Sunderland Pride Launch Research Survey

Readers in North East England may be interested to hear Sunderland Pride has today launched a research survey to collect opinions on the way the project is currently running. Membners of the community are being asked to take the time to answer a few short questions on the 2011 event as well as the new services that have been implemented in the past year, the survey also asks how the event can be improved this year.

Sunderland Pride is the organisation behind the annual LGB&T celebration event in Sunderland, that made its innaugral appearance in the city on Sunday 25th September 2011. Sunday 23rd September 2012 will be the second Sunderland Pride event to be held. Last year’s event was attended by around 3,000 members of the community.

The survey runs until April and can participants can participate in the survey via http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5M38PMN, more information on the survey can be found on Sunderland Pride’s official website www.sunderlandpride.co.uk. Alternatively, you can request the questionnaire via email, Info@sunderlandpride.co.uk.

I Exist

I've just finished completing a really important survey that LGF are running. They recently launched the"I Exist" survey, to find out about a range of issues affecting lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people, from health to homophobia and relationships to legal rights.

It comes, they argue, in the wake of the 2011 census (which already seems so long ago!) which despite campaigning, did not include a question on sexual orientation. This survey attempts to address that balance and although LGF is based in Manchester, the more responses, and the greater the geographical spread, the more valuable the final report will be. So, click here to start the survey and say to policy-makers "I exist!"

It only takes 15 minutes to complete, but the answers you give will be used to sustain and improve services for LGB people. In return for your time, there is the chance to win some fantastic prizes, including £500 worth of holiday vouchers, an iPad 2 or £100 worth of shopping vouchers.

Craigslist and the Gay Identity

One of the more intriguing stories of the last couple of weeks is the emergence of the Homodachi Research Group and the publication of their report entitled 'Exploratory National Gay Sex Survey using User-Generated Content'.

The group sadly don't identify themselves and unlike much of the literature around Craiglist, this study has not been peer-reviewed. It's therefore difficult to work out just how credible this research is. It does not seek to present the 'reality' of gay men's sex lives but rather how those lives are projected on Craigslist. I regard such research as valuable, telling us much about attitudes and performativity in seeking sexual encounters. However, this research looks at the presence of a word, and we do not therefore know whether the word 'bareback' indicates someone saying 'I do not do bareback' or 'I love bareback'. To say this is something of a draw-back is an understatement.

The site states that they analyzed over 48,000 craigslist M4M headlines in 23 (US) metropolitan areas, and claim that conducted the largest sample of gay sex survey ever made. They did no such thing, merely mining data rather than really seeking to analyse it. The full report can be downloaded here. They note at the start of the report the following:

Barebacking Capitals: Atlanta, Denver, Houston
Drug capitals: Dallas, New York, and San Francisco
Visitor capitals: Las Vegas & Washington DC
Group sex capitals: Chicago, Raleigh
69 capital: New York
Kink capitals: New York & Denver
Gym-body capitals: Los Angeles & New York

It looks an interesting project and having got this far (which is not nothing), they now move in to the more difficult analytical phase. They really ought to reveal who they are if that process it to be given any academic credibility, and as they seem to recognise, they need to become much more sophisticated in reaching any conclusions. I've previously looked at Gaydar (a sort of UK Craiglist) male for male escort websites and you can check that out here. I therefore know from experience just how much of a nightmare this sort of study can be, and I wish the group well. It could be one to watch.