The percentage of adults with non-traditional sexual identities has more than doubled since 2012
File photo: A detail from the New York City Pride March, June 25, 2023. © Taylor Hill/Getty Images for Garnier
Over 28% of women in the youngest US adult cohort identify as LGBTQ, most of them as bisexual, according to a Gallup annual survey published on Wednesday.
The polling agency began asking Americans about their sexual identity in 2012. In that time, the number of adults who identify as something other than heterosexual has gone from 3.5% to 7.6%.
“Overall, each younger generation is about twice as likely as the generation that preceded it” to identify as LGBTQ, the pollster said.
More than one in five Americans in Generation Z (born between 1997-2012) identify as LGBTQ, up from almost one in ten millennials (1981-1996).
In the 2024 survey, 28.5% of Gen-Z women checked one of the LGBT identity boxes, mainly ‘bisexual’ (20.7%), with lesbians accounting for 5.4% and transgenders for 2.1%. Among men of the same generation, 10.6% identified with the rainbow flag, with bisexuals (6.9%) outnumbering the gays (2.8%).
By comparison, only 5.4% of millennial men and 12.4% of women identified as LGBTQ, the survey said. Older Americans were more likely to identify as gay or lesbian than bisexual or trans.
Overall, gays and lesbians represent slightly over 1% of US adults, compared to bisexuals at 4.4%. Bisexual is the dominant identity in the LGBT camp, with 57.3%. Gallup did note that there was some overlap between identities, as the survey allowed for multiple categories.
The results were based on a telephone survey of more than 12,000 Americans aged 18 and over. While 7.6% said they identified as one or more LGBTQ groups, 85.6% said they were heterosexual and 6.8% declined to answer.
The current US government has gone all-in on supporting alternative sexual identities, both at home and abroad. By contrast, Russia has banned LGBTQ “propaganda” and targeting of minors. However, as President Vladimir Putin recently pointed out, Russia is “quite tolerant towards people with non-traditional sexual orientations,” believing in a “live and let live” approach so long as people don’t flaunt it – and leave the children alone.
