The proportion of American adults identifying as LGBT has reached 7.1% in the United States, a number that has doubled since 2012 and demonstrates a generational shift, according to the Gallup polling institute which released the data on Thursday.
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Of the 12,000 Americans surveyed by phone in 2021, 86.3% said they were heterosexual, 7.1% LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans), and 6.6% did not provide a response.
This survey was first conducted in 2012, and the percentage of people identifying as LGBT was 3.5%. It has increased steadily since.
LGBT people are proportionally more numerous among younger generations, especially among Generation Z, which includes people born from 1997 until the beginning of the 2010s.
Thus, 20.8% — or 1 in 5 — of Gen Z adults identified as LGBT (only those born up to 2003 were adults at the time of the survey).
This is double the 10.5% of “millennials” (born between 1981 and 1996) identifying as LGBT.
And the proportion fell to 4.2% for Generation X (1965-1980), 2.6% for baby boomers (1946-1964), and 0.8% for those born before 1946.
Since 2012, the proportion of LGBT people among baby boomers or Gen Xers has remained similar, with only a slight increase among millennials.
In contrast, the proportion of LGBT adults in Gen Z has doubled since 2017 (when only its members born between 1997 and 1999 were already adults), showing an upward trend within this generation itself.
“If this trend continues among Gen Z, the proportion of American adults who identify as LGBT will grow even further once all members of this generation reach adulthood,” Gallup said.
For the first time, the institute also noted the proportion of LGBT people identifying with each category.
More than half of LGBT Americans (57%) identified as bisexual — or 4% of the entire adult population.
Then 21% of LGBT people said they were gay, 14% lesbian, 10% transgender and 4% “something other than heterosexual”, as queer.
This generational change is taking place in a context of growing tolerance: “Americans are increasingly accepting gay, lesbian or transgender people” and LGBT people are now “more protected”, underlined Gallup.