Why does this forum have a large number of QUILTBAG members?

In the most recent poll, about 60% (!) of respondents at this forum identified as QUILTBAG. What's more, it was a pretty sizable chunk of the active members at this forum who answered to the poll. So, how do you guys explain the massive number of QUILTBAGs here?

(Yes, I'm one of them.)

1) Pokemon is a humanitarian, broadly-accepted work from a secular-rational nation.
2) Dragonfree is a humanitarian, liberal person from a secular-rational nation.
3) Pokemon fans (humanitarian of all political stances on the spectrum) were thus screened by Dragonfree's viewpoint (not by active action, as I'm not alleging any dictator-like opinion-control).
4) Almost all QUILTBAG people are humanitarian, secular-rational, liberal people.
5) QUILTBAG people often create tight-night connections and very efficiently (as well as effectively) defend themselves when aforesaid connections are made. This would weed out competing ideologies systematically and gradually.
6) Ergo, the only remaining people on tCoD would be QUILTBAG people, and those who support QUILTBAG people.

I dub it 'Evolutionary Queer Forum Community Model' (EQFCM).

i have to conjecture that many of the members of this forum are under the age of 18. many of them are going through puberty and trying to figure out their sexuality. some have, some have not.
considering that 1 out of 10 people are either homosexual or bisexual, it is safe to apply this statistic to the millions of pokemon fans out there.

we also have to factor in being capable of anonymity on the internet. this keeps the user safe from online bullying, since they can pretend to be someone else.

and then i can add that previous members who are bisexual or homosexual must have friends who shared personal information and who also like pokemon.

it shouldn't be a surprise to find that many members who don't considered themselves "straight"

possibly because tcodf is largely quiltbag-friendly, perhaps we just have a larger percentage of quiltbag people who stay at tcodf? I imagine the general amount of quiltbag people who visit various forums is the same, really.

I don't understand this question or why it's in serious business. We're queer, we're here, get used to it.

Speaking of which, I just remembered the previous sexuality polls at TCOD, and here's roughly how they turned out.

2005 (IF forums): ~15% QUILTBAG
2007 (vB v1): ~30% QUILTBAG
2011 (vB v2): ~60% QUILTBAG

This means that, at the current rate, in 2014, we will have a 100% QUILTBAG (minus, of course, Butterfree) forum. o.o

leo33wii said:

considering that 1 out of 10 people are either homosexual or bisexual, it is safe to apply this statistic to the millions of pokemon fans out there.

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I agree with pretty much everything you said except this bit. Things like hobbies and interests are actively chosen by people and not (for lack of a better word) randomly assigned. So it's like saying "1 in 10 men are gay/bi, so 1 in 10 men who like musical theatre are gay", when the stat for that is much, much higher.

Dannichu said:

I agree with pretty much everything you said except this bit. Things like hobbies and interests are actively chosen by people and not (for lack of a better word) randomly assigned. So it's like saying "1 in 10 men are gay/bi, so 1 in 10 men who like musical theatre are gay", when the stat for that is much, much higher.

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i was saying that it is safe to apply this because i'm sure that there hasn't been a study made for finding out how many pokemon fans are actually homosexual/bisexual.

I think the 1:10 ratio is a bit outdated myself. In actuality, I feel it is somewhat-to-drastically higher. There are so many people who are still in the metaphorical closet or are curious but don't act on it. As society progresses and more people actually become accepting of non-heteronormative "lifestyles", more people can feel safe in being accepted for who they are -- or might be.

I think it's largely a positive feedback loop. We have a lot of QUILTBAG members, which creates an extremely QUILTBAG-friendly atmosphere (and anti-homophobic, etc.), which i) encourages people who'd perhaps otherwise claim to be straight and cis to wear their orientation/identification freely and ii) leads to QUILTBAG members feeling especially welcome and accepted and thus perhaps more likely to stick around and be active than at a forum where most people appear to be cis and straight and a substantial number of members might be prejudiced against them.

Butterfree said:

I think it's largely a positive feedback loop. We have a lot of QUILTBAG members, which creates an extremely QUILTBAG-friendly atmosphere (and anti-homophobic, etc.), which i) encourages people who'd perhaps otherwise claim to be straight and cis to wear their orientation/identification freely and ii) leads to QUILTBAG members feeling especially welcome and accepted and thus perhaps more likely to stick around and be active than at a forum where most people appear to be cis and straight and a substantial number of members might be prejudiced against them.

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I think that knocked the nail on the head. Though I do find it interesting that the majority of people here are under 18, QUILTBAG members and atheists. And we're all from a wide range of countries, so it seems this mix is a global thing. Is it because people who use forums tend to be more open minded, or because minors, QUILTBAG members and atheists search the internet for support to their various problems?

Coroxn said:

Is it because people who use forums tend to be more open minded

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Well it's definitely not that reason anyway. For more information, see the Serebii and Darren Shan forums.

Coroxn said:

[We're] all from a wide range of countries

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A swing and a miss.

~50% of us are from Canada or the US, a further ~30% from the British Isles, and another ~15% from continental Europe.

Let me put it this way.

I live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The nearest active member to me is ultraviolet, who is from Perth, Australia.

There you go.

If you want a truly multi-national Pokemon forum, try Smogon - they have so many members from so many countries that they were able to establish a competitive battling world cup. (A bit off-topic here, but you get my point.)

Well, Effercon, we do cover quite a bit of countries. Maybe not dozens, but enough for the fact that we're a majority of QUILTBAG atheist minors not to be put down to demographics.

Effercon said:

I live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The nearest active member to me is ultraviolet, who is from Perth, Australia.

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word! pacific represent, yo. (sorry about our tourists, haha...) there's also Furiianda, but iirc she's from Smellbourne Melbourne.

wasn't there a poll a long, long time ago with relevant statistics? it'd be worth pulling up, anyway.

Coroxn said:

Well, Effercon, we do cover quite a bit of countries. Maybe not dozens, but enough for the fact that we're a majority of QUILTBAG atheist minors not to be put down to demographics.

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Actually, now that I think about it, with the exception of myself, our handful of Latin American members, and the ~30-40% of the forum living in America, the majority of the forum comes from secular/atheist-majority countries, so that may have something to do with it.

ultraviolet said:

(sorry about our tourists, haha...)

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Ha, it's funny bcause it's true! XD Seriously, every time I go to a nearby mall, especially one in the city centre, you can be sure that there'll be at least one of you guys. (No offense meant.)

Also your city has THE BEST footy team GO EAGLES (yeah, we actually get coverage here, but I'm getting off-topic again)

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Now, back on topic:

I think a big part of it is that the original core members (Tailsy, surskitty, Altmer, Butterfree, etc.) were all liberal atheists, and thus, QUILTBAGs started joining, as most liberal atheists have nothing against QUILTBAGs. Once there was a solid number of QUILTBAG members, more QUILTBAGs joined, seeing how friendly this forum was toward QUILTBAGs. Almost all QUILTBAGs are liberals and atheists, so this forum became highly left-leaning. At the same time, the high numbers of liberal atheist QUILTBAGs either scared off straight conservative religious people (which some here would say is a good thing, but I digress) or, for the few of that sort who were bold/foolish enough (ohai Pwne) to step into the dragon's lair (lulpun), they were quickly shunned/thrashed in debate.

My two cents.

Iono, I am socially very progressive but economically less so.

I'm pretty sure homophobic Texans (Not saying all Texans are homophobic, just pointing it out as a generally close-minded society... just generally) wouldn't last long in here... Like some people already said, the forum started QUILTBAG-friendly, so opened-minded people felt good in that atmosphere, and it just went on like that.

Lord of the Fireflies said:

I'm pretty sure homophobic Texans (Not saying all Texans are homophobic, just pointing it out as a generally close-minded society... just generally) wouldn't last long in here... Like some people already said, the forum started QUILTBAG-friendly, so opened-minded people felt good in that atmosphere, and it just went on like that.

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i would like to say objection to this^^^
http://deep.mastersfamily.org/2011-05-25/what-would-you-do/

being a texan, many texans are actually easy going. as long as you don't step on our feet (so to say) we don't mind, but once it becomes an issue, we'll be happy to resolve that issue.
however, because many texans are religious they do place laws that parallel religious doctrine.
in texas, we have laws, but it doesn't mean that they are strick... if you don't harm anyone, then we don't have a problem.

Ah well that's a nice surprise :D

kudos to me for being close-minded.