Study title

United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Sweden, Australia

Individual

The sampling process involved advertising for participants through online communities such as Aven.org, local LGBTQ groups in two UK cities, an article written for Huffington Post and also hard copy adverts in local libraries and community organisations. We were keen to minimise the effects of sampling from organisations such as AVEN which in other studies had produced samples skewed towards younger women, with higher levels of education, middle class, white and American (e.g. Scherrer, 2008) so we first contacted those who were male and over the age of 30 yrs. The rest of the sample was decided by a random number generator applied to the remaining group of participants.In terms of information given in our pre interview, short demographic information form, and in relation to the whole cohort of 50 people, the majority of participants normally resided in the US (n=24) and the UK (n=20), with 3 residing in Sweden, 2 in Canada and 1 in Australia. In terms of gender identification, 33 identified as female, 8 as male, 2 as agender, 2 as androgynous, 1 as female boarding on agender, 1 as male unsure, 1 as transgender/gender fluid and 2 people did not respond to the question. The sample was relatively youthful: 23 participants were 18-23 yrs, 15 were 24-29 yrs, 7 were 30-47 yrs, 2 were 48-59 yrs and we did not have data on 3 participants. Participants were also relatively well educated with highest levels of education reported being: college/university degree (n=24), A levels (n=11), completing High School (n=10), post graduate qualification (n=3) and missing data (n=2). Participants were not ethnically diverse with 39 people describing their ethnic identity as white/Caucasian/, 2 as British, 2 as Jewish, 1 as Native American, 2 as mixed race and there was not data for 4 people. The large majority of people reported their relationship status as single (n=36), 10 people reported being in relationships, 2 in committed platonic relationships, 1 was dating and one was in a polyamorous relationship.