Towleroad reported that Community Marketing, Inc. have released a report detailing the results of an online survey of lesbian and gay adults. CMI reported that, “as an incentive, respondents were offered a chance to win one of four airline vouchers valid for a roundtrip flight in North America.” They conclude by stating that, “this survey comprehensively and effectively represents a broad spectrum of LGBT consumers in all parts of the USA.”
I think the survey has some good information in it (I’m still reviewing what is available online), but to say that it is a comprehensive survey of LGBT consumers is a little misleading. First, when you visit their site, we are told that “some of the U.S. respondents are bisexual, transgender or straight, and are not included in these indices, or in the sample key findings below.” We also have to highlight the word “online” which is where this survey took place. This precludes any person from participating in this survey who doesn’t have a computer, or who doesn’t subscribe (or have access) to the publications where this survey was promoted.
If it was a comprehensive survey it would include a random sampling of all the LGBT community. The issue is that this kind of data is not available, so we have to resort to surveys where self-identifying individuals who have the capabilities of responding to a survey actually participate.
Like I said, the data that has been obtained is pretty good, but it is not the type of survey that CMI claim it is to be. Who knew I’d learn something from college 🙂