The 145% Myth
by Peter Sprigg
July 13, 2007
In an article on Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle and the homosexual activists who are decrying him as “homophobic”, the Miami NBC affiliate WTVJ-TV says, “An estimated 243,000 gay people live in the city of Fort Lauderdale.”
My World Almanac says the 2005 population of Fort Lauderdale was 167,380. We know the idea that homosexuals are 10% of the population is a myth, so what can we say about the claim that they are 145% of the population?
According to the Census Bureau, Fort Lauderdale does indeed have the second highest percentage of same-sex unmarried partner households of any major American city (exceeded only by San Francisco). So the mayor may really be in some political hot water. But that percentage is–2.1% (S.F. is 2.7%; nationally they are 1.0%).
Numerically, there are 1,418 (that’s one thousand four hundred eighteen) unmarried same-sex partner households in Fort Lauderdale. That would be 2,836 individuals.
I guess the other 240,000 homosexuals in Fort Lauderdale just aren’t the “marrying”–or “partnering”–kind.
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Comments
Noone who deliberatly manipulated statistics would be so incompetant as to claim a fraction is greater than the whole, so this looks like an honest mistake. Someone messed up the numbers, and didn’t bother to check. FRCs own estimate would greatly underestimate the number, as it only counts cohabiting partners. If you want a precise number, then hire an unbiased statistician to tackle the problem. A highly qualified and experienced statistician – this is going to be a very hard figure to obtain, considering many homosexuals are going to be still in the closet.
Though none of this has any importance at all. The issue being discussed here boils down to the legal rights of a specific group. Does it matter if this group is small or large? Is someone entitled to more rights if there are a few million like them than they would be if there were only a few hundred? Are small minorities somehow less worthy than large ones? Unless the FRC is prepared to argue that all of those questions are true, the number of homosexuals doesn’t really matter, except to decide how urgently reform is needed.
The 243,000 number might be typo, rather than a ‘claim’. Ya think?
By: Patrick (gryph) | July 13, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Of course, if the Mayor had said something like “All Evangelical Christians are Bigots”, I doubt you would be less upset if only one Christian happened to live in his city at the time.
And rightly so. Prejudice is wrong, whether its against one person or thousands isn’t it?
If not then FRC is surely encouraging moral relativism. I hope no children read this blog. They might be influenced by FRC’s poor moral leadership.