AP is reporting young Americans “overwhelmingly support LGBT rights,” a proposition deduced from a GenForward survey “of Americans ages 18-30.” The results?

According to the findings, 92 per cent of young adults support HIV and AIDs prevention, 90 per cent support equal employment, and 80 per cent support LGBT adoption. Across racial and ethnic groups, broad majorities support training police on transgender issues, government support for organizations for LGBT youth and insurance coverage for transgender health issues.

GenForward is part of the Black Youth Project, a typical lockstep progressive group. Among other things, they advocate for “reparations” for those who are not now and never were slaves. They give support to the Green Party over Democrats, arguing Hillary is not progressive enough.

The survey reported by the AP is actually comprised of two surveys, about half the data coming from the Black Youth Project and half from the Associated Press’s own NORC Center for Public Affairs Research which is “supported by its client organizations.”

Just under 2,000 folks who signed on to be panel members for the combined project were asked a suite of questions about current political and social events.

Everybody knows that question wording affects the outcome of surveys. In politics, adjusting phrasing to solicit a desired answer is called push-polling. Push-polls make use of ancient prosecutorial trick questions, such as “Have you stopped beating your wife?” For example, asked of the same people, “Are you in favor of killing, chopping up, and selling for parts unwanted people?” will give vastly different results than “Are you in favor of a woman’s right to choose?”, even though both questions are about the same thing, abortion.

GenForward acknowledges this form of bias in their own survey. Half their panel were asked if they supported “Coverage of transgender health issues by health insurance.” Result: 47% of blacks and 40% of whites strongly supported it. But the other half were asked a much more specific question, whether they supported “Coverage of transgender health issues, such as hormone treatments and sexual reassignment surgery, by health insurance.” Only 34% of blacks and 34% of whites strongly favored this, a substantial reduction. The same drop was found for Asians (from 49% to 35%) and Hispanics (from 53% to 32%).

In the end, the answers for both questions were combined as if they had the same meaning. Imagine the propriety of doing that for the abortion-question example. It’s also clear that for those who were asked to think about the precise meaning of “transgender health issues,” support dropped. This leads to the inference that if people were fully informed on what so-called sex change surgery actually does to the human body, and the poor health outcomes, including suicide, of those who undergo this dramatic intrusion, there would be less support still.

Another form of survey bias is stacking the deck. Head into the Eagles social club on a Friday night at the start of deer season in Northern Michigan and ask the patrons fresh from the woods, “Should Americans be allowed the right to bear arms?” and then ask the same question (same wording) of students crouched in their official safe space at Loyola University after their Ramblers Analyzing Whiteness meeting. The results will be different.

The GenForward survey purports to be a representation across all Americans. Is it? A good chunk of its respondents were not employed, from 42% of blacks to 32% of whites. Yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports unemployment rates for people these ages at about 16% for 18-19-year-olds and 9% for 20-24-year-olds, with rates declining for older folks (until retirement, of course). Many more GenForward panelists were unemployed than is typical among average Americans.

Panelists also report anomalously large rates of deviant sexuality. Among blacks, 6% say they are “Gay/Lesbian,” 7% “Bisexual,” 1% “Transgender, transsexual, or gender non-conforming,” for a total of 14% or less across all LGBT categories (it’s “or less” because the survey allowed respondents to choose more than one identification). Rates are similar for the other races, except that 9% of whites claimed to be bisexual. Yet in the general population, the highest admitted rate across all LGBT categories is 3.8%. This is another whopping discrepancy.

These curiosities, and given GenForward’s admitted progressive roots, it is reasonable to conclude their panelists more resemble safe-space denizens than typical young Americans. Why didn’t AP recognize and acknowledge this? Could it be they were so happy with the results of the survey they didn’t want to check the details?

The last form of bias, and one often forgotten, are the questions not asked. GenForward was keen on ascertaining support for non-procreative sexual behaviors, but nowhere did they ask whether LGBT “rights” should overrule Constitutionally protected rights of freedom of religion, free speech and free association, all of which are under vigorous attack.

Would having heard questions about these topics, and thus forcing panelists to think about these crucial subjects — as some were forced to think about “transgender health issues” — have changed the results of other questions? The question answers itself.