Questionaire?

WexfordMusings

Hi All,

It's me back again with another post that will probably be as unpopular as the last, but sure where us the fun in posting a thread that doesn't evoke emotion and response.

(Apologies, by the way, if I really insult anyone, that is not my intention and you are more than welcome to take it up further, just pm me.)

Okay, here we go. This and other threads along the same line (all posted by me of course, eg gaire, gcn, boards.ie, politics.ie, queerid, have suggested (to name a couple of things) that the 1 in 10 no. of Gay people is incorrect and also that the correct questions are not being asked of Gay & Lesbian people.

So, I am going to try and rectifiy that. I am going to try and design a quaestionaire to find out a realistic figure of how many GLBT people are in Ireland and what are their biggest concerns going into the next election. What do people want their politicians doing. So Question 1 could be...

Which group to you identify with:

Striaght
Gay
Don't know yet
Lesbian
Bisexual
Transgender
Other ____________________

What should be the next questions

slumped

WexfordMusings wrote:

Which group to you identify with:

Striaght
Gay
Don't know yet
Lesbian
Bisexual
Transgender
Other ____________________

---

?????????????

What should be the next questions

What "other" group could you be part of???

WexfordMusings

Well I Don't know and that's why I am asking people. Any ideas or do you just criticise...

damien

slumped wrote:

What "other" group could you be part of???

Pansexuals.

I'd add: "Don't wish to disclose." That might actually get some too.

Hmm_Messiah

Is it not possible for example to be transgendered and bisexual ?

In surveying its usually best to ask precise one answer only questions first .

Also is gay and lesbian not just differing terms, I mean your survey might find 8 respondents were gay, 5 were lesbian, does that mean 3 were male homosexuals or were there 13 gay respondents ? and the poor guy who wants to be a woman and then doesn't know does that mean he is a woman attracted to guys , or attracted to ........

WexfordMusings

Well I didnt imagine this would be easy. Lets see can we even get past the first question. How about.

Question 1 (please tick) Do you identify as:

Male ............................................................................ __
Female ......................................................................... __
Don't wish to disclose ...................................................... __
Born male but identify as female ........................................ __
Born female but identify as male ........................................ __

Question 2 (please tick one or more of the following) Are you:

Attracted to men ............................................................__
Attracted to women ........................................................__
Don't know yet .............................................................. __

damien

Have you looked at surveys from UK or US LGBTPQ Organisations? Might be of help.

WexfordMusings

Thanks Damien, will check them out.

WexfordMusings

Just found this one earlier, not bad rally. What do people think.

http://www.stormbreak.co.uk/rainbow.html

Hmm_Messiah

Stormbreak, an independent market research company specialising in gay-related issues, in association with Rainbow Network, conducted a survey amongst 283 of the exhibition visitors.

They specialise in gay-related issues ? What would they be then ??

and of 283, who attended a gay-centric event ?

All these, and most surveys do is demostrate people are different, even them gays .

WexfordMusings

Shock horror, I guess people are different.

But that's not the issue here. In order to find out what people want sometimes it's necessary to have a survey. They can be very useful if the correct questions are asked and of course we must not forget that the results can be interpreted in many different ways. It' not an exact science but Messiah, do you know of any better way?

Hmm_Messiah

I am going to try and design a quaestionaire to find out a realistic figure of how many GLBT people are in Ireland and what are their biggest concerns going into the next election.

Unless you have significant resources you'll not achieve this; to find a realistic figure you would need a national response, and full disclosure. Anything you devise will be I imagine to a "representative" number of respondents which is inherently flawed.

e.g. you survey 100 people, 80 respond: any figure you get re gay orientatin relates to "out of 100" even though a fifth have given ZERO information.
Then you have to allow for those who given inaccurate replies for mischevious or other reasons.
Then you've to justify how the respondents are representative, you'll find they aren't.
You might get some vague figure of the number of people willing to be counted as gay, but surely such figures already exist. Even the national census, if it did ask appropriate questions, would be flawed in that its filled in by the head of household, so 16yr johnny is not necessarily gonna be comfortable saying "I'm gay".

Regarding what gay people want politically, in as much as there may be common "gay objectives" outside of what concerns folk in general, national advocacy agencies might get some sense of whats important, but that too depends on who responds.

WexfordMusings

So in conclusion Messiah,

You have nothing positive to say about my attempts
You assume that I will run a half arsed survey with 100 respondants
You have no suggestions for a survey &
You assume that I am only going to ask gay people what they want politically

seems to me that in fact you really don't want to help at all, so one would wonder why you posted in this thread at all...

UU

slumped wrote:

What "other" group could you be part of???

One could identify themselves as asexual (or non-sexual). An asexual is person who does not experience sexual attraction. It is a natural sexual orientation just like homosexuality, etc.. See: Link. Asexuals do exist and are not rare. OP, may I suggest putting that on the questionnaire, it is important.

Hmm_Messiah

WexfordMusings wrote:

You assume that I am only going to ask gay people what they want politically...

earlier (that same day...) :

to find out a realistic figure of how many GLBT people are in Ireland and what are their biggest concerns going into the next election

So not such a big assumption then ??

Regarding the rest ; - I'm sorry I didn't realise you did not want reality spoiling your endeavours; best of luck with what will surely be an informing constructive, useful survey.

PS: With the survey I'd suggest you don't get so defensive to respondents who give answers other than you'd prefer

WexfordMusings

Messiah, looking back at my last few posts, I may have justification with getting defensive with you, but thanks for the advice, something constructive from you at last, that must have been difficult.

:eek:

WexfordMusings

UU, thanks, I forgot about asexuals, apologies. Will put that in.

Anyway, to attempt to get back on track, should the following questions be asked in a questionaire and/or would there be any point in doing so:

A. As a gay person what issues would you like on the political agenda

B Would you direct these same issues to politicans calling to your door"

C Will you vote for a specific party and why

D. Do you see the gay community as having a political agenda

E. What do you think is the best strategy to acheiving specific entitlements for gay people