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BW2342 FEB 23,2001 13:48 PACIFIC 16:48 EASTERN
http://www.businesswire.com/webbox/bw.022301/210542342.htm
( BW)(NY-NEW-YORK-MAGAZINE)(PRM) Poll Finds Tolerance, Support of Gays and Gay Issues
Strong Among New Yorkers, But Only 58 Percent of Gays are Out At Work
Business Editors
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 23, 2001--
Exclusive Poll Featured in NEW YORK Magazine's February 26 Gay Life Now Issue
A recent survey conducted for NEW YORK Magazine's Gay Life Now
issue found a landslide level of tolerance and openness regarding homosexuality.
The poll found that straight New Yorkers are widely supportive of
issues that affect gays and lesbians, such as adoption, marriage and discrimination. In
fact, when compared to a national sample, New Yorkers are twice as likely to support
legalizing gay marriage.
"The poll paints a picture of a city in which most straight
people are not only comfortable with gays but socially and professionally intimate with
them as well," reports NEW YORK Magazine in its first-ever gay issue hitting stands
Monday, February 26, 2001.
Among the findings:
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Forty-six percent of straight New Yorkers have a gay male close friend, while 31
percent have a close friend who is a lesbian; |
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Seventy-one percent of straight New Yorkers would be likely to vote for an openly gay
candidate for mayor; |
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Forty-nine percent would be comfortable with an openly gay babysitter for their
children; |
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Sixty-six percent of straight New Yorkers believe gay and lesbian relationships are as
likely as heterosexual relationships to be loving, long-term, and monogamous; |
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Compared to a national sample, New Yorkers are twice as
likely to support legalizing gay marriage (60 percent versus 34
percent); |
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Over three-quarters (78 percent) think the State's current hate crimes law should
include gays and lesbians; |
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Two-thirds (65 percent) of straight New Yorkers feel that gays and lesbians should be
free to adopt children; |
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Residents of the five boroughs and the surrounding New York and New Jersey suburbs are
nearly equally tolerant of gays and gay issues. |
Yet the poll also found lingering intolerance and isolation, and
considerable divide between the number of gays and lesbians who are "out" at
their workplaces. In addition, HIV and the AIDS virus continue to be a major concern for
the gay and lesbian community. Gays and lesbians are twice as likely to fear contracting
the disease than are straight New York area residents (40 percent versus 20 percent) and
four out of five gays and lesbians (85 percent) personally know someone who has contracted
HIV or has AIDS and 75 percent have lost a friend or loved one to the disease.
The survey, conducted by Global Strategy Group, Inc., also found
that gay New Yorkers have a more active nightlife than straight New Yorkers. Thirty-one
percent of gays and lesbians go out to nightclubs one to two times a month or more,
(compared with 16 percent of straight New Yorkers), 33 percent go to the theatre once a
month or more (compared with 13 percent) and 29 percent eat out at restaurants three or
four times a week (compared with 17 percent).
The poll was conducted February 4 to February 8 by Global Strategy
Group, Inc., from a random sample of 308 New York City residents from all five boroughs
and 292 residents of surrounding New York and New Jersey counties, plus an oversample of
300 gay and lesbian New York-area residents. The margin of error is +/-4 and +/-5.7
percent for the oversample.
Since it was founded in April of 1968, NEW YORK Magazine has been
New York City's magazine of record, with extensive and regular coverage of local and
national news, entertainment, culture, fashion and personalities. NEW YORK Magazine is
published by Primedia.
Primedia Inc, with 2000 sales of $1.7 billion, is a targeted media
company with print, video, and Internet businesses focused on consumer and business-to
business audiences. The Company publishes more 220 magazines, and owns and operates
approximately 300 Web sites and other Internet properties (NYSE:PRM).
Editors please note: A copy of the NEW YORK Magazine report and
poll is available by calling 212-508-0557.
--30--jeh/ny* csm
CONTACT: NEW YORK Magazine, New York
Jenny Parker, 212/508-0557
KEYWORD: NEW YORK
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: PUBLISHING
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