While that’s just a small increase from 2021 numbers — 7.1% — the 2022 Gallup data reflects an overall upward trend. In 2012, when the analytics giant began measuring LGBTQ identification, only about 3.5% of adults self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or something other than heterosexual and cisgender (meaning they identify with the sex they were assigned at birth).
Researchers credit the younger generations — especially those born between 1997 and 2004, or Generation Z — for the continuous increase.
Nearly 20% of Gen Z adults identified as LGBTQ. That rate is considerably lower (11.2%) among millennials (adults born between 1981 and 1996). Only 3.3% of Generation X adults, those born between 1965 and 1980 identified as LGBTQ.
Data for the survey came from phone interviews with more than 10,000 adults. Gallup researchers asked respondents if they identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or another identity. Some of the volunteered responses included pansexual, asexual or queer. Respondents could also choose multiple identities.
As is “typically the […]
I think of an incident that occurred when I lived in Pasadena, CA. Late one nigh, I was driving home and witnessed an older man on a street corner connecting with a much younger man. It wasn’t a blatant sexual scene, but it seemed to represent connections made in the dark due to disapproval of homosexual relations. There was something very sad and melancholy about the two men. That they were compelled to connect in the shadows. Depending on the historical timeline and geographical place, there were quite a few famous leaders, etc. who were secretly gay or of another gender definition. And I often have the sense that the outrage against is, more than anything, tied to fear.