Survey finds more young people identify as LGBTQ+ & homophobes are demanding a recount

Gallup has published its annual survey tallying the percentage of Americans who identify as LGBTQ+, and naturally, homophobes are coming away with all the wrong takeaways.

For the second straight year, an estimated 9% of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ+, a sharp increase from 3.5% in 2012, the first year that Gallup measured sexual and gender identity.

Between 2021 and 2023, the number of LGBTQ+ adults stood at around 7%.

The rising total of queer-identifying Americans is largely due to young people: 23% of 18-29 year olds say they’re LGBTQ+. That number drops to 10.4% among 30-49 year olds, and to 3.1% among 50-64 year olds.

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For seniors, the total is 2.3%.

Parsing the numbers further, 16.1% of LGBTQ+ 18-29 year olds identify as bi. Overall, bi adults comprise for 58.6% of the LGBTQ+-identifying population.

On Fox News, they couldn’t handle it. Host Will Cain blamed the rise in bisexuality to “p*rn.”

For conservatives who dispute the notion that sexual orientation is biological, the age disparity in queer-identifying adults is easy fodder. They are posting their bigoted thoughts on social media, bemoaning that kids these days are surrounded by “rainbow vomit.”

In a sense, they’re right: there are more out LGBTQ+ people today than ever before. But it proves the opposite point that they think.

Only 70 years ago, the Lavender Scare was running rampant throughout the U.S. Gay people were outed, fired from their jobs and publicly shamed, losing everything in the process. Obviously, that environment would not be conducive to people coming out.

Throughout history, LGBTQ+ people have faced discrimination, and the consequences have been lethal. As an astute commenter points out, the impact of AIDS also explains the extreme variables for age.

The reason why the vast majority of out LGBTQ+ adults are between 18 and 49 year old is because they’re the first two generations that have seen out figures thrive in public life. It was only 29 years ago when Ellen graced the cover of Time!

Since then, there’s been a rainbow deluge. The prominence of out LGBTQ+ people has dovetailed with a sharp rise in queer acceptance as well.

Today, 2/3rds of Americans believe same-sex marriage should be legal, according to Gallup. The overall percentage of U.S. adults who support gay marriage crossed 50% in 2012 and has been steadily climbing ever since (the previous high was 71%).

This is not rocket science: as social attitudes shift, people are more likely to come out.

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The power of perception shows up the more that one digs into the numbers. For example, 10.5% of women identify as LGBTQ+, compared to 5.6% of men. After looking at the disparity, there are two conclusions. Either women are biologically engineered to be more queer, or queerness among women is more socially accepted (pro sports are a prime example of this dichotomy).

We already know that bisexuality is by far the biggest LGBTQ+ identity. It’s likely there are a lot more men attracted to men who would identify as bi if it was more socially embraced.

Political affiliation tells the same story. Unsurprisingly, Democrats are much more inclined than Republicans to identify as LGBTQ+ (14.2% compared to 1.9%).

For transgender people, the relationship between visibility and identity is especially apparent. Up to 3% of young adults identify as trans.

The number of trans adults overall stands at 1.1%, and is statistically immeasurable for people over 50.

Even in the face of government-sponsored hostility, the number of trans-identifying adults, and LGBTQ+ adults in general, continues to increase. Retrograde administrations can’t push queer people back into the closet, no matter how hard they try.

Maybe that’s what the homophobes are really upset about.

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