To date I've achieved 250 responses. Most of these have been through online advertising. I've had to restrict this due to cost; but fortunately I have recently been to Brighton and Pride is coming up which has given me/will give me an opportunity to be brave and hand out fliers and leaflets. I am still ambitious of getting 1000 responses, but my trajectory currently has me getting to about 500.
Two things my 250 respondents have surprised me with:
- their age
- their ethnicity
Advertising online has attracted rather younger people than I had anticipated. At one point more than 50% were under 25. Judicious tinkering has reduced this proportion to a third. However, it has skewed results in other ways. Education qualifications tend to be 'A' level or below (18 to 24 year olds are usually students) and life experiences - well, they haven't had them!
On the plus side one issue it has revealed is the need to tackle homophobic bullying in schools. It seems to eb a huge issue, with nor than 90% of respondents seeing tackling it as a priority. This compares with about two thirds supporting full gay marriage.
Ethnicity is more of an issue. So far no black people have taken part; not a one. That is more of a worry for me as I don't quite no what to do about it. I think I can target gay black men at Pride, but perhaps I will have to resign myself to my respondents being almost exclusively white. Any suggestions would be more than welcome!
