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More People Identify As LGBTQIA+ Than Ever Before

More People Identify As LGBTQIA+ Than Ever Before

The results were based on more than 15,000 interviews conducted with adults 18 and older throughout 2020.

Jessica Lynch

Jessica Lynch

More young people are identifying as queer in the US than ever before, according to a new Gallup report.

The update on lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender identification has shown that an estimated 5.6 per cent of Americans identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer, which is up from 4.5 per cent in 2017.

The results were based on more than 15,000 interviews conducted with people 18 and older throughout 2020.

PA

According to Mic, when asked about their sexual orientations '16 per cent of folks born between 1997 and 2002 - Gen Z - said they identify as LGBTQ'.

Meanwhile, more than 9 per cent of millennials and about 4 per cent of Generation X said they 'weren't straight.'

Other notable tidbits from the findings were that more than half of LGBT adults identify as bisexual, with about a quarter saying they are gay, 11.7 per cent identifying as lesbian and 11.3 per cent as transgender.

While it may seem like there's been a sudden influx of people identifying as queer, Gallup editor Jeffrey Jones explained to NBC: "Younger people are growing up in an environment where being gay, lesbian or bisexual is not as taboo as it was in the past.

"So they may just feel more comfortable telling an interviewer in a telephone survey how they describe themselves. In the past, people would maybe be more reluctant."

Dulcinea Pitagora, a New York City-based psychotherapist, who works primarily with sexually marginalised groups, said the results of the poll show that it's a positive step in individuals embracing their sexual identity.

"The more people who feel comfortable and safe in disclosing who they are, the more others will disclose, and the more people will be living authentically as who they are in the world," she said.

"Also the more awareness [there is] around how many queer people there actually are in the world, the more people will realise the great diversity in the queer community, and the more non-queer people will realize they have more in common with queer people than they may have realised."

Gallop said the evident differences between each generation raised questions about 'whether higher LGBT identification in younger than older Americans reflects a true shift in sexual orientation, or if it merely reflects a greater willingness of younger people to identify as LGBT'.

"To the extent, it reflects older Americans not wanting to acknowledge an LGBT orientation, the Gallup estimates may underestimate the actual population prevalence of it," they added.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: LGBTQ, News