Tag: United States

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Why Does The US Have Far More Deaths From COVID-19 Than EU?

L-R Donald Trump, VP Mike Pence (image: public domain/Flickr)
Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have argued in recent weeks the increase in confirmed U.S. cases of COVID-19 is primarily the result of more testing for the virus being conducted. However, that’s not true, as The New York Times explains. The U.S., which once trailed the European Union in per capita overall deaths, has now racked up many more. From the New York Times:

Most other high-income countries are dealing with modest numbers of new cases — often an inevitable consequence of reopening — and the countries are responding aggressively. Many are following the advice of public health experts, ordering social distancing, mask-wearing and partial lockdowns and doing their best to track people who came in contact with new patients.

The United States is not. President Trump and many governors continue to flout scientific advice and send mixed messages about the seriousness of the virus.

As the U.S. soars past the EU in coronavirus-related deaths, it’s worth noting that the population of the EU (446 million) eclipses the U.S. (328 million) by nearly 120 million. In the graphic below, check out how many more deaths due to COVID-19 the U.S. has suffered versus the EU. Also, Japan – which has a population of 128 million – has far fewer deaths. But wearing a face mask in the Asian country is a common practice, year in, year out.

(graphic via New York Times)

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States Ranked Best (And Worst) For LGBTQs

Move.org, a great resource website for all things moving, has done a deep dive into several important factors LGBTQ folks should consider when moving to a new state to start a family and they’ve ranked all 50 states from best to worst.

Issues like hate crime legislation, same-sex adoption laws, anti-discrimination laws, LGBTQ population density and more were all taken into account

Move.org utilized data from HRC Foundation, the Movement and Advancement Project, and the Williams Institute at UCLA.

“We decided to consider the safety of LGBTQ individuals first and foremost, so we ranked whether the state had hate crime laws in place, whether or not conversion therapy was allowed for minors, and whether anti-discrimination laws were set,” wrote the researchers.

So, which state is best for starting a family?

California came out on top thanks to the Golden State’s comprehensive hate crime laws that cover both sexual orientation and gender identity, broad anti-discrimination laws, plus so-called ‘conversion therapy’ is banned for minors.

Additionally, the LGBTQ population density is pretty high at 4.9% meaning almost 1.5 million gays live there.

The rest of the top five are:
2. Illinois
3. Hawaii
4. Connecticut
5. Maryland

Jumping to the other end of the spectrum, West Virginia ranked last in terms of LGBTQ criteria.

The Mountain State offers no protections in terms of anti-discrimination or hate crime laws. There’s no law protecting minors from conversion therapy. Although, the state does allow same-sex couple to adopt.

The remaining bottom five are:
49. Virginia
48. Wisconsin
47. South Dakota
46. North Dakota

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t move to these states. It’s important to note that every state has a few cities that are good landing spots for LGBTQ+ families.

Click over to Move.org for a complete list of all 50 states.

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Williams Institute: 1.4 Million In U.S. Identify As Transgender

According to the Williams Institute, approximately 0.6% of adults in the United States, or 1.4 million individuals, identify as transgender.

The figure comes from crunching the numbers available from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).

The research goes even deeper, looking at state-level estimates of the number and percentage of adults who identify as transgender for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The state by state results rank the lowest to highest percentage of trans citizens, from 0.3% in North Dakota to 0.8% in Hawaii.

Not surprisingly, younger adults are more likely to identify as transgender than older adults.

Those who identify as transgender broken down along age differences:

• 0.7% of adults ages 18 to 24
• 0.6% of adults ages 25 to 64
• 0.5% of adults ages 65 and older identify as transgender.

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One In Three Americans Under-30 Say They Are Not 100% Heterosexual

A new survey from YouGov shows 29% of young Americans under age 18-29 cop to having at least some amount of bisexuality in them.

Following on from a similar study in the UK, YouGov asked people to place themselves on the sexuality scale.

Overall 78% of Americans say that they are completely heterosexual while 4% say that they are completely homosexual.

16% of American adults say that they fall somewhere in between. In this group the bulk (10%) say that they are more heterosexual than homosexual while 3% put themselves in the middle and another 3% say that they are predominantly homosexual.

While 80% of all Americans say that they are completely heterosexual or homosexual, only 66% of under-30s say the same.

29% of under-30s put themselves somewhere on the category of bisexuality.

Click to enlarge the chart above.