Journalist Keph Senett explored the allegedly low participation of women in soccer at the Vancouver Outgames. In so doing, she managed to pop into the microwave some stale myths about gay money and women’s wages, hit the ADD 30 SEC. button, and walk away.
Why don’t I just show you a mildly-edited version of the E-mail I sent her, to which she didn’t bother to respond? (I’ll skip my explanation of how she linked to the wrong parliamentary study on women’s incomes.)
The economic realities of LGBT adults tend to mirror the broader population – and sometimes exaggerate it.
That isn’t true. Usually the claim is that “the gay community” (really gay males) are a “desirable” or “DINK” demographic. Neither your statement nor that blandishment is true. The consensus of the economic literature holds that gay men earn less than straight men on average, while lesbians earn slightly more than hetero women on average.
There is no way to gloss these findings as “[t]he economic realities of [gay and lesbian] adults tend to mirror the broader population[’s],” because the opposite is true. Also, bisexuals have barely ever been surveyed and transgenders never, to my knowledge. This is another case when the intrinsically inaccurate acronym “LGBT” shows its intrinsic inaccuracy.
author Julie Cool used 2008 metrics including total earnings data to measure the gender wage gap.
This research isn’t relevant to gay and lesbian adults. I assume you are trying to claim that, no matter what anyone, especially any man, says, women earn 64% of what men do and that’s an absolute emergency that must be addressed everywhere, even in gay soccer. Or have I got you all wrong?
Her findings: In 2008, women earned 64% of what men earned. Theoretically, a family with two female earners would net 78% of the income of a straight couple. The number drops to 64% when compared to families with two male earners.
Again, false.
according to 2006 Statistics Canada numbers, four times as many lesbians as gay men had children under the age of 24 living in the home
Now, that study I’d like to see. Generally lesbians are estimated to have children twice as often as gay men (but half as often as heteros). Reference, please.
In general, the more left-wing the commentator, the more impatient they are to insist that women earn three-quarters or two-thirds what men do across the board, and that such income disparity is fully attributable to systemic sexism. Senett takes this ball and scores an own goal.