From: mlloyd@ocf.berkeley.edu (M. Lloyd)
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: Re: Surveyings all around
Date: 16 Dec 1992 02:00:08 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: earthquake.berkeley.edu

porsupah@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu writes (with a little messy formatting
that I managed to fix, giving me my first "gee, I can do that in emacs"
grin)
>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.

... [and so on, in like cogent manner, including a fair thesis and
then a fair antithesis]

> 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..

Welcome to the jungle (to quote that awfully good band for whom I still
hold out some hope of super-neanderthal attitude).  And the winner is,
*both*!  No surprises there, I guess, but you did leave the question
hanging, and a pop sociologist like myself can't resist such
coattrailing.  Chain migration is an observable phenomenon - we have our
dichotomies, and we like to go live near "us".  Geographically biased
survey response is equally a fact of life.  Trying to estimate the
relative and absolute importance of either, and then to backtrack to the
percentages from a sex survey to draw conclusions about the "real"
figures is, of course, completely hopeless as a task.  It's also great
fun, and very rewarding.  So what if you can never answer the question?
Pursuing it will still answer some other ones, and even better, will
make ten times as many other ticklish questions clear.  The celebration
of confusion is the beginning of life (IMH, tounge-in-cheek, but still
genuine, O).

But to deny my nature and get specific for a moment, there is that
rather bizarre 1% non-straight Scottish figure.  My personal speculation
there is that emigration is a substantial factor.  While in my
experience Scotland is a distinctly conservative place socially, and
while that must push the figure lower than, say, London, I think there
is also an effect from non-GLBO* related motion of population.

Speculation 1: the non-straight *lifestyle* (nb: not orientation, but
practice) correlates well with higher SES (socio-economic status - can I
use that acronym without hassle?)

Speculation 2: (well, fact, I think) Scotland's economy is not in great
shape.  (Ignoring issues like its apparent viability in separation from
Big Bro down south, partially on the basis of oil.)

Speculation 3: while there is still some prosperity in the cities, with
things like the huge insurance/financial industry in Edinburgh, there is
still a great degree of financially-motivated relocation southwards or
outwards.

Hand-waving Conclusion 1: the survey response to a question like "are
you a poofter?" will be pretty low, and the above mentioned speculations
will have a significant effect.

Refutations or further conclusions are left as an exercise to the
reader. :-)

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

Hey, sounds good to me!  I just *lurrrrvvv* being talked about ;-)

> I really enjoyed reading that.

Hell, I really enjoyed *doing* it.  (Since it's been a few days, this is
in ref to some stuff I posted about running into, or rather being picked
up by, some rather interesting Manhattan youngsters who displayed a
quite remarkable lack of anti-queer bias, *possibly* connected to their
position at the bottom of the shitting order.)  I fully intend to give
the crazy Russian woman (I *hate* saying girl, even when justifiable,
when it's not absolutely apparent - go on, call me PC, you know I love
it) a call to see what they're up to these days.  A good het is hard to
find, and a roomful is a rare treat indeed.  (Anyone who reads that as
genuine heterophobia needs a humour-implant.)

hugs
Mike, who wants to be called a SocioQueen, but feels it would be
misunderstood :-(
-- 
Mike Lloyd, B0/1 h- f- t w- g+ k+ s m- e? |    "Bloody nose and burning eyes
      Retro-hippy, music nut, bi and      |  Raised in laughter to the skies"
          backrubber of devotion          |                 - Bruce Cockburn
               --The end of confusion is the beginning of death--