From: porsupah@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: Surveyings all around
Date: 14 Dec 92 04:25:30 GMT
Organization: Raccoon-Silkies have more fun !

In <Bz3py4.624@newcastle.ac.uk> from J.W.Harley@newcastle.ac.uk (Jon Harley) :
> It suggests that 10% of the population throughout the UK might have gay
> relationships if they had the facilities and opportunities which exist in
> London.

 I'm not so sure. It's probably fair to say that a higher GLB profile in a given
city will raise the chances of people finding out something more about themselves,
but also there's the matter of others relocating to such a city /for/ the scene.
After all, would it be accurate to survey the San Francisco Bay Area, and project
those demographics onto other parts of the US ?

 Now I'll try to knock that down. :)

 [Warning : Gross Overgeneralisations(tm) follow. Read at your own risk]

 Would it indeed be unfair ? Survey, say, LA and somewhere out of the way in Iowa.
The results may be slightly different. The likelihood of finding the redneck who
doesn't know any better is, I'll wager, higher in the latter - because they'll not
have been presented with a particularly positive image of GLBdom in their social
circle. Gaybashing, for that group, will be something their friends do. So it's
Normal.

 What effects will that have ?

 Guess.

 The closeted GLB is not terribly likely to go shouting hir (pause for screams
from those with pathological hatred of such pronouns :) nature to the world; and
one who's yet to discover that part of themselves is rather less likely to come
across a "role model". (I use that term lightly - I'm only meaning it in the sense
of some form of suggestion that het isn't the only way to be)

 No, I'm not suggesting there are no bigots in LA, or that anywhere outside a big
city is solely inhabited by rednecks. Similarly, modern communications bring in
influences from outside the locality every day, on TV, in the papers, and
elsewhere - but the local /people/ nonetheless will remain a major influence on
development.

 Revelations, hm ?

 So, which is the more significant factor in this case ? Is the London figure
higher because people are more likely to recognise themselves as GLB, or because
of relocation ? There, I'll halt, as I'd like to know the answer myself..

 On the other point of the survey - the Scottish result - from what I gather, the
questions were uniform in content and presentation in all interviews. (The
difference that's been pointed out between Kinsey and this, on 'volunteers', is
that people came forward for the former; the new survey selected people randomly,
reducing the distortion of those who /want/ to be forthcoming about their
sexuality) That said, what the basis for the currently available results is, I've
no idea. I can only speculate it's the societal influence at work.

 Just to see how many different threads I can fit in under one bout of
over-caffeination, I'll append something to the matter of "Non-X commenting on
matters of X". It's also sometimes the case that the very fact of /being/ in X
can introduce bias of its own - take "foreign" policy as an example. Sometimes
observers from outside a particular conflict can make valuable contributions to
reconciliation; they won't be involved in the dispute, whether it's the Israel/
Golan Heights/Gaza Strip/Palestine, Britain/Northern Ireland/Irish Republic, or
Azerbaijan/Nagorno-Karabakh/Armenia. The very /being/ involved directly not only
gives one a direct insight into the situation, but almost certainly brings some
polarity of opinion.

 So whilst it's probably fair to say the experience is of primary importance, the
'outside view' ought not be discounted. The rub in the case of sexuality, of
course, is there's no-one outside.

 WTH. I'm on a roll.. into Mike Lloyd's recent experience.

 I really enjoyed reading that.

 Only a fool will try to make a general application of that attitude to that social
stratum, or any other wholesale link; but for all that, I was quite warmed to read
of plain acceptance. Why ? Much as someone else said, I'd imagine - that they've
felt what it's like to be rejected, and don't want to inflict that on others. In
some others, this might bring out just the bitterness and /enhance/ their
prejudices - but that wasn't, apparently, the case here.

 Thanks for the original posting.

 ObLycraReference - another potential source of lycrawear :

   Noelle Neilson Softwear, PO Box 69826, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

 - who do much more of interest to the asb crowd, from what reports I've received.
(Hence their reluctance to post to alt.lycra directly :)  Specifically, a full
(inc feet) catsuit for $75. Hopefully, more details will be forthcoming there in
the future.

-- Porsupah

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