The fact that there are lots of self-identified gay people in D.C. is hardly surprising, but the Gallup study is significant because it’s the largest of its kind to analyze the distribution of the LGBT population in the United States and the first time the sample size has been large enough to provide estimates by state. “This is simply new ground—these are not just new statistics, they are the only estimates we have of these people at the state level,” UCLA scholar Gary J. Gates, who carried out the study along with Gallup, told the Los Angeles Times. “There is no other data out there to verify these numbers, which constitute a significant advancement in our understanding of the LGBT population.” (See the full state listing after the jump.)

Although there are LGBT communities across the country—starting from as low as 1.7 percent of the population in North Dakota—researchers found that generally speaking the percentage of the LGBT population was higher in states where there is a higher level of social acceptance. Except for South Dakota, all the states with an LGBT population of more than 4 percent “have laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and allow same-sex couples to marry, enter into a civil union, or register as domestic partners,” according to Gallup.

Gallup had released the first part of its data in October, and had already made it clear there were some obvious potential pitfalls, mainly that people might not be honest or might not see themselves as falling within any of the traditional LGBT labels.

Source: Slate

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Publisher‘s Note: DO take note that many in Washington D.C., where U.S. Congress and the White House is located, has the most. Also, President Barack Obama has pretty much ZERO gay/lesbians employee working in the Whitehouse according to a source who actually worked for many years at the Whitehouse.