Facing Hostile Legislation, Rising Generations Are More LGBTQ Than Ever

This story originally published online at NC Policy Watch.

Last week Gallup released its latest study of how Americans identify their own sexuality. The result: 7.2% of US adults identified as LGBTQ in 2022, double the percentage who identified that way when Gallup began measuring a decade ago.

Younger generations—millennials and adult members of Generation Z—were the most likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, pansexual or asexual, according to the study.

These results come amid a national wave of more than 320 bills targeting LGBTQ people. Many of them, like North Carolina’s Senate Bill 49 and House Bill 43, target the identities of LGBTQ youth.

Today, a by-the-numbers look at a nation growing queerer even as lawmakers move to remove LGBTQ books from public libraries, outlaw public drag performances and prevent both transgender youth and adults from accessing gender affirming care recommended by their doctors and the nation’s largest and most respected medical associations.

10,000 – Number of American adults surveyed by Gallup for its latest identification survey

7.2 – Percentage who identified as LGBTQ

U.S. LGBTQ Identification Study, 2022 Credit: Gallup/NC Policy Watch

By generation, percentage of adults identifying as LGBTQ

19.7 – Gen Z, born between 1997-2004

11.2 – Millennials, born 1981 between 1996

3.3 – Gen X, born from 1965 to 1980

2.7 – Baby Boomers, born from 1946 to 1964

1.7 – Silent Generation, born in 1945 and earlier

Percentage of LGBTQ adults and specifically how they identify

58.2 – who said they are bisexual

20.2 – who said they are gay

13.4 – who said they are lesbian

8.8 – who said they are transgender

1.8 – who said they are “other LGBTQ”

1.7 – who said they are pansexual, or not limited in sexual attraction to biological sex, gender, or gender identity.

1.3 – who said they are asexual, or may have little or no interest in having sex.

1.2 – who said they are queer, a term used by some LGBTQ people to signify their sexuality or gender identity is something other than heterosexual or cisgender. The term may be considered offensive to some even within the LGBTQ community.