Interesting Poll on Gay Sports Stars

A poll released today reveals that people may not be so uncomfortable with a gay sports star:

Seventy-two percent of those surveyed by Witeck-Combs Communications and Harris Interactive said they would not change
their feelings toward a "favorite" male professional athlete if the athlete revealed he is gay.

But, it looks like they expect other people to have a problem with it:

Nevertheless, in contrast, when those surveyed were asked how they think other sports fans would feel toward an openly gay sports figure, just as many - 72 percent - said that others would have less favorable
opinions.

Is that some strange permutation of "some of my best friends are gay?" "I'm not a homophobe, but I'm sure most of the people around me are," is that how it goes?

The poll also reports that 17.4% of the respondents do not identify themselves as heterosexual:

The new nationwide survey involved 2,510 U.S. adults and was conducted online between March 6 and 16. Two-thousand and thirty-seven of those surveyed said they are heterosexual.

That's really interesting, although I don't know if they designed the study to estimate that percentage.