More than 9% of American adults now identify as LGBT as of 2024, a new poll released Thursday found.
The number of adults reporting to be “something other than heterosexual” has risen from 7.6% in 2023 to 9.3% in 2024, according to Gallup. The newest data shows a drastic increase since Gallup first began its polling on the subject in 2012, when only 3.5% held a non-heterosexual identity.
The statistic is driven largely by Gen Z with nearly a quarter of the generation claiming an LGBT identity, according to Gallup. Less than 15% of millennials and 5% or less of each Gen X, Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation report identifying as part of the group.
Since 2020, the number of people claiming to be LGBT has risen approximately 4 percentage points amongst Gen Z, two points amongst millennials and one point amongst Gen X, according to the poll. Overall, more than 5% of respondents say they are bisexual and just over 1% claim a transgender identity.
The trend is far more common amongst Democrats and liberals than Republicans and conservatives, with the former representing 14% and 21% of those claiming an LGBT identity, respectively, and only 3% of Republicans and conservatives claiming a non-heterosexual identity, the poll shows. Only 11% of independents and 8% moderates identify as LGBT.
Gender also plays a large role in the self-reported identity, with 10% of women claiming to be LGBT compared to only 6% of men. The trend is even more prominent when broken down by sex and by generation, with 31% of Gen Z women and 18% of millennial women claiming an LGBT identity compared to just 12% of Gen Z men and 9% of millennial men.
People living in cities and suburbs are also more likely to claim a different identity than those living in rural areas, Gallup found.
Around 1% to 2% of adults surveyed say they are “nonbinary,” the poll says. Polling results from 2023 revealed that Gen Z teenagers and adults were the most likely to identify as LGBT.
This sharp increase in recent years follows a shift in public education, as many schools have begun teaching radical gender ideology to students as early as kindergarten, especially after the Biden administration poured millions into entrenching topics focusing on “LGBTQ inclusion” into schools. While President Donald Trump has taken action to ban such lessons since his return to office, many schools are still defying the president’s orders.
Trump has also signed executive orders declaring the federal recognition of only the two sexes, male and female, banning federal funds from going towards the “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children and prohibiting men from competing in women’s sports.
Some theories for this increase in LGBT identities have suggested a “social contagion” aspect in which many people, especially young girls, become more likely to identify as something other than LGBT if other individuals in their circle do.
“There is no explanation given for how, unlike with homosexuality, we’re seeing entire friend groups and entire segments of classrooms adopting trans identities together,” Candice Jackson, former Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in 2022.
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