title: Use of a telephone screener to identify a probability sample of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine public response to a telephone screener used to identify a probability sample of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals.
  
  
  METHODS
  A telephone screener was designed to provide a representative sample of self-identified lesbians, gays, and bisexuals (LGB) in the 30 central cities of the 15 largest Consolidated Metropolitan Areas.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 14,458 households contacted, 11,612 completed at least part of the survey. Of these, only 2.6% refused or responded "don't know" to the sexual orientation screener question. Respondents from the northeast were more reluctant to answer than respondents from the west.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of a screener on a national telephone survey to screen households for self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults was a successful way to generate a representative sample.
authors.affiliation: Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY 10032, USA. rls39@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Randall L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Sell
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kates
authors.forename: Mollyann
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brodie
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001727:Bisexuality; D005260:Female; D018452:Homosexuality, Female; D018451:Homosexuality, Male; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D012494:Sampling Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone