Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Blacks have the most gays and the fewest lesbians: I've listed below the percent of American women who say they are lesbians:


Percent of women who are lesbians

1. American Indians 3.0
2. Irish 2.4
3. Italians 1.9
4. English/Welsh 1.4
4. Germans 1.4
6. Scots 1.3
7. Jewish 1.2
8. Mexicans 1.0
8. Blacks 1.0

This pattern is very different from that of gay men, supporting the idea that homosexuality and lesbianism are two different phenomena. (Keep in mind that, while I limited my analysis to the largest groups--with at least 200 cases-- lesbianism is rare so the estimates are not especially reliable.) Mexicans follow the same pattern as blacks here, ranking at the top for gay men but at the bottom for lesbians. Also--there are more lesbian than gay American Indians. This is a reversal from the normal pattern. Comments?

11 comments:

  1. OT- Have you any studies on Oriental drivers. I did a piece on race on my blog, and I'm taking heat for saying that Chinese people tend to be worse drivers than the population in general.

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  2. According to the GSS, Chinese Americans have low rates of getting traffic tickets. Since most tickets are for speeding, this seems to me to be evidence that they are slow drivers.

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  3. Blacks generally have more testosterone than Whites. I read an article and saw something on TV a year ago stating that testosterone levels may be one factor in homosexuality in men.

    It seems contradictory because wouldln't a really masculine man be heterosexual? In addition I just read that gay men's brains function more like straight women's brains. So its all very complicated!

    But I find it interesting that the group of people (black males) who have the highest testosterone levels also have the highest rates of homosexuality.

    Testosterone also plays a role in Autism as well(i.e. autisitc people have more of it). Is there any evidence of blacks having higher rates of autism or Aspergers syndrome (a more "mild" form of autism)?

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  4. At least in Atlanta black and white autism rates are pretty similar. (link)

    (3.4/1000 for both, 5.3/1000 W Male 5.4/1000 B Male)

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  5. Thanks Ron. Lots of driving deaths in China though, but that could be due to large metropolitan populations and something to do with poverty.

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  6. The high prevalence among American Indians and Irish could suggest an alcohol abuse link (though Italians being next doesn't help make that connection).

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  7. I'm wondering if being a lesbian makes you decide to call yourself an American Indian, rather than vice-versa. In other words, I suspect that within politicized lesbian communities, more women are more likely to try to stick it to the white male patriarchy by declaring themselves not just a lesbian but a lesbian of color, although the genealogical evidence for having any American Indian ancestry might be tenuous.

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  8. I agree with Sailer - self-identified race and sexual orientation are so much social constructs that trying to correlate the two creates huge amounts of signal noise.

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