A new Gallup Poll shows Americans grossly over-estimating the percentage of homosexuals in the population. Most people assume that gays and lesbians represent more than 25% of adults. Among young people aged 18 to 29, only one percent-one percent!-correctly identified the real percentage as less than 5%. Actually, best estimates from a new federal study suggest only 1.4% identify as homosexual.

The wildly mistaken idea that one of four Americans pursues same sex relationships and, therefore, traditional marriage is dead, falsely suggests that the old American dream of mom and dad and kids is no longer widely desired. If a quarter of all adults can’t embrace that dream because they’re gay, that explains the desire to radically redefine marriage. But the truth is that not even the 1.4% who identify as gay would all require that redefinition.