Petrelis Files

Larry Kramer:
Spend Money - Count America's Gay People

If you're not on Larry's long email lists, you may have missed this message he sent out tonight:

In reading rex wockner's international news column just now i was particularly struck by the following item:

"Britain to count gay population"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Britain's Office for National Statistics is going to count the gay population. Starting in January, a sexual-orientation question will be included in several of the office's routine surveys, leading to an eventual estimate of the size of the nation's gay community.

Respondents will choose from heterosexual/straight, gay/lesbian, bisexual or "other" -- or can opt not to answer. Officials say the results will be useful for gauging levels of discrimination and unequal treatment and addressing those problems."


When are gays in america going to fight to find out how many of us there are. I am tired of not knowing. i am tired of hearing numbers quoted all over the map from practically zero to only a few million, all of them certainly far less than i believe we are.

i think it is, psychologically, now the time to try and do something about this. we need to know as we go forward into our never-ending fights with THEM how many of us there are. we just do.

i have long implored our "major" gay organizations, particularly HRC, to commence a project that would reap these figures. we are never going to get our government to do what england is now doing. therefore we have to do it ourselves. i am always arguing with that gary guy at ucla's william institute that is always putting out his numbers, based, so far as i can tell, by his viewing into his own crystal ball. i want better. i want something that will hold up in court, in the halls of government, etc.

joe solmonese, could you and hrc spearhead something like this? could urvashi or tim sweeney or the gill foundation or all the people with some money still left on this list, could people just get together and brainstorm this. could the williams institute?

correct me if i am wrong, but aren't we better, stronger being able to go forth knowing how many of us there are, no matter how many of us there are? otherwise we continue as the sort of only half-visible population. i know rodger at gill did a survey a few years ago of a couple of thousand gay people who, when asked if they identified as straight, bi, or gay, over fifty percent weaseled out and said bi. this is sickening and we must find a way to find firmer truths.

perhaps a new small organization can be funded just to gather our numbers?

don't you all want to know????
or do you want to continue to live in this darkness visible forever?

love etc
larry

Yes, I'd like to see America undertake something comparable to what is about to get underway in the UK.

However, I'd like to state my initial queasiness over anything to do with measuring the number of gay people in the USA.

Not because I fear what national researchers may find, it's more that after suffering through two decades of shameless manipulation by the SF Department of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the various HIV programs at UCSF, I'll read any findings, if the USA gets such a survey going, with deep skepticism.

Do you think anyone with money or clout will pick up on Larry's idea and run with it?