Tue 12 Oct
2010
I try hard not to just re-blog whatever John Gruber links to, but this one really deserves to be broadcast far and loud. Dating site OkCupid dug into their statistics (garnered from over 3 million users both straight and gay) to try and see if there are any truths to the stereotypes about gay sexual behavior. What results is highly readable and a remarkably calm and effective counter-argument to a raft of commonly held misconceptions. Also, it reaffirms for me the truth that politicians who use anti-gay rhetoric or who continue to oppose gay rights are on the wrong side of history.
Man, those Canadians are really flaming. The orange is off the charts.
http://cdn.okcimg.com/blog/gaystraight/HeatMap.png
I love these OkCupid articles; mixing data and relationships is a winning combination.
As a gay person, I appreciated the article’s sexual-stereotype busting, of course, but I also enjoyed the personality statistics. For both straights and gays, these statistics were so well-aligned with the stereotypes, that I couldn’t help but laugh. It should go without saying that group personality traits are only generalizations which can’t be assumed for a given individual, but seeing them was entertaining nonetheless.