This is actually quite interesting. For me, answering a questionaire like this is frustrating because the true answer is much more nuanced than what the given options are and I feel like I know what they're trying to ask but my honest answer is going to give them confusing results from which they're going to pull incorrect conclusions from.
For example: Politically I'm slightly right from centre but I've always voted left. I'm also non-straight but I don't identify as LGBTQ (I literally had to look up the correct way to type that)
Because people here are smart enough to not comment on whether someone has an authentic identity, what that identity is, what it should be, etc. You do you. It does also sound a bit like you've decided that you don't fit other categories just because but you may not also know in which ways or why.
I'm also non-straight but I don't identify as LGBTQ (I literally had to look up the correct way to type that)
If you identify as non-straight then you're identifying as LGBTQ. Don't get hung up on the specific letters in the acronym, that sort of changes from year to year. You can pretty much sum it up to literally mean anything that isn't straight which is what you said you are.
If you identify as non-straight then you’re identifying as LGBTQ.
No I don't. That's the point; if this is asked on a questionaire my answer will be no. It's irrelevant if other people want to label me like that - I don't.
The abbreviation in question has negative cannotations in my mind and thus I don't want to be accociated with it. I prefer the term sexual minority if I absolutely need to be put into a category.
I feel like you may have just demonstrated the importance of the study being reported here. The people responding affirmatively do not carry that burden.
As a piece of advice: this is a "you" thing. Whatever you need to do to get there, learn to be ok with yourself and stop worrying about what others think of you.
My point is that people answer these kind of questionaires differently. Just like I may not check a box others might think I should have, some other person checks a box others might think they shouldn't have. Just because one thinks of themselves as native american for example doesn't mean others do. That nearly 30% LGBTQ rate indicates, to me atleast, that something like this is going on here aswell.
I don't consider myself to be especially worried about what other people think of me. I don't know what makes you feel like I do.
I don’t consider myself to be especially worried about what other people think of me. I don’t know what makes you feel like I do.
It's specifically that you seem to self-select based on possible definitions others might have on an identity that keeps you from taking on one that you might otherwise adopt.
Ah I see. Well I guess you kind of have a point there. Maybe in this case it's not so much about being ok with myself and more about not wanting other people to think I'm something I'm not or hold beliefs that I don't.
I know this stuff is confusing. I probably have some more experience with it than you based on my age. It was never easy and frankly was traumatic through my life. In the end, I started to see the people who would put me down as nothing more than insecure monkeys flinging their poo. Sadly, most people take their humanity for granted and don't try to elevate themselves--rather, they just let the ape part through more than necessary. My point? Fuck 'em, there's always going to be some idiot trying to ruin your day or your life because of their own personal issues. At some point, I feel like you have to stop caring or you will continue to feel hurt.
If I could have understood all of that when I was like 10, a whole lot of pain in my life would have been avoided. I had a bad combination of personality and sexuality in that I genuinely trusted the adults around me, believed that they were intelligent and educated, and that they acted in good faith always. Because of that posture, I listened to those who would discriminate against me. It took me decades to realize that I kept putting faith in people who never deserved it, especially my own family.
Weird that your response got downvoted, but that seems to be how things go on here. Weird, but not surprising. If you're slightly right from center, you sound like a centrist Dem.