Historically speaking, there’s always been a social divide between the black and LGBT community and many within the black community have always related all things gay with all things white and foreign to them. However, as most with open eyes will note, the times are changing and a study is showing that the black community may be closer to the LGBT community than we all think.
Gallup and the Williams Institute at UCLA’s law school released a new study last Thursday, Oct. 18, in which 121,290 Americans were surveyed in “the largest single study of the distribution of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population in the U.S. on record.”
From June to through September, Gallup asked participants if they identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, and the results shockingly revealed that black, Hispanic and Asian individuals were more likely than their white counterparts to identify as LGBT.
Of course, younger participants were more likely than older participants to identify as LGBT, but 4.6 percent of African Americans, 4.0 percent of Hispanics and 4.3 percent of Asians identified as LGBT, while only 3.2 percent of white Americans identified as LGBT.
New York Times writer Charles M. Blow examined the findings even further and noted the occurrence of self-identification amongst men as LGBT.
“Young black men — those between 18 and 29 years old — were 56 percent more likely than young white men to answer yes. Young Hispanic men were 49 percent more likely than young white men to answer with a yes and young Asian men were 23 percent more likely than young white men to answer yes,” he wrote.
However, among women, such a large discrepancy didn’t exist.
“Young black women were only 12 percent more likely than young white women to say yes, and young Asian and Hispanic women were less likely to say yes than young white women,” Blow wrote.
Like him, we’re completed surprised by the results, but considering the extensive number of participants, it’s difficult to argue with the numbers.
Perhaps, this is proof that the black community, which has been historically viewed as extremely homophobic, is more open to homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender life than anyone knew. And, if so, obviously the youth of our community are pushing us in a new direction of sexual and gender inclusion that could change both the face of black and LGBT life for the better.
Below, you can check out some black figures that publicly identify as LGBT. – nicholas robinson
