A new Gallup poll out Thursday found that the number of Americans who self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or as other than heterosexual has skyrocketed in the almost 15 years since Gallup first measured the statistic, finding most recently that almost one in 10 adults say they belong to the LGBTQ+ community.
Participants carrying balloons spelling out "Pride" during the 53rd annual Chicago Pride Parade on ... [+]
Gallup's latest update found that 9.3% of adults identified as not strictly heterosexual in 2024, up from 7.6% in 2023 and almost double the number reported in 2020.
The new statistic is almost triple the 3.5% of respondents who identified as LGBTQ+ in 2012, the first year Gallup conducted the poll.
The 2024 data showed that younger generations are much more likely to report they're something other than heterosexual when compared to older people, with 20% of Gen Z adults claiming to be LGBTQ+.
Gallup surveyed more than 14,000 U.S. adults for the poll to find 85.7% of respondents said they are straight, 5.2% are bisexual, 2.0% are gay, 1.4% are lesbian, 1.3% are transgender and just under 1% mentioned a different LGBTQ+ identity, such as pansexual or asexual (5% declined to answer the question).
Of the more than 900 LGBTQ+ respondents, more than half (56%) said they were bisexual, followed by those who identified as gay (21%), lesbian (15%), transgender (14%) or something else (6%)—the survey allows respondents to report multiple LGBTQ+ identities.
The survey also found that women, Democrats and urbanites are more likely to report they are LGBTQ+ than their male, Republican or rural peers.
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In 1948, sex researcher Alfred Kinsey famously claimed that 10% of the men he'd studied were "more or less exclusively homosexual." The idea that 1 in 10 men were gay was quickly rejected and the study Kinsey used to justify it was criticized for its methodology and limited sample size, but modern research shows the American population is actually inching closer to the storied figure.
The number of people willing openly identifying as gay or queer has been rising steadily in America since the 1980s, when LGBTQ+ visibility started to significantly increase in mainstream society. The first Pride marches were held in major cities in 1970, but they began to garner mainstream recognition and rose significantly in size and participation during the late 1980s and early 1990s. President Bill Clinton officially declared June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999, and laws have increasingly been passed to ban sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination in employment and housing. Same-sex marriage became legal in the United States in 2015. As rights for LGBTQ+ people were solidified, visibility and acceptance also increased. Coverage of LGBTQ+ issues has risen in mainstream media, the number of recurring LGBTQ+ characters on television has increased and major brands have featured same-sex couples in commercials, print advertisements and on billboards. Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, are much more likely to self-identify as LGBTQ+ than the generations that came before them, according to Gallup, and the same is true of Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2006).
Despite major headway toward equal rights for LGBTQ+ people, efforts are still being made to limit freedoms for certain groups. Since taking office, President Donald Trump has signed several executive orders aimed at transgender and nonbinary Americans. One seeks to limit access to gender transition surgeries for people younger than 19, and another prohibits transgender women and girls from competing in female sports. Another order reinstates a policy from Trump's first term that stops trans people from enlisting in the military and bars those already serving from transitioning, and Trump also signed an executive order proclaiming there are only two biological sexes.