YouGov’s young LGBTQ+ sleb ‘helpers’
I’m officially ancient. Possibly clinically dead.
I only recognised three of these slebs – and forgot that Gaga was officially bisexual. Though given her dating history, that’s something she may be prone to herself.
It’s also questionable just how recognised or influential any of these ‘LGBTQ+’ public figures are with ‘young LGBTQ+ Britons’, since even super-famous Gaga, and at the top of the list of ‘helpers’ compiled by YouGov earlier this year, was only mentioned by a paltry 5%.
In the data sheets there’s a long list of gay slebs who only got a statistically insignificant 1% (as low as three mentions in this sample size), including Elton John, Rylan, Ellen DeGeneres, Sandi Toksvig, Stephen Fry and John Barrowman.
‘Other’ got by far the biggest mention at 32%. Followed by ‘none’ at 20%. I think that would probably be my choice too, if I were eighteen again. Roll your own role model, gurl.
Perhaps this poor ‘LGBTQ+’ sleb polling is partly because they’re not really needed nowadays. 90% of respondents replied ‘yes’ to the question ‘Were there LGBTQ+ people you knew in your personal life’.
It should also be mentioned that all of the top five celebrity helpers for 16-24 year old ‘LGBTQ+’ teens are in their thirties, mostly late thirties.
But then there’s the pink elephant in the room – the amorphous, ever-growing and assimilating ‘LBGTQ+’ blob. What does it actually mean here? Who does the survey ‘speak’ for?
According to their data sheets, the YouGov ‘LGBTQ+’ sample comprises 545 respondents, aged between 16-24. Of them, ‘gay or lesbian’ is chosen by just 163 (30%). ‘Bisexual’ is chosen by almost twice that, at 315 (58%), with 54 choosing ‘other’ (10%). So, more than two thirds do not identify as gay or lesbian.
To make much sense at all – and get that ‘top’ percentage above 5% – the ‘top ten’ list would need to be broken down into the categories that YouGov have used in their polling: A top ten ‘lesbian and gay’, ‘bisexual’, and ‘other’. But that would go against the ‘LGBTQ+’ blobbery.
Hence Gaga (38) tops the YouGov list, not so much because she’s camp, loved by gays, and ‘born that way’, but because she got 6% of ‘bisexual’, 5% of ‘other’, and 4% of ‘gay or lesbian’.
She’s two places above the knitting diver Tom Daley (who at 30 is the youngest in that top five) despite him getting 9% of ‘lesbian and gay’, more than double Gaga’s share, and the biggest of anyone, because he is mentioned only by 3% of ‘bisexual’. (And despite, or perhaps because, he came out as ‘bisexual’ himself in 2013, for a few weeks, before announcing that he was gay.) Daley also only scores 2% with ‘other’.
YouTuber Daniel Howell (33), who reportedly identifies as ‘queer’ and says he ‘rejects labels’, is also above Daley on the list, despite being mentioned by less than half as many ‘lesbian and gay’ – because he scores better (5%) with ‘bisexual’, and much better with ‘other’ (8%). Contrary to Daley, he also polls much better with ‘female’ (6%) than ‘male’ (2%), and a whopping (by the standards of this poll) 9% with those who describe themselves ‘in another way’.
Comedian Joe Lycett (33) didn’t make YouGov’s top ten, but his (probably rounded up) total was 2%, the same as the last three who did make the list. Lycett who identifies as ‘pansexual’ got 0% mentions from ‘lesbian and gay’, 2% from ‘bisexual’, and 7% from ‘other’.
Bafflingly, very gay musical theatre thesp John Barrowman (57) was mentioned by more ‘other’ identifying respondents than Lycett (8%).
There is also, of course, a ‘gender identity’ breakdown. ‘Transgender’ is chosen by 97 (18%), ‘cisgender’ by 448 (82%). To the question ‘At birth were you described as:’ 163 (30%) answered male, 368 (68%) answered female. So, more than twice as many females as males. Another reason perhaps why Gaga tops the list.
To the question ‘Which of the following describes how you think of yourself?’ 313 (57%) answered ‘female’ (a drop of 55 or 10%), and 168 (31%) answered ‘male’ (a rise of 5, or just under 1%) . With 46 (8%) answering ‘in another way’.
Which implies, but doesn’t show, that most of the transgender identified respondents were ‘described’ as female at birth. Relatedly, 12% – the highest percentage by far in the whole survey – of those in the sample identifying as ‘transgender’ mentioned the trans man actor Elliot Page.