Also, Whitman found a lot of vague self-loathing out there. For example, 31% of respondents either think it’s okay for a baker to turn away LGBTQ customers in search of wedding cakes or didn’t have an opinion. Here are some other stats:
Of the 880 people who identified as LGBTQ for this survey, most of them — 55% — are women. Men account for 41%, while those who identify their gender as queer, nonbinary, and self-described make up the remaining 4-5%. (The margin of error overall is plus or minus 3.3%.)
Twice as many people identify as gay than lesbian — 32% to 16%.
This is possibly explained by the poll’s starkest finding: Nearly half — 46% — of the LGBTQ population identifies as bisexual, which then skews heavily female, younger, and tends to be more racially diverse. People who identify their orientation as queer, asexual, or self described make up 6% of participants.
With only 51 respondents, transgender people are the smallest group in the survey. Results based on such a small number of respondents have a much larger margin of error (plus or minus 14% in this case) and should be interpreted with caution.
Overall, LGBTQ people are 67% white and 33% nonwhite, which is close to the national census figures.