The second thing I thought / wondered... 'do most people underestimate how many rural or and suburban people are out there?' - if most people polled are from well internet-connected areas and skew mostly urban cities, it might not be overestimating for the area as opposed to underestimating the amount of people that are not city dwellers. Maybe another poll is needed or has been done. /random-thought

I dislike to come across as overly sensitive, but I dislike how clinical sounding "homosexual" is. Just say gay people or LGBT. It isn't a condition. The DSM was wrong for a long period of time.

LGBT doesn't mean homosexual. Gay doesn't mean homosexual. Homosexual means LG.

Scientific terms are not value judgements.

Don't worry about how you come across, worry about how you are.

To be fair, I think it can be difficult to appreciate how it sounds if you aren't LGBT. If you're straight, you haven't been exposed to being demoralized because of your sexual orientation.

I understand the perfectly valid scientific use of it-- I'm just saying that sometimes people weaponize it. When you come across anti-gay rhetoric, it almost never uses the word 'gay'. It has phrases like "the homosexual agenda". The wording is specifically chosen to imply the group is lesser than others.

The preferred word of the ingroup will become the insult from the outgroup while the ingroup settles on a new term and round and round.

You can't really expect the written word to use the current preferred term.

The problem is never the words, it's the person behind them.

I hear “gay agenda” just as often, not to mention it was by far the more common high school taunt.

I’m sorry you feel that way, but “gay” sounds more offensive to me (e.g. “the gays” or “that’s gay”) and, ironically, euphemistic. LGBTQ sounds clinical (it’s an abbreviation!) and only half the letters relevant here.

Homosexuality is the most precise word (literally same-sexuality) to denote LG and DSM is hardly the originator of the word (the DSM was, is, and always will be, a mess. But that’s another issue).